Chatham County Launches Digital Language Accessibility Tool

Source: MetaLab / nappy.co

Chatham County is dedicated to ensuring that all residents have equal and inclusive access to its resources. In November 2024, Chatham County proudly launched ReciteMe assistive technology on the County website, enhancing language access and promoting inclusivity for all residents while empowering individuals to personalize their browsing experience.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, more than 60% of adults in the United States live with a disability, which can pose challenges in navigating websites and limit their full engagement with the community. Additionally, more than 25 million individuals—over 8% of the U.S. population—are English learners, communicating in over 350 languages, including Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, and Arabic.

Chatham County Equity & Community Engagement Officer Brenda Clegg noted that this effort is part of the County’s comprehensive Language Access Plan that includes a digital component.

“Integrating the ReciteMe toolbar on Chatham County’s website underscores our commitment to ensuring that every member of our community can easily access important information and actively participate in our programs and services,” said Clegg. “This intuitive toolbar provides various customization options, enhancing our community’s browsing experience and improving their interaction with our website content.”

The ReciteMe Toolbar offers a suite of features designed to support residents with diverse needs:

For individuals who speak languages other than English: The Dictionary & Translation feature allows users to highlight words to view definitions and translate text into more than 100 languages.
For individuals with vision impairments: Accessibility tools include audio playback options to rewind, play, or skip through text, as well as customization tools to change background colors, enable a reading ruler, utilize a screen mask for focused viewing, magnify text, and download audio files for convenient playback.
For individuals with hearing impairments: Accessibility tools provide text options, allowing users to increase or decrease text size, change fonts, and switch to plain text mode by removing images.

To access the Recite Me Toolbar, individuals can click the “Language Access Toolbar” button (as pictured above) located in the top-left corner of every page on the County website.

For more information about the ReciteMe toolbar and the Chatham County Language Access Plan, individuals may visit www.chathamcountync.gov/languageaccess.