Social networking and recruitment platform hub LinkedIn is about to get a significant accessibility upgrade thanks to its links with Microsoft.
In recognition of Dyslexia Awareness Month and National Disability Employment Awareness Month, LinkedIn users will now be able to access Microsoft’s Immersive Reader to make digesting content easier.
With many websites, including LinkedIn, awash with distractions such as ads and other graphics, the addition of Immersive Reader is big news to all LinkedIn users.
LinkedIn is getting less distracting for some
According to a report by Engadget, all articles and newsletters are set to get an Immersive Reader icon, which enables a range of accessibility tools to make digesting lengthy and complex pages easier.
One of the features is a text-to-speech aid that LinkedIn promises can understand the difference between words that are spelled the same, allowing it to pronounce and enunciate accurately.
Another feature that will become available to those who prefer just to get rid of distractions is Content Isolation, which picks out the relevant text and displays it on a plain background. Users have control over things like colors, fonts, and sizes to make sure that the text accommodates their needs.
The technology is nothing new, and is already used across a range of other Micrososft services and more broadly, such as Safari’s Reader view, but it looks to be the first of its kind to be built directly into a social media site.
While it may not have the same user base as Facebook and X, LinkedIn continues to be a popular product for Microsoft and one that is often subject of a good update or two. Recently, the company started integrating generative AI into LinkedIn making it the first social media platform to give users this type of assistance.
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