In The Anywhere School event hosted by Google, Google for Education uncovered over 40 new updates and features across various Google services including Chromebook, Google Classroom, Meet, Chrome and many more. Check out this post by Eric Curts to learn about the 40 new Google for Education updates. In today’s post, I am covering ChromeVox which is Chromebook’s built-in screen reader. Google announced the release of new tutorials and interactive lessons to help students and teachers make the best of this tool in education.
Chromebook is an ideal tool for learners with visual impairments. Once activated it automatically detects and reads out-loud text under the cursor. Below are instructions on how to use two important features of ChromeVox. These instructions are taken from Chromebook Help. First, to turn on/off ChromeVox on any page click on Ctrl + Alt + z.
❎ 1- Turn on speak text under the mouse feature
To enable ChromeVox to read outloud the text under your cursor:
- Open Chromebook options, ‘press Search
+ o + o. Or press Launcher + o + o. ‘ - Turn on Speak text under the mouse
- Move your cursor to hear the text spoken.
+ o + o. Or press Launcher 
+ o + o. ‘❎ 2- Change language
To change the default language used on Chromevox:
- “Press and hold Search
, then press the letter o twice. Or press Launcher , then press the letter o twice. - In the Voices section, select Chrome OS. Your default language shows on the button label.
- Choose another language from the list. You’ll hear the new language you’ve selected.
- When you’re done, press Ctrl + w.”
Check out Chromebook Help to learn about other ChroneVox features including how to:
- Move to different tabs and windows
- Move through a page with keyboard shortcuts or with your touchscreen
- Move to different cells in a table
- Slow down, speed up, or stop spoken feedback
- Change pitch of the ChromeVox voice
- Use ChromeVox keyboard shortcuts .
