Our website now has assistive technology

Hi Sunshine News readers,

This week we’re sharing an exciting charity update ahead of Global Accessibility Awareness Day which is next Thursday, May 19.

Global Accessibility Awareness Day is a yearly celebration to get everyone talking, thinking, and learning about digital access and inclusion, to support the one billion people worldwide with a disability or impairment.

As a charity that supports children and young adults with disabilities and additional needs, we are only too aware of the challenges many of them face when going about everyday activities and so we wanted to take the next step in our Diversity and Inclusion strategy, ensuring that our charity could be accessed by all.

We are thrilled to announce that our website now hosts a Recite Me assistive toolbar.

This means website visitors can access a wide range of accessibility and language support tools to customise their digital experience, which includes screen reading functionality, reading aids, customisable styling options an on-demand live translation feature.

This could be as simple as changing the background and text colour for a visually impaired user or by translating text another language.

Being able to offer an inclusive experience is essential to support over 20% of the population who may encounter barriers when exploring our website due to having a disability, learning difficulty, visual impartment or if they speak English as a second language.

This will ensure parents or carers applying for equipment for their child or a supporter wanting to register for an event for example, can do so barrier-free in a way that is best suited to them.

Our Charity Director Siobhan Sargeant said: "Accessibility is extremely important to us at The Chronicle Sunshine Fund, and we are committed to ensuring all parents, carers and supporters can access our services and information in a way that best meets their individual needs.

"Diversity and Inclusion are at the forefront of our charity values and so we are incredibly proud to be able to provide Recite Me’s innovative assistive technology across our website.

"Please visit our website to see if our Recite Me assistive toolbar could help you in accessing our services."

Another project at the heart of our Diversity and Inclusion Strategy is our Seeds of Hope schools project which is now in full swing across 30 schools and organisations across the North East.

We’ve been inundated with pictures from our schools, showing us how their sunflowers are growing and how children have been patient and attentive when planting and watching their seedlings grow.

This week our registered schools have received our first ever virtual Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Workshop, delivered by our Family Coordinator Rachel Kaczmar.

The workshop will enable educators to deliver sessions to children that focus on nurturing diverse and inclusive school environments, allowing children to ask questions and support them in understanding the importance of the topic.

This week we’re sharing pictures from East Boldon Infants’ School who have been planting their seeds and decorating their school gate to spread a little more sunshine in their community!

If your school or organisation is taking, remember to send your pictures to us for a chance to be featured in our Sunshine News Column.

Have a wonderful weekend,

Lauren x