LAURA PALMARO: I’m Laura, and I’m on the Chrome accessibility team at Google.
In this video, I’m going to show you the basic steps for navigating your Chromebook
using the ChromeVox screen reader.
After this video, you should know enough about ChromeVox to read web pages, explore your
screen, and find additional resources.
If you’ve used the previous version of ChromeVox, now known as ChromeVox Classic, you’ll find
some things have changed.
For the biggest differences, in the new version, which was officially released in Chrome version
56, be sure to watch our introductory video about transitioning between the two versions.
For reference, Chrome 56 reached the stable channel at the end of January 2017.
For this video, though, you don’t need any prior experience with ChromeVox. So let’s
get started.
ChromeVox comes built into every Chrome OS device, so there’s nothing to install. All
you need to do to turn on the screen reader is hold down Control and Alt, and press the
letter Z (as in zebra).
For reference, there are two sets of Control and Alt keys on your Chromebook keyboard.
On the bottom left of your keyboard, they are the two keys to the left of your spacebar.
Smaller versions are also found directly to the right of the spacebar, before you reach
the arrow keys.
I’ll go ahead and turn ChromeVox on now.
CHROMEVOX: ChromeVox spoken feedback is ready.
LAURA: By the way, this same shortcut, Control + Alt + Z also turns ChromeVox off. But I’ll
leave it on for now, otherwise this video wouldn’t be very helpful.
If you don’t hear ChromeVox when you first turn it on, make sure that your speakers or
headphones are plugged in and turned on. If you still don’t hear anything, check that
the volume is up on your Chromebook.
The quickest way to do this is to press the volume up key located second from the right
at the top of the keyboard.
Now let’s talk about basic navigation. The search key on your Chromebook keyboard is
what we call the ChromeVox modifier key. It works in combination with other keys on your
keyboard to help you navigate. Most ChromeVox shortcuts begin with the search key, often
referred to as the ChromeVox key. So this a pretty important one to remember.
First, let me open up a new Chrome tab to show you how this works. To do this, I’ll
use the browser shortcut Ctrl + T, for tab.
CHROMEVOX: Tab created: address and search bar. Edit text. Main tool bar. New tab. Window.
LAURA: I hold down Search and press the Right Arrow to move forward to the next object on
the page.
CHROMEVOX: Bookmark this page. Chrome button has pop up.
LAURA: To go backward by object, I can press search, or ChromeVox -
CHROMEVOX: Main toolbar
LAURA: plus the left arrow.
CHROMEVOX: Chrome bottom has pop up. Bookmark this page button.
LAURA: This is called linear navigation, moving item to item on the page.
Before we continue exploring other ways to navigate, I think it’s important to show
you the ChromeVox learn mode. If the Chromebook keyboard is somewhat new to you, the learn
mode can be really helpful as you learn the layout. To enter this mode, I hold down Search
and then O and then K, as in open keyboard. This opens up a new Chrome tab. Let’s take
a look.
When learn mode is on, I can press the keys on my Chromebook to hear what they are. I’ll
press a few keys now.
CHROMEVOX: H. A. U. Seven. Four. Enter. Single quote.
LAURA: I can also press various key combinations to hear what the individual keys are and to
hear any shortcuts that they make. For example, let’s see what happens when I press Search
and B (as in boy) together.
CHROMEVOX: Search B next button
LAURA: I hear the key names, and also that this key combination is the command for moving
to the next button.
Note that this mode also works well when typing on a connected USB Braille display. This can
be a helpful learning tool as you begin typing with braille.
To exit learn mode, press the shortcut to close the tab, which is Control + W.
Now let’s continue exploring different ways to navigate the screen. In addition to navigating
the page linearly using Search + right arrow or left, I can also use jump commands to skip
forward or backward between similar page items, such as from one heading to the next, link
to link, between form fields, and more. I’m going to show you just a few of the most common
ones for now.
I’ll hold down Search and press the letter key for the type of item I want to jump to.
Let’s start with H for headings.
For long pages, this is a great way to get a sense of what’s on the page and to get
to topics I really want to read about.
To show you, I’ll open up a new Chrome tab by pressing Control + T.
CHROMEVOX: Address and search bar. Edit text. Main tool bar. New tab. Window.
LAURA: And type in the URL for our Google accessibility site.
CHROMEVOX: Slash. Accessibility. Select. Google dot Google Accessibility. Find Guides and
Resources. Heading 2 Main.
LAURA: Now, to navigate forward by headings on this page, I press Search + H.
CHROMEVOX: Developers and publishers. Link Heading 3. List item. List. Enterprise and
business. Link Heading 3. List item. Initiatives and research. Link heading 3. List item.
LAURA: To navigate backwards, I press Search plus Shift plus H.
CHROMEVOX: Enterprise and business. Link. Developers and publishers.
LAURA: Then I can press Control to temporarily silent speech. This is definitely a handy
key to remember.
Here’s a quick tip for you if you’re an experienced screen reader user.
CHROMEVOX: Initiatives and research - Google accessibility
LAURA: If you’re on a long article or complex document that has lots of headings at different
levels, remember that you can jump forward or backward by specific heading levels. For
example, to jump forward only by items marked as heading level 3, I press Search plus the
number 3.
CHROMEVOX: FCC Cvideo Programming Accessibility Advisory Committee (VPAAC). Heading 3 Main
LAURA: To go backwards, it’s Search + Shift + 3.
CHROMEVOX: Projects supported by Google. Heading 3.
LAURA: Now, let’s try Search + L to jump forward by links on the page.
CHROMEVOX: ASL-Stem project Link List item. List with 3 items. MobileASL via Android Link
List Item. NavPal: Mobile Navigation Aid for the Visually Impaired Link List item.
LAURA: And Search + Shift + L to jump backward.
CHROMEVOX: MobileASL ASL-Stem Google Research Blog Link
LAURA: There are lots of different jump commands that will work like this, and I’ll show
you a way to find all of these commands later in this video.
Let’s talk about using the keyboard to access fundamental things like the Chrome address
bar.
I hold down Control and press L as in location and my cursor jumps to the address bar.
CHROMEVOX: H T T P S colon slash slash W W W.google.com slash accessibility slash selected
LAURA: From here, I can type a web address or search term and press Enter.
CHROMEVOX: cnn.com select omevox nevox evox vox select space h arts l p chrome help selected.
H T T P chrome help Google Search Ad Get Google Chrome. Sync Chrome across devices ad
LAURA: It’s helpful to know that this is not a ChromeVox-specific command. It’s more
generally a Chrome OS keyboard command. There are a handful of these Chrome OS keyboard
commands to access the various parts of the screen, like the address bar, without the
use of a mouse. These commands work regardless of ChromeVox being enabled. That said, there
are a wide variety of ChromeVox-specific commands, like navigational and jump commands and these
can all be found on the ChromeVox menus. This combination of Chrome OS keyboard commands
with ChromeVox-specific commands enables full, non-visual access to the computer.
Now I’d like to show you the ChromeVox menus that I mentioned the before. The ChromeVox
menus are a new feature that will make your experience more efficient. When ChromeVox
is on, you can open the ChromeVox menus by pressing Search plus period.
CHROMEVOX: ChromeVox panel jump menu click on current item chrome vox plus space menu
item 1 of 59
LAURA: Once this is open, I press the arrow keys to move between the menu headings at
the top of the screen. Here, I can navigate through a list of jump commands…
CHROMEVOX: Go to beginning of table chrome vox plus Alt plus Shift plus Left arrow menu
item
LAURA:…speech options…
CHROMEVOX: Start speech menu Announce the title of the current page chrome vox plus
A greater than W menu item 1 of 15
LAURA:…my open tabs…
CHROMEVOX: Tabs Menu Google Accessibility (active) Menu item 1 of 1
LAURA:…and more ChromeVox options.
CHROMEVOX: Chrome vox menu Enable slash Disable sticky mode Cvox menu item 1 of 10
LAURA: ChromeVox commands are grouped in different lists so I can access specific commands faster
-- like the list of headings on given page, or the list of links, forms, tables, and ARIA
landmarks.
If a list is blank, that means that the page simply doesn’t have any of that item.
I can either use these menus as a reference, and press Escape to close them…
…Or, I can find a specific command and then press enter to activate it.
This is a very useful tool when you are first learning ChromeVox, so you don’t have to
memorize a long list of commands right off the bat.
You can use this feature to explore your options, and learn the commands that you personally
find most useful as you navigate.
This next feature is called Sticky Mode.
If I double-tap the Search key, I hear confirmation that Sticky Mode is enabled.
CHROMEVOX: Sticky mode enabled
LAURA: With Sticky Mode on, I don’t need to press the Search key any more. Earlier,
to explore a page, I had to hold down Search before pressing the Right arrow.
Now, I just press the Right arrow because the Search key is now considered “sticky,”
as if I’m still pressing it.
CHROMEVOX: Initiatives and Research heading Google Support of accessibility extends beyond
products to include research, education, and design efforts
LAURA: Same goes for the jump commands. Before, remember that I had to press Search + H to
navigate forward by headings? Now, I can just press the letter H.
CHROMEVOX: Our approach to accessibility Heading 2 Accessible web initiatives Heading 2
LAURA: Keep in mind that if you want to write text in an editable field, you’ll want to
turn Sticky Mode off. To turn it off, I double-tap the Search key
again.
CHROMEVOX: Sticky mode disabled.
LAURA: Remember: you have to double-tap quickly. ChromeVox will tell you when you’ve turned
Sticky Mode on or off, so be sure to listen for it.
Next, let’s adjust the speech settings for ChromeVox. We can change the pitch and speech
rate, and also choose a different language. If ChromeVox is speaking too slowly, I can
increase the rate by holding down Search and pressing the Left Bracket key. The Left Bracket
key is directly to the right of the letter P (as in Paul) on the Chromebook keyboard.
CHROMEVOX: Rate 25 percent. Rate 27 percent.
LAURA: To slow the speech down, I hold down Search + Shift + the Left Bracket key.
CHROMEVOX: Rate 25 percent. Rate 23 percent.
LAURA: Next I’ll change the pitch of the voice.
To make ChromeVox speak at a higher pitch, I hold down Search and press the right bracket
key.
CHROMEVOX: Pitch 50 percent. Pitch 56 percent. Pitch 61 percent.
LAURA: To have the voice speak at a lower pitch, hold down Search + Shift + the Right
bracket.
CHROMEVOX: Pitch 56 percent. Pitch 50 percent. Pitch 44 percent.
LAURA: Finally, let’s discuss one more option: changing the language.
When you first set up your Chromebook and choose a native language, it automatically
applies to ChromeVox as well. To change it, I need to open up the ChromeVox
Options page. to do this, I hold down Search, and press O then O again, as in open options.
This will open in a new Chrome tab. Now I can use Search + Right to navigate to
the Voices section and choose a language.
CHROMEVOX: Chrome OS US English. Change the current voice by selecting an option from
the list below Button has pop up collapsed. Chrome OS US English Menu item 11 of 13 Chrome
OS US English Chrome OS UK English Chrome OS portugues do Brasil Chrome OS Nederlands
Menu item 8 of 13 Chrome OS Nederland Menu item 8 of 13
LAURA: To close the options page, press Control + W.
That’s all for now! Let’s wrap up with how to get more information or send us feedback.
For general feedback or questions on any of the topics you’ve seen today, go to groups.google.com
and search for the public group: chromevox-discuss. If you join the group, then you can send emails
to chromevox-discuss@googlegroups.com and participate in the conversation with our team
and other users.
You can also send feedback about any issues you are having directly from your Chromebook.
With ChromeVox enabled, press Search + A and then I, as in “add input” to open up a
feedback report, fill out the relevant details, and then submit.
Also, look out for more videos about ChromeVox, and on 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!
I definitely recommend checking out our other videos
about ChromeVox, and about navigating your Chromebook by keyboard.
Also, make sure to subscribe to the channel!