The new version can also be read aloud using special text-to-speech software.   

The initiative was set in motion after a partially sighted employee featured in the magazine but was unable to read her story.  Christine Price, a help desk officer at  HMP Parc in Bridgend, explained:

“I’ve often heard of The Link and wondered what I was missing, as I don’t read print.  Colleagues had told me my name was on the list of long-servers featured in the magazine and I spoke to our Community Inclusion Team Advisor to see if there was anything she could do about getting it into a format I could use.  The Link team sent out a test page and it was so great to have that read to me, I can’t wait for the rest.”

Starting from August’s issue of the magazine, any G4S employee can download a Word version of The Link with 24-point sized text from the company’s  intranet, which is also compatible with the text-to-speech software. 

The Link’s Manager, Jenny Brookman, said:

“We are really proud of The Link and it is really important to G4S that everyone can access it.  We were delighted to make the changes so that all our colleagues, including those such as Christine who are visually impaired, can share in our news.”

Christine added:

“I would like to thank everyone involved in making this possible. It will be really good when people are talking about bits they’ve read, as I will no longer feel excluded and can join in with confidence.”

The Link is one of the largest company newspapers in the United Kingdom and has a print run of 37,000, reaching approximately the same number of people as Sheffield’s local newspaper, The Star.  The Link  has won a number of awards from the Institute of Internal Communications receiving an Award of Excellence for Best Company Newspaper and Best Feature for 2013.