Top 10 Accessibility Tools Built into Chromebooks

-

by Tracey Brown, Instructional Technology Teacher Specialist

When students are working on their Chromebooks, they have access to Accessibility settings to turn on and off the tools that they need, as they need them. The great thing is, these are built into the Chromebooks and do not require any additional purchase or installation. As teachers, knowing about these tools can allow you to better guide and support your students in making the most of their digital devices, but it can also help you in the instance that you are asked to troubleshoot an issue that stems from a student accidentally turning on one of these features, which is common with younger learners especially. 

Initially, accessibility features are found in the settings menu, all the way at the bottom under Advanced, and all the way at the bottom again (directions here). What we recommend is having students change the settings to Always show accessibility option in the system menu. That makes the accessibility button a permanent fixture in the popup menu that launches if I click on the clock in the lower right corner of my screen. Read on to see our top 10 accessibility tools. We are also big fans of shortcuts here in OIT. If a shortcut was available for the tool it is mentioned after the tool description. Please note: shortcuts will only work after the tool has been turned on in the accessibility settings.

  1. Speech to text (Dictation) - if students turn on dictation they can click in any active textbox in any application on their Chromebook, select the speaker icon in the lower right of their screen and have their spoken words recorded as text. Shortcut= Search + D
  2. Text to speech (Select-to-speak) -  if students turn on select-to-speak they can highlight any piece of text, anything from a single word to an entire page and click on the select-to-speak icon in the lower right to have the selection read aloud. Shortcut= Search + S
  3. Predictive text - this feature is built into the onscreen keyboard. Once the keyboard is launched if students begin typing, it begins predicting the word. Once they finish the word, it suggests a second word that commonly follows the first. This can help students compose text faster.
  4. Handwriting - this feature is also built into the onscreen keyboard. If students click in any active textbox and select the handwriting tool along the top of the keyboard, they bring up a box that allows them to write words with their finger or a stylus. This tool also uses prediction, so as they write several possible words are displayed across the top of the keyboard. Students can select the correct word to add it to the textbox.
  5. Full screen magnifier - once launched the full-screen magnifier zooms in on the page and moves as students move their cursor around the screen. Shortcut= Ctrl + Search + M
  6. Docked magnifier - once launched this splits the screen so the bottom half is the original page to display, the top half shows a portion that is magnified. The portion magnified is controlled by the student’s cursor position, so as they move around the page, the field being magnified changes. Shortcut= Ctrl + Search + D
  7. Auto-clicks - if students have trouble using a mouse, auto-clicks can help them be successful at clicking on links and buttons. Once launched the student will pause and hover over an object they want to click on and after the predetermined pause time the object is selected. Students can customize the specific settings under Mouse and Touchpad in the full accessibility settings menu. 
  8. Sticky Keys - if students have trouble holding down Shift, Control or Alt keys, sticky keys is the solution. When turned on, the students can simply double click on the Shift/Control/Alt key to make it “sticky,'' or remain on until it is turned off by single clicking the key again. This changes the act of copying from “hold Control, tap C” to “double tap Control, tap C, single tap Control.”
  9. High Contrast mode - this feature inverts the colors making a light background dark and dark text light, for example. This can enhance a reader's ability to see a page but also reduce eye strain.
  10. Large mouse cursor - Another great feature for users with visual impairments. If locating the cursor is a challenge, this feature more than doubles the size of the tool. This can pair nicely with the additional setting in the full accessibility menu to change the color of the cursor.

Want to learn more about accessibility features for Chromebooks and Chrome? Check out Google’s Chrome & Chrome OS Accessibility playlist on YouTube. 


Popular Posts

Book Studies in Brightspace

-
Image
By Melissa Connelly, Behavior Specialist & Brightspace Campus Champion at Belle Grove Elementary, and Stacy Langhirt, 1st grade teacher and former eCoach, Severna Park Elementary Books clubs about technology, really? Yes! It was an awesome experience. When asked to facilitate a class during the summer of 2021, feeling a little burned out on technology we asked if we could try something new. Guess what the answer was a  resounding, YES. That is how a five week technology book study came to be using our new LMS, Brightspace. Facilitating a book study about tools and technology that we have available to us everyday and that our students are familiar with just made so much sense. We were able to share a wonderful text, Eric Curts' Control Alt Achieve: Rebooting your Classroom with Creative Google Projects ,  that was rich with ideas on using Google Workspace for Education in the classroom and we had conversations centered around those ideas that helped all of us to grow as e...
Read more

Computational Thinking: Its really not that scary!

-
Image
By Kerri Lambert, Instructional Technology Teacher Specialist Computational thinking. It’s one of those current, hot educational phrases that leaves most teachers scratching their heads and thinking, “Does this really apply to me?” Especially when most articles and books stress its relationship and importance to computer science.  However, the more I read, the more I’m convinced that computational thinking extends to all content at all grade levels. After all, at its most basic, computational thinking is all about the process of problem solving. And let’s face it, that’s something we all do, all day long!  So what exactly IS computational thinking? By definition, computational thinking is the process of breaking down complex problems down into parts, recognizing patterns, and devising a solution. It has four pillars or processes: Broken down into the processes, computational thinking seems a lot less intimidating. I mean, even cleaning the house can be broken down into comp...
Read more

Who to Follow on Social Media

-
Image
by Kerri Lambert, Instructional Technology Teacher Specialist In OIT, we are often asked how we learn “all this stuff” and how do we keep up with all the changes across our platforms. There are several ways, but one of our favorite ways is to peruse Twitter when we have a moment. This allows us to get information from one place and in the small snippets of time- and it doesn’t fill up our inboxes! If you are on Twitter and looking for people to follow, here are a few that we recommend. It’s no secret that OIT supports a variety of instructional applications and yes, sometimes it can feel overwhelming! But, many of the programs we subscribe to are active on Twitter. Not only do they tweet out updates or upcoming features, but also showcase ways educators across the country are using their products with students. This is also a great way to find out about learning opportunities such as webinars or conferences. Following the companies gives you the best of both worlds- updates and inspir...
Read more