Friday, February 27, 2015

Google Accessibility Features in Chrome (OS and Browser)



Google Apps and Chromebooks, and the Chrome Web Browser, offer a tremendous amount of accessibility features to help vision and/or hearing impaired students. 

Google Accessibility, Using Google Products, http://www.google.com/accessibility/products/, contains a wealth of information and resources, along with apps, that can help students, and teachers. 

Chrome Toolbox http://www.chrometoolbox.com/ - This collaborative space was created to celebrate the many Apps and Extensions made by developers which serve the accessibility needs of individuals with disabilities. 


Accessibility Options on Chromebooks   http://www.chromestory.com/2013/02/accessibility-options-on-chromebooks/

Some of the main features:

Google updates Drive and Docs with improved screen reader, Braille display, and accessibility phone support


Speech to Text and Text to Speech
    Introduction to Read & Write for Google http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPqbk7TJKLo&feature=youtu.be
    • Boost reading confidence. Make the web and Google Docs accessible to students with learning difficulties, dyslexia or ELL/ESL.NEW! FREE for TEACHERS! Teachers get a FREE subscription to Read&Write for Google. To register and activate your premium subscription, go to rw.texthelp.com/freeforteachers after installing Read&Write for Google. Read&Write for Google™ offers a range of powerful support tools to help students gain confidence with reading and writing. • Hear words, passages, or whole documents read aloud with easy-to-follow dual color highlighting • See the meaning of words explained with text and picture dictionaries • Hear text translated into other languages • Predicts the next word as you type • Highlight interesting or relevant text and collect it for use in other documents Read&Write for Google™ is a friendly browser add-in for use with PCs, Macs and Chromebooks. It works with web pages and common file types in Google Drive, including: - Google Docs - PDF - ePub - KesSpeech Input, Simplify and Summarize Now Part of Read&Write for Google!


    Increased accessibility with Braille display support for Google Docs, Slides and Drawings
    If you use a Braille display, you can now enable Braille support in Google Docs, Slides and Drawings to read and enter text. This option is currently available for Google Chrome and Internet Explorer.

    http://googleappsupdates.blogspot.com/2014/06/increased-accessibility-with-braille.html





    Evernote - another great, free application - also has some accessibility features and extensions for Chrome.


    Evernote Clearly - one click for distraction free online reading - Clearly is a browser extension that eliminates ads and other parts of a web page and just shows the article. This eliminates distractions, helping students read the article. It also has text-to-speech capabilities to read the web page to the user. 





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