A speaking toolbar which reads aloud, onscreen information to people visiting the firm’s UK website enables a higher level of accessibility for users such as clients and job candidates. The toolbar speaks in over 20 foreign languages, enlarges text and changes colour contrast and is available across the whole site, including the corporate recruitment site. This level of online reading support means Eversheds’ site is more accessible than any other corporate recruitment site in the world, to the growing number of people who struggle to read websites whether as a result of a disability or because of a language barrier. .
The technology, called DiversityTalks, was developed by DiversityJobs.co.uk. It was installed on Eversheds’ UK website, including all of its job application pages, by DiversityJobs.co.uk and WCN, a pioneer in e-Recruitment, which creates and hosts the e-Recruitment websites for many of the world’s biggest employers
Eversheds’ resourcing manager, Mardi Smouha, comments:
“We are very much a global firm and so we want to make our online information as easy to understand as possible. Our clients can use the tool to translate pages or have paragraphs read aloud and this improves accessibility on one of the many channels that we use to communicate with them. For our job candidates on the other hand, the website is the main source of information and the main point of initial contact with us. This technology enables us to support people who may need additional help when using the site, especially when this is their only method of communication.”
Eversheds’ use of the toolbar to make its entire recruitment process more accessible is a first. No other corporate recruitment websites have talking technology that supports would-be candidates, not only when they are browsing the site for jobs, but also throughout the application process.
WCN’s Channels & Alliances Manager, Sarah Callery, explains why others will no doubt follow Eversheds’ lead:
“1 in 10 people in the UK have dyslexia to some degree, 10 million people have a disability and 2 million of these have significant sight loss, plus 1 in 6 is from an ethnic background. Companies are increasingly recognising that they cannot hope to attract the biggest and best pool of people if their site immediately alienates so many people who need reading support.
“Having some talking technology on a general website is no good for recruitment if as soon as the candidate starts to actually apply for a post, the talking support stops. From an accessibility and usability point of view that’s incredibly unhelpful and frustrating to the potential candidate, and damaging to the company’s employer brand.
“Our solution makes it easy for our clients to modify their current e-Recruitment sites and to wholeheartedly offer complete reading support to people visiting their sites – and it can be installed on our clients’ recruitment sites in days.”
Morgan Lobb, CEO of DiversityJobs.co.uk adds “We’ve been voice activating sites for nearly a year now however this is the first time we’ve seen a large employer fully embrace the capability of activating both the corporate and careers sections of their website”.
This capability is possible thanks to a partnership between WCN and DiversityJobs.co.uk, through which WCN can uniquely offer site reading capability as part of the complex applicant tracking system (ATS) which it provides to its many clients all over the world. Eversheds is the first company to adopt the system.
To test the DiversityTalks and hear the Eversheds website speak visit http://www.eversheds.com/global/en/where/europe/uk/index.page and click the “This Website Speaks” button at the bottom of the page.
