LAURA PALMARO: Hi, my name is Laura and I’m on the Chrome
accessibility team at Google. In this video, I’m going to show you some
ways to use your Chromebook with the ChromeVox screen reader, and build on the material you
saw in our fundamentals video. If you haven’t watched that video yet, we
do recommend going through it first.
Let’s get started!
In the previous video, I showed you how to use Search + the Right arrow to navigate forward
item by item on the page, and Search + Left arrow to go backward.
This is what we call the “object” level. But you should know you can also navigate
by larger chunks or smaller details. You can navigate by large portions of the page, called
groups. You can also navigate by line, word, or character.
Let’s check out how to navigate at these different levels.
I’m going to start with the biggest chunk, the group. To navigate by group, I press Search
+ Control + Down Arrow.
CHROMEVOX: Banner. Skip to Content Link
LAURA: To go backward by group, I press Search + Control + Up.
CHROMEVOX: Google Accessibility. Visited link
LAURA: Next, I’m going to drill down to smaller pieces of detail.
I hold down the Search key and press the Down or up arrow to navigate line by line.
CHROMEVOX: Google Accessibility. Skip Exited Banner. Products and Features. Explore some
of Google Product Heading 2. Accessibility scanner Accessibility scanner can help Android
app creators identify
LAURA: To navigate by single words, I hold down Search, Shift, and Control, and press
the Right or left arrow keys.
CHROMEVOX: Scanner can help can Scanner
LAURA: To navigate by characters, I hold down Search and Shift, and press the Right arrow
keys.
CHROMEVOX: C A N November N E echo
LAURA: This is particularly useful when you want to see how something is spelled.
Next, I’m going to show you how to move between multiple Chrome tabs in a given Chrome
window. As I mentioned in the fundamentals video,
certain keyboard commands -- like the ones I’m about to show you -- are not ChromeVox
specific. But, they are important Chromebook keyboard commands to know for efficient access,
so I wanted to go over them with the ChromeVox enabled.
To open a new tab and then automatically jump to it, hold down Ctrl and press T as in tab.
CHROMEVOX: New Tab, tab Multi select Selected 6 of 7
LAURA: Notice that when I do this, my cursor is automatically in the address bar.
To move forward between these open tabs, I hold down Ctrl and press the Tab key.
CHROMEVOX: Resources for Developers and Publishers Google Chromebook keyboard shortcuts Chromebook
Use the built-in screen reader - Chromebook Help
LAURA: To move in reverse, we add the Shift key to the mix. I hold Control and Shift and
press Tab to cycle backward.
CHROMEVOX: Chromebook keyboard short-
LAURA: To jump to a specific open tab, I can use Control and a number, starting with one.
CHROMEVOX: Resources for Developers and Publishers - Google Accessibility. Main y
LAURA: Chrome numbers tabs from left to right.
So jumping to Tab 3 would be Control plus 3.
CHROMEVOX: Use the built-in screen reader - Chromebook Help
LAURA: But if I want to get to the last tab, regardless of how many I have open, I can
press Control plus Nine.
CHROMEVOX: New tab, tab Multi select selected 6 of 7
LAURA: I showed you how to use the address bar for searching in our previous video. But
what if I want to find specific text on the current page?
I can do this two ways - First, I can use the Chrome browser command, Ctrl + F (as in
find) to open the Find box, type my search text, and press enter to jump through the
matching results.
CHROMEVOX: Find Edit text, window H Chrome Chrome browser Go to Chrome browser product
site Link Heading 3 Main The Chrome browser supports Use TalkBack to Chrome low-vision
features Chrome keyboard shortcuts Link list item List with 8 items Main
LAURA: If the match is a link I want to click, I press Esc to close the Find in Page box,
and then Enter to open it in my current tab.
CHROMEVOX: Products and Features Google webView Chrome keyboard shortcuts - Chrome help
LAURA: This method works with or without ChromeVox.
Alternatively, I can use the ChromeVox find in page functionality by pressing Search +
forward slash. This opens a search field in the ChromeVox panel.
CHROMEVOX: ChromeVox panel Find in Page edit text search entry
LAURA: Here, I type my search text, and the press down arrow to jump through the matching
results.
CHROMEVOX: s h o r t Chrome keyboard shortcuts Heading 1 Article Learn keyboard shortcuts
and become a pro at Tab and window shortcuts collapsed button article
LAURA: The benefit of using this second method is that it searches through all text, including
alt text.
Next, I’m going to show you how to navigate tables with ChromeVox.
I’ve opened an article in the Chromebook help center that I know has at least one table.
In our previous video, I showed you how to use jump commands. I’m going to use one
of them now, Search + T to jump to the next table.
CHROMEVOX: Open a new window Exited Banner. row 1 column 1 Table 24 by 2 Article
LAURA: To move forward, I can use Search and the Right arrow. Chromevox automatically announces
the current row and column so you know where you are.
CHROMEVOX: control row 1 column 2 plus N open a new window in incognito mode row 2 column
1
LAURA: But to get to the end of a row quickly, I can hold Search, Shift, Alt, and Ctrl, and
press the Right arrow.
CHROMEVOX: n row 2 column 2
LAURA:I know that sounds like a lot of keys, but remember -- you can always enable Sticky
mode, also covered in our fundamentals video -- which removes the need to hold down the
Search key as the ChromeVox modifier key. As a quick refresher, to enable sticky mode,
you double tap the search key.
CHROMEVOX: Sticky mode enabled
LAURA: I’ll leave this mode off for now though to show the full commands.
CHROMEVOX: Sticky mode disabled.
LAURA: To get back to the beginning of the table, I hold Search, Shift, Alt, and press
the Left arrow.
CHROMEVOX: Open a new window row 1 column 1
LAURA: I can jump to the end of the table by holding Search, Shift, and Alt, and pressing
the right arrow.
CHROMEVOX: right bracket row 24 column 2
LAURA: Note that these ChromeVox shortcuts are specifically for navigating tables more
efficiently.
Of course, you can still use the different key combinations to move by object, line,
word, or character.
Now, let’s explore how to get to different parts of the screen using your keyboard.
For example, I press Alt + Shift + S to jump to the status tray in the lower right corner
of the screen.
CHROMEVOX: Laura Demo laurapdemo@geemail.com
LAURA: This menu has a lot of really useful items, like settings, bluetooth, wifi, user
account information, and more. I can use the Tab key to move around,
CHROMEVOX: Sign out This device is man Accessibility button
LAURA: press enter to activate an option, or escape to close the status tray menu.
CHROMEVOX: Chrome keyboard shortcuts
LAURA: Next, let’s talk about the lower left corner of the screen.
The leftmost icon is the Launcher, and I use it to access other apps or files.
Just to the right of the Launcher is the Shelf, which contains icons for commonly-used apps
like Gmail and Google Calendar. First, let’s open the Launcher. I press
Alt + Shift + L to place focus on the launcher,
CHROMEVOX: Launcher Button Shelf Tool bar window
LAURA: and then press Enter to open it.
CHROMEVOX: Search or type URL Edit text, window
LAURA: Here, I can type a search by typing a term, search by voice, navigate through
apps,
CHROMEVOX: Dialogue Google Calendar button Chrome Remote Desktop button Files button
LAURA: and even add new apps. To close the Launcher, I press Escape.
CHROMEVOX: Chrome keyboard shortcuts
LAURA: And again, press Ctrl to temporarily silence speech at any time.
Next, let’s look at the Shelf of app icons. You can customize this section to include
your favorite apps for faster access.
I use the same shortcut to get to the Shelf -- Alt Shift L --
CHROMEVOX: Launcher button Help Tool bar , window
LAURA: and then use the Tab key or the arrow keys to place focus on each app.
CHROMEVOX: Gmail button. Google Docs button. Google Chrome button.
LAURA: Again, if I want to open it, I press Enter
CHROMEVOX: Chrome keyboard short-
LAURA: Now, let’s move focus to the Chrome toolbar. To do this, I press Alt + Shift +
T
CHROMEVOX: Reload button main Tool bar
LAURA: and then use Search + Right Arrow to navigate through the various items.
CHROMEVOX: Home button. Secure button Address and Search bar unselected seven H T T P S
colon slash slash support dot
LAURA: To exit the toolbar, I press escape and then tab to shift my focus into the page.
Notice that many of these Chromebook shortcuts for getting around the different parts of
the interface begin with Alt + Shift? I can use a similar one to get to the bookmarks
bar: Alt Shift B as in bookmarks.
CHROMEVOX: gee mail button Bookmarks Tool bar
LAURA: From here, I can use the arrow keys to access my different bookmarks,
CHROMEVOX: Chrome Web Store button Google Accessibility button
LAURA: and press enter if I want to navigate to one.
CHROMEVOX: Google Accessibility
LAURA: Our team released additional videos about navigating Chromebooks by keyboard.
These videos feature Chromebook keyboard shortcuts that are not specific to ChromeVox, but are
definitely helpful to know for more efficient access. I’d recommend checking these videos
out in the future!
In this next section, I wanted to talk a bit about using refreshable Braille displays with
your Chromebook. ChromeVox supports most USB braille displays. As soon as you plug the
display in, Chrome OS will automatically detect it and turn ChromeVox on (if it wasn’t already
on).
If you plug in your device and it doesn’t seem to work, you may want to check your device’s
user manual or contact the manufacturer to make sure it is compatible. If your device
isn’t compatible for some reason, please do let our team know! I’ll explain how to
reach us at the end of the video.
Based on your Chromebook’s language setting, ChromeVox tries to choose an appropriate Braille
table for you.
You can also use the Braille display keyboard to navigate through the Chromebook interface
using jump commands. To navigate by heading, for example, I press the Braille keyboard’s
space bar plus the letter H - dots 1, 2, 5. Using the spacebar plus these dots is called
a chord. To navigate backward by heading, add dot 7 to the chord. This is similar to
adding shift to the command on the Chromebook keyboard. So, to navigate backward by heading,
I hold Space + H (dots 1, 2, 5) and then I add dot 7.
The same command structure holds true for many other ChromeVox jump commands. You can
reference the full list of available Braille navigation commands in the ChromeVox menus,
as long as you have enabled Braille captions.
Braille captions add the ability to see visual Braille output in the ChromeVox panel. By
default, this panel appears at the top of the Chromebook screen and displays written
text that corresponds with whatever ChromeVox is speaking aloud. You can also choose to
show Braille captions in the panel, which show the corresponding Braille output. This
tool is especially helpful for sighted teachers who want to visually follow along with what
their student is reading on the refreshable Braille display.
To enable Braille captions, I press Search + A then B, as in Access Braille.
CHROMEVOX: Braille captions enabled.
LAURA: The ChromeVox panel displays what is currently shown on your braille display (if
connected), or up to 40 characters. When a given word doesn’t fit on the braille display,
by default, it moves to the next line. If I want to change the way Braille is displayed,
I need to open the ChromeVox Options. To do that, I press Search, O and O, as in open
options.
CHROMEVOX: Web ChromeVox Options. English United States menu item 8 of 26
LAURA: Now I can navigate to the Braille section,
CHROMEVOX: Braille h2
LAURA: and choose how many rows and columns to display...
CHROMEVOX: Change the current 6 dot braille table by selecting an option from the list
below
LAURA: I can also choose whether to display braille next to the text captions, or “interleave”
them, meaning alternating text and braille on the same side.
In addition, this is where I can change the type of braille, for example, from 6-dot to
8-dot, or to a different grade.
CHROMEVOX: Change English switch to six dot Enable work wrap Virtual Braille Display heading
2
LAURA: If I want to save any of those changes, all I do is close the tab with Ctrl W.
CHROMEVOX: Google Accessibility banner
LAURA: Some Chromebook models have touch screens, and you can use basic touch navigation to
explore with ChromeVox.
Similar to navigating on a mobile phone with a screen reader enabled, you can use one finger
to swipe from left to right to navigate item by item.
CHROMEVOX: Get started with Accessibility Scanner visited Go to Android OS Product site
link From hearing aid compatibility to a built-in screen reader, Android OS offers you a wide
variety of tools for any kind of disability
LAURA: This is the touch equivalent of pressing Search + Right arrow on the keyboard.
To move backward, swipe from right to left.
CHROMEVOX: Go to Android OS Product site link Get started with Accessibility Scanner visited
link list item list with 1 item
LAURA: You can also use touch exploration to drag your finger around the screen and
hear whatever is underneath it.
CHROMEVOX: Chrome Change text, image, and video sizes Chrome Keyboard access link High
contrast High contrast Chrome extension Chrome browser Go to Chrome Browser product site
link visited
LAURA: As you explore, you will also hear the 3D positioning of the earcons -- touching
a link somewhere on the left side of the screen will play the corresponding link earcon from
the left speaker-
CHROMEVOX: Chrome browser Android watch demo
LAURA: - while touching a link on the right side will play the link earcon from right
speaker.
CHROMEVOX: Chrome Change Text Chrome Change image Chrome key Chrome
LAURA: This combination of touch exploration and 3d earcon positioning can be especially
useful if you want to get a sense for the physical layout of a page or app, or of the
Chromebook screen as a whole.
To select and activate a given item, like a button or link, simply make sure your focus
is on the item and double tap the screen.
CHROMEVOX: Go to Chrome Chrome for Desktop
LAURA: One more thing -- ChromeVox adds a cool way to change the volume on your Chromebook.
Swipe one finger up and down the right side of the screen to adjust the level.
CHROMEVOX: 13 33 60% 70% 40% 24%
LAURA: Pretty cool, right?
Alright, this video covered quite a lot. But there is still even more to learn about ChromeVox.
Check out the Chromebook Help Center, as well as chromevox.com to find additional resources
about how to get the most out of this screen reader.
For general feedback or questions on 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) which will open up
a feedback report, and then you can fill out the relevant details, and submit.
Also, look for other videos on 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!
And don’t forget, we have a handful of other videos about Chrome Accessibility. Check them
out here!