LAURA PALMARO: Hi, I’m Laura and I’m on the Chrome accessibility team at Google.
Back in 2011, our team developed the ChromeVox screen reader, which is built into every Chrome
OS device.
Since then, we’ve collected a lot of feedback from our users and spent the last few years
re-envisioning and rebuilding ChromeVox from the ground up.
We are super excited to officially introduce this new version, temporarily referred to
as ChromeVox Next to avoid confusion between the two versions.
You might even already be familiar with ChromeVox Next, as we’ve been in an open beta for
a little while now.
But, as of Chrome version 56, which reached the Chrome OS stable channel at the end of
January 2017, ChromeVox Next is now the default screen reader on all Chromebooks.
If you’ve used ChromeVox in the past, the version now known as ChromeVox Classic, this
video will show you some of the biggest changes you’ll notice with the new experience.
We’ll release additional videos that go over the fundamentals of using ChromeVox Next,
as well as more intermediate skills.
But for now, let’s take a look at some of the biggest changes and improvements in this
new version!
The first change deals with what we call the ChromeVox modifier keys.
If you are familiar with ChromeVox classic, you may recall that the ChromeVox keys are
Shift and Search held together, in conjunction with other keys to form commands.
In ChromeVox Next, we now only use the Search key as the ChromeVox modifier key, instead
of both shift and search, to further free up your hand.
At the top of the screen, we’ve added a new ChromeVox panel.
On the left, you'll find a button to open the menus.
In the middle, speech and optional braille captions.
And on the right, a button to exit ChromeVox.
Braille captions can be especially helpful for sighted teachers of the visually impaired
who not only want to see the written text that corresponds with what ChromeVox is speaking,
but also the corresponding Braille on the screen.
To enable Braille captions, press Search + A + B, as in add braille.
By viewing the Braille dots in the ChromeVox panel, you can even follow along with what
a student is reading on a connected USB Braille display.
This makes for a helpful teaching aid and troubleshooting tool.
Next, let’s talk about the new ChromeVox menus.
To open them, press Search + period at any time, and then use the arrow keys to navigate
through the various options.
Sighted users can click on the menus and select options using the mouse or touch screen, just
like any other menu bar.
The ChromeVox menus provide a list of jump commands, speech settings, a list of your
open tabs, lists of page headings, links, forms, tables, aria landmarks and more.
We’ll dive deeper into exploring the menus in other videos.
Next, we’ve made jump commands easier.
In ChromeVox Classic, to move forward by headings on a page, for one example, you have to press
ChromeVox (which is Shift + Search) + N then H, as in Next heading).
To move backward by headings, you press CVox + P and then H, as in previous heading.
This amounts to a lot of keys.
However, in ChromeVox Next, we wanted to make the process a bit more simple.
To move forward by heading, you press Search + H.
To move backwards, it’s Search + Shift + H. I can use similar navigation to move by
buttons, links, tables, editable text fields, and many more items.
You can check out the full list of our keyboard shortcuts in our online documentation, or
in the ChromeVox menus.
In addition to being able to use these jump commands on your Chromebook keyboard, ChromeVox
Next also introduces the ability to use jump commands from a Braille display keyboard.
When a USB braille display is connected, you can use Braille chords to navigate the interface.
For example, to jump by headings, press the Braille display’s Spacebar + the dots that
make up the letter H - dots 1, 2, and 5.
To navigate backward by heading, press the spacebar + H + dot 7.
To see the full list of Braille navigation commands, make sure that you have enabled
Braille Captions by pressing Search + A + B, and the commands will show up in the ChromeVox
menus.
Another change in ChromeVox Next is that keyboard commands and sticky keys work all across the
user interface.
For example, I can use jump commands or the Find in Page function not only in the browser
itself, but also in the Chromebook’s status tray.
We’ve also made some enhancements to our keyboard explorer mode, now known as “Learn
Mode.”
You can still open this mode at any time by pressing ChromeVox + O then K, as in open
keyboard.
Now, when in this mode, not only can you hear the name of each key you press, but if you
press multiple keys that form a keyboard command, you’ll also hear the name of that command
spoken aloud.
Note that this mode also works well when typing on a refreshable Braille display that’s
connected to your Chromebook.
In ChromeVox Next, you can still navigate by group, object, line, word, or character
-- just like in ChromeVox Classic -- but now you can switch levels even faster.
As a refresher, in ChromeVox Classic, you would choose a granularity level, for example,
word level, and then press ChromeVox + Down arrow to navigate by word.
To switch to group level, you’d then have to change the granularity level to group and
then again press ChromeVox + Down to navigate by group.
In ChromeVox Next, there’s no concept of switching granularity levels.
Instead, there’s simply different key commands to use in conjunction with the arrow keys
to move by each level.
Let’s take a look.
To move forward by group, hold Search and Ctrl and press the Down arrow.
To move forward by object, press Search + the Right arrow.
To move forward by line, press Search and the Down arrow.
To move forward by word, hold Search + Shift + Ctrl, and press the Right arrow.
Last, to move forward by character, hold Search + Shift, and press the Right arrow.
The last thing I’ll mention for now is that ChromeVox Next also introduces a few auditory
improvements.
We have a new set of navigational sounds.
We call these “earcons”, the audio equivalent of an icon.
These sounds identify key parts of the interface (like buttons and links), page load times,
and more.
We’ve also added 3D audio positioning for the earcons.
For example, if I navigate to a button that happens to be on the left side of the screen,
I will hear the button earcon in my left speaker or headphone, providing extra context about
the spacial orientation.
Keep an ear out for the changes as you are navigating with ChromeVox Next.
We’ve also added audio ducking and suspension, to better balance the output of the text to
speech with other audio coming from your computer.
These can be adjusted in ChromeVox options.
As I said earlier, ChromeVox Next is the default screen reader on all Chromebooks as of Chrome
version 56.
The first time you enter the new experience, you will be brought into a tutorial to go
over some of these top changes.
You can then reference that tutorial in the future by pressing Search + O then T, as in
“open tutorial”.
In the coming months, you can still flip back to ChromeVox Classic if you choose by pressing
Search + Q. To return to ChromeVox Next, press Shift +
search + Q then Q, and you will re-enter the new experience.
As you use ChromeVox Next, we really want your feedback.
You can reach our team a few different ways.
First, you can navigate to groups.google.com and search for the public group: chromevox-discuss.
If you join the group, you can send emails to chromevox-discuss@googlegroups.com and
participate in the conversation with our team and other users.
You can also provide feedback directly from your Chromebook.
When ChromeVox Next is enabled, press Search + A then I (as in add input) to open a bug
report, then fill out the relevant details and submit.
To learn more, visit the Chromebook Help Center and ChromeVox.com for more information, including
a comprehensive sets of shortcuts and training material.
Also, look out for other videos about ChromeVox, and other ways to make Chrome and Chromebooks
easier to use.
Again, I’m Laura and on behalf of myself and the Chrome Accessibility Team, thanks
for watching!
If you found this video helpful, subscribe to our channel!
And check out some of the other videos
and the YouTube series on Chrome and Chrome OS Accessibility.