Enabling and using the Catapult Screen Reader

Did you know that Catapult learning resources have a fully functional, in-system screen reader?

That's right, students can now listen to the resources instead of having to read them at the click of a button!

Using the Catapult Screen Reader

After the Screen Reader has been enabled (more on this below), a blue "speaker" button will appear in the top-left corner of all learning resource pages, as shown by the red arrow below;

When this button is clicked, your browser will start reading aloud the contents of the learning material, starting with the page heading (in this case, "Identify and obtain correct ingredients"). 

The button will also change into a "Pause" icon, which you can click to pause at any time. This will change to a "Play" icon, and clicking this will resume the reading from the point that you paused. If you leave or refresh the page, the audio reading will reset to the beginning of the page.

Note that this feature is browser-based, and so will only work with Chromium-based browsers (e.g. Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, etc). If you're using an unsupported browser, this function may not be available.

These screen reader buttons can be made visible in one of the following three ways;

Student self-activation

Students can activate the screen reader functionality themselves by navigating to their Logged in menu, followed by My Preferences, and then the Enable Learning Content Screen Reader option. Remember to click Save!

Admin per-student activation

Admins can activate the screen reader functionality on a per-student basis by clicking Users > Learners, locating the student of your choice, and then clicking More > Edit...

... followed by the Enable Learning Content Screen Reader option in the Preferences panel. Be sure to click the Save button at the bottom of the screen when done!

Account-level activation

If you'd like all of your students to have access to the screen reader functionality without needing to individually manage them, simply send an email to support@catapult-elearning.com to request this. We'll activate an account-level option on your behalf so that everyone can use this feature immediately!

Frequently asked questions

Question: Are there any costs associated with making use of the screen reader?

None whatsoever! Your students are free to use the screen reader as much as they'd like at no charge.

Question: Are there multiple voices available to use?

At present, no, there's only the one voice available. That said, we're actively considering further improvements to this functionality.

Question: Can I enable this function for a batch of students in bulk? Or enable it for everyone but a handful of exceptions?

No. We can enable it at an account level on your behalf, but then everyone will get it, no exceptions. Otherwise, you'll have to enable this manually for individual students in order to manage exceptions.

Question: Can the screen reader read out assessments and/or uploaded files?

No, the screen reader currently only interfaces with Catapult learning resources. Please feel free to send through any feedback or suggestions to support@catapult-elearning.com - the more people suggest a specific improvement, the more seriously we can consider it!

Question: Why isn't the screen reader button showing up for me?

It's likely that you're either not on a Chromium browser, or it isn't up to date. Please send a screenshot of your page and the details of your browser version to support@catapult-elearning.com so that we can investigate.