Coastline customers in West Cornwall have been helping the social landlord to design a new website, which has just been officially launched.

Thanks to a free tool available to download called ‘BrowseAloud’, customers who have problems with vision or literacy will now be able to ‘hear’ the website read aloud via their PC. BrowseAloud highlights each word as it is spoken, aiding literacy and allowing users to read more fluently with a dual colour highlighting tool. Colours, text size, speed and type of voice can all be altered to suit the user's requirements.

Customers can also get the website translated into another language if they do not speak English, and increase the text size on screen too.

The site has been designed by Truro-based Mpad following input from Coastline customers and staff at brainstorming sessions. During the sessions, customers were able to vote for the most important things they wanted to see feature on the site.

Beth Lawton, Head of ICT, explains: “Since it’s customers that use our site, we thought it was important to design the site around them, so that’s exactly what we did.

“The site also allows Coastline residents to pay their rent online, report a repair online, make a complaint or compliment online and download Anti-Social Behaviour diary sheets to complete. We’re entering an era where people expect to be able to get at information 24/7, and we hope the new site will be able to supply that.”