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Accessing Bluebook Features and Content

Keyboard Shortcuts  

Students testing with certain types of assistive technology may find it helpful to use keyboard shortcuts to navigate within the digital exam. Open the More menu in Bluebook to see keyboard shortcuts listed for your operating system. No separate configuration is needed to use keyboard shortcuts.  

Highlight & Notes

The Highlight & Notes tool in Bluebook contains features to enable students with disabilities to use screen reader software and/or a keyboard only to highlight text from a question or leave themselves a note.  

Line Reader, Calculator and Reference Sheet

The Calculator and Reference Sheets in Bluebook can be moved with the keyboard. Navigate to the “Move” button with the Tab key. Place the move button into a draggable or “pressed” state by pressing Space Bar or Enter key.   

Note for JAWS and NVDA Users  

Users of JAWS and NVDA must “pass through” the Space Bar or Enter keystrokes to put the button into a pressed state.   

  • JAWS Users –   

    • Press Insert (JAWS Key) + 3 and then press the Enter key or Space bar to put the move button into a pressed state.   

    • To move the calculator or reference dialogs JAWS users may want to force PC Cursor mode by pressing “Insert + Z” and then move the window with the arrow keys.   

      • Press Insert + Z again to return the virtual PC cursor  

  • NVDA Users  

    • Press Insert + Space to go into focus mode so that the Enter or Space keys can put the move button into a pressed state  

      • Press Insert + Space again to return to browse mode  

Reduced Motion and Animation Features   

Bluebook has minimal occurrences of animations and does not rely on animation to convey essential information such as instructions or exam content.   

Bluebook ensures that operating system settings to reduce or ignore motion are honored. This setting is helpful for users that have vestibular disorders.   

Here’s how you can reduce and ignore the decorative animations for the following operating systems:  

  • Windows 10: Within the Ease of Access  > Display settings, toggle (turn off) the Show animations. 

  • Windows 11: Within Accessibility > Visual Effects settings, toggle (turn off) Animation effects.

  • macOS: Within the Accessibility Display settings, enable the Reduce Motion toggle button. 

  • iPadOS: Within the Accessibility Motion settings, enable the Reduce Motion toggle button. 

Note: It is currently not observed that Chromebook operating systems support users’ ability to reduce or ignore animation for managed kiosk application. 

Other System Features 

System features that assist with interacting with the Bluebook application, such as mouse and trackpad navigation, color, or display settings, do not require College Board approval and can be configured on the device before the start of the exam. Students should open Bluebook on the type of device they’ll test with and try a test preview or full-length practice test to see how the features will work on test day. 

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