Chromebook

Explore the various methods of configuring assistive technology on your Chromebook device.

• Kiosk Accessibility
• Select-to-Speak
• ChromeVox
• Dictation
• Zoom and Magnification
• Color Filters

Review Test Device Setup for Chromebook, Windows, Mac, and iPad.

• Note: Disable pop-up blocker. The first time you access/view the video, you must provide your name and email. Information is used to access the video and not retained for other purposes.

Kiosk Accessibility

For Students Who Need Accessibility Features  

Students with approved accommodations need the Chromebook floating accessibility menu to use the built-in screen reader and other accessibility features. Your school’s technology professionals who manage your Chromebook must use their Admin console to enable the feature (see detailed instructions for tech professionals).

Once enabled, the menu appears in the bottom right of the screen when you open Bluebook. You can move it to another corner of the screen if needed.  

Select-to-Speak

You can hear full pages read aloud with ChromeVox or read parts of a page, including specific words, with Select-to-Speak.

From the floating accessibility menu > Enable Select-to-Speak. Once enabled, you can navigate the Bluebook app with the following guidance:  

• You can press the Search or Launcher keys for shortcuts depending on the keyboard. Both keys work the same way.
  • Option 1
    • Press and hold the Search or Launcher key.
    • Drag the cursor over an area of text.
  • Option 2
    • Highlight the text to be read with the mouse/trackpad
    • Press Search or Launcher + S.

The Navigation Controller may appear, if the setting has been enabled, allowing you to navigate content blocks.  

Note: The keyboard can also be used with the navigation controller:

• Space bar: Pause or Play speech  
• Arrow keys: Navigate forward and backward through the content

To stop Select-to-Speak while it's reading, press Ctrl or the Search/Launcher key. You can also select Stop in the Navigation Controller.

Tip: For devices with a touchscreen, you can tap a line of text or drag a finger over an area of the screen.

ChromeVox

To enable the Chromebook screen reader, ChromeVox, press Ctrl + Alt + Z or select it from the floating accessibility menu.

Note: if ChromeVox turns off when you launch the Bluebook app or at any time, you can turn it back on with Ctrl + Alt + Z.

Test content can be navigated with the keyboard. Depending on your keyboard, you can press the Search or Launcher key for some shortcuts. Both keys work the same.  

Basic keyboard navigation: use the keyboard shortcuts if parts of the content are not initially reading

Speak text under the mouse
With ChromeVox enabled, you can access the settings and enable Speak text under the mouse. From the floating accessibility menu > Settings > Text-to-speech > ChromeVox > ChromeVox settings > enable (toggle on) Speak text under the mouse

You may need to restart ChromeVox for this setting to take effect.

ChromeVox Verbosity  

ChromeVox should have the “Enable verbose descriptions“ setting checked by default. If this setting is not enabled, then users of ChromeVox should enable the verbose descriptions with the Floating Accessibility Menu.  

Access the ChromeVox settings by selecting the floating accessibility menu and the Settings > Manage accessibility features > Text-to-Speech > ChromeVox settings > then turn on Enable verbose descriptions.  

Punctuation

To adjust punctuation levels with ChromeVox, press Search + A then P to cycle through the options and choose “All.“  

Important: ChromeVox reads "commas" after all punctuation characters by default.  

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Content

• Some STEM content may contain acronyms, chemical equations, camelCase, or PascalCase that need to be announced clearly or verbatim by screen readers. To announce capital letters distinctly with varying pitch or spell out the content character-by-character:
  • In ChromeVox Settings > When reading capitals, select Speak “cap“ before letter
  • Students may also find it helpful to have ChromeVox phonetically spell out text by pressing Search + A, then C 
  • Learn how to use the built-in screen reader.

For additional information, please view the Google tutorials:      

• Introducing the ChromeVox
• Using ChromeVox on your Chromebook

Dictation

Chromebook provides two options for using the dictation feature for items requiring text entry:  

• Dictation: from the floating accessibility menu, select > Dictation.  
• Speak with the Onscreen keyboard: from the floating accessibility menu, select > Onscreen keyboard. At the top of the onscreen keyboard, select Speak (microphone).
  • You can move, float, dock and resize the onscreen keyboard 

Tap or select where you want to type (input field, free-response questions, essays, etc.). Press Search + D or press Launcher + D.

Note: Use of spell-check, grammar-check, word prediction, and cut-and-paste features is not permitted and must be disabled.

For more information, visit Type Text with Your Voice.  

Zoom and Magnification

You can change your screen resolution, zoom in, or magnify your screen.  

To zoom in/out, press Control +/-. To reset zoom, Press Control + 0.

Access the Chromebook Settings > Device > Display > Built-in Display and adjust the slider to a comfortable screen size to increase the display size. Note: a large display size may make viewing all the content on the page difficult.  

To use the magnification feature, select the options from the floating accessibility menu:

• Full-screen magnifier (Search + Ctrl + M) – whole-screen magnification
  • Adjust how the full-screen magnifier: from the floating Accessibility menu > Settings > Display and magnification > Full screen magnifier > select from the options:
    • Move screen continuously as mouse moves
    • Move screen keeping mouse at center of screen
    • Move screen when mouse touches edge of screen (default)
• Docked magnifier (Search + Ctrl + D) – split-screen magnification
  • To adjust zoom level, select the down arrow in the Docked zoom level.
  • To change what is magnified, move your pointer or press Tab.

Color Filters

You can enable color filters, view the display in grayscale, or turn on color inversion.  

From the floating accessibility menu, select Settings > Display and Magnification and adjust any of the following, as needed:

• Color correction
• Filter
• Intensity
• Color Inversion