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Guardian’s Guide | ||
Contents | ||||
Accessing accessibility settings on Chromebook and Workspace | ||||
Introduction | |
We understand that every child is unique and learns differently. That’s why Google for Education accessibility features can be adjusted to fit each student’s needs and preferences. Our accessibility features allow you to personalize your student’s learning experience, giving them the confidence to advocate for themself, learn independently, collaborate in groups, and do their best work. Here are some tips to help you get familiar with the settings and features that are available to make Chromebooks, Google Workspace, and other Google tools more accessible and useful. | |
Accessing accessibility settings on Chromebook and Workspace | |
First, let’s take a look at how to turn on accessibility features in Chromebook settings:
Second, let’s look at how to turn on accessibility settings in Docs, Sheets, and Slides.
Note that other Google Workspace products like Gmail, Calendar, and Sites have accessibility support turned on by default, so there’s no need to turn any additional settings on. | |
Low vision | ||||||
Overview | ||||||
If your student uses magnification | ||||||
There are a handful of different ways that you can use magnification on a Chromebook to make things larger. If your student only requires minimal magnification, you might consider trying some of the following methods: | ||||||
Browser zoom | To make just the content within the Chrome browser or given app larger, hold down Ctrl and press the Plus key (Ctrl +). You’ll notice the content getting larger in increments. To decrease, hold Ctrl and press the Minus key (Ctrl -). Note: This also works on other platforms outside of ChromeOS. If using Chrome on Mac, press Command + Plus or Minus. And if using Windows, press Ctrl + Plus or Minus. | |||||
Increase size of | If that’s still not quite large enough for your student, try adding Shift into the mix. Ctrl + Shift + Plus will make everything on the screen a bit larger, including things like the app icons on the bottom of the Chromebook screen, or the Chrome tabs. | |||||
If your student needs greater levels of magnification, you may want to try the following options instead. Within Chromebook accessibility settings, you can turn | ||||||
Full-screen magnifier | When you turn on the full-screen magnifier, the entire screen will zoom in. From there, you can use the mouse cursor or touchpad to pan around the screen. If your student is using a touchscreen Chromebook, place two fingers on the screen to move the view around. When you first turn the magnifier on, it defaults to a certain level of magnification. But this is easily adjustable depending on your student’s needs. Hold down Ctrl and Alt and press the Brightness Up key located on the top row of the Chromebook keyboard to increase the zoom level. This will go all the way up to 20 times the default. To explore lower levels of zoom, hold down Ctrl + Alt and press the Brightness Down key. | |||||
Tips You can turn full-screen magnification on or off at any time by pressing the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Search + m or press Ctrl + Launcher + m. Note: The Search or Launcher key is directly above the Shift key on the left-hand side of the keyboard. If your student is using a very high level of zoom, it may also be helpful to connect the Chromebook to a second monitor so they can see more of the screen at once. | ||||||
Docked magnifier | The Docked magnifier works a bit differently than the full-screen magnifier. Instead of making the entire screen larger, it makes the top one-third of the screen a magnified region. It then resizes the content on the Chromebook to sit in the bottom two-thirds of the screen. From there, you can use the mouse or touchpad to pan around the screen and control what’s being viewed in the magnified region. You can increase or decrease the magnification level using the same method mentioned above. Tip: You can also turn this on or off at any time by pressing the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Search + d. | |||||
Magnification in Google Workspace | Magnification support is available in Docs, Sheets, and Slides with the magnifying glass icon in the toolbar. | |||||
If your student has light sensitivity or eye strain | ||||||
If your student has sensitivity to light or eye strain, you may want to try the following options. Within Chromebook accessibility settings, you can turn on two different types of features to assist with this: | ||||||
High contrast | So much content has dark text on a white background, which can lead to eye strain after looking at the computer screen for many hours at once. It can be really helpful to invert the colors every once in a while. With high contrast mode, you can invert the colors on the screen at any time. You can turn this on in Chromebook accessibility settings, or by pressing the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Search + h anytime. Note: This also works on other platforms outside of ChromeOS. If using Chrome on Mac, press Command + Plus or Minus. And if using Windows, press Ctrl + Plus or Minus. | |||||
Night light | If your student is using the device early in the morning or late in the evening, it may also be helpful to use the night light mode to reduce the amount of blue light coming through on the screen. This can help to reduce eye strain, and some studies even show that reducing blue light on screens can lead to better sleep as well. You can turn this on by navigating to the system menu in the lower-right corner of the screen and selecting night light. You can further configure options within Chromebook settings. Reducing contrast can help readers who look in one place longer (due to needing more time to decode language or to locked-in syndrome) and experience eye fatigue:
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Reading mode | If your student is sensitive to light and is reading a large amount of text, you can customize the text and background colors to better support your student’s needs. For example, you can change the background color to a muted blue to reduce light. The reading mode pane can be resized to fill most of the screen so readers will be less distracted by multiple windows with different colors. Reading mode is also available on Android devices. Easily download and turn on Reading mode to personalize your student’s screen reading experience. | |||||
If your student needs certain items on the screen to be | ||||||
There are a few different ways to make key items on the screen larger or more visible. | ||||||
Mouse cursor size | First, you can increase the size of the mouse cursor in accessibility settings. When you turn this feature on, a sliding scale will appear and you can choose the cursor size that works best for your student. | |||||
Highlights | You can also turn on a feature called highlights. This feature makes it possible to draw a colorful focus ring around the mouse cursor, the text carrot as your student types, or the keyboard-focused item if your student mainly uses the keyboard to navigate. These focus rings only show when an item is in motion. For example, when you’re moving the mouse cursor. After that they will fade into the background. | |||||
If your student benefits from listening to text read aloud | ||||||
If your student has low vision, they might benefit from using a variety of the tools listed above. Sometimes using text-to-speech to hear text read aloud can be a really useful tool that can also reduce eye strain.Within Chromebook accessibility settings, you can turn on a feature called Select-to-speak. When this feature is on, a little icon appears in the lower-right portion of the screen near the time and battery level. You can click that icon and then use the mouse cursor or touchpad to click and drag a box around certain content on the screen. You can select a very small amount of text or a large portion of the screen, but only your selection will be read aloud. Your student can click that icon or press the Ctrl key to stop speech.If your student is using a touchscreen Chromebook, they can use their finger or a stylus in a similar way. Simply tap the icon on the screen and then use one finger or the stylus to drag a box around content to be read aloud.You’ll notice that there is word-by-word highlighting as the Chromebook reads aloud. You can change the highlight color in Select-to-speak settings if your student prefers a different one.You can also adjust the rate of speech, pitch, and language. To do this, access Select-to-speak settings within Chromebook accessibility settings.If your student requires everything on the screen to be read aloud, the ChromeVox screen reader might be a better fit. Check out this ChromeVox help center to learn more. | ||||||
To learn more, check out these resources:Video tutorialsUsing Select-to-speak on your Chromebook Making your Chromebook easier to see How to use screen magnification on your Chromebook Help Center articlesTurn on Chromebook accessibility features Zoom in or magnify your Chromebook screen Hear text read aloud | ||||||
Blind | ||||||
Overview | ||||||
ChromeVox, the built-in screen reader on Chromebooks | ||||||
ChromeVox is the built-in screen reader on Chromebooks. It is designed to provide spoken audio feedback, braille output, or both as you navigate through the interface. You can turn on ChromeVox either through Chromebook accessibility settings, or through pressing Ctrl + Alt + z at any time. Once you turn it on, you will notice a black bar with white text across the top of the Chromebook. This text shows whatever ChromeVox is speaking aloud.
To navigate item by item on that tab, you can press and hold the Search key – which is the ChromeVox modifier key, located directly above Shift on the left-hand side of the keyboard – and then use the Right Arrow to move forward.
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Navigating with ChromeVox | There are many different ChromeVox commands your student can use to navigate quickly and efficiently through a given page. For example, if you want to jump through a page by buttons, you can press Search + b. Press Search + Shift + b to go backward by buttons. Navigate by headings with Search + h, or Search + Shift + h to go backward. Press Search + Period at any time to pull up the ChromeVox menus. This is meant to be the one-stop shop for ChromeVox:
ChromeVox menus can be really beneficial for anyone who is new to ChromeVox or screen reading as a whole. This way, you don’t have to memorize dozens of different shortcuts at once – just remember the basics and Search + Period, and you’ll be set. | |||||
ChromeVox and braille displays | ChromeVox also works with braille if your student is using a refreshable braille display. You can connect the display by either plugging in the USB cord or pairing it with Bluetooth.
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Keyboard and screen reading support in Google Workspace | ||||||
Google Workspace products also have a variety of keyboard shortcuts that make navigating with a screen reader more efficient. For example, press Ctrl + Shift + 8 to bullet text in Docs and Slides. Or, press Ctrl + d to mute and unmute the microphone in Google Meet. You can do the following to view a list of shortcuts within each product:
Full sets of keyboard shortcuts are also available in the Chromebook Help Center and the Google Workspace Help Center. | ||||||
Convert PDF and photo files to text | ||||||
With Optical Character Recognition (OCR), your student can get extra support with PDF or photo files by converting any words to live text that they can maximize or utilize a screen reader with. OCR is also supported for a variety of languages. To convert a PDF or photo file to text:
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Help “seeing” with Lookout and Reading mode on Android | ||||||
If your student has an Android phone or tablet, then they may find Lookout to be very helpful. Lookout uses the camera and sensors on your device to recognize objects and text, and gives you spoken feedback, audio indicators, and other signals to inform you about what it sees. And with Reading mode available on Android devices and Chrome browsers, students who are blind can have text read aloud to them. | ||||||
To learn more, check out these resources:Video tutorialsHelp Center articlesUse the built-in screen reader Use a braille device with your Chromebook | ||||||
Deaf or hard of hearing | ||||||
There are a few system features built into Chromebooks and Google Workspace that could be helpful for deaf and hard of hearing individuals. | ||||||
Overview | ||||||
Mono audio | ||||||
Mono audio makes the same audio play through both headphones or speakers. This can be useful if your student has limited hearing in one ear, to better streamline the audio so that less content is missed compared to audio played in stereo sound. | ||||||
Customize closed captions | ||||||
You can also customize the style of closed captions in videos, including:
Note that if you customize these settings, they will apply to videos across the device that have default styling, but won’t override any videos with custom caption styles embedded. | ||||||
Accessing captions during lessons | ||||||
Ask the teacher to turn on captions when presenting in Google Slides | Slides comes with the ability for a teacher to turn on automatic captions when presenting to the class. Teachers can turn on captions by clicking Present, then pressing the CC button along the bottom of the interface. Teachers can also change the font size or move the caption bar to the top or bottom of the screen. If this functionality is helpful for your student and the teacher is not presenting lessons with Slides captions, you might consider advocating for this change. | |||||
Google Meet automatic captions | If your student is joining lessons through Meet video conferencing, it’s also possible to use Meet automatic captions, which provide automatic captions within the Meet video conferencing interface. If your student turns this on, the captions will only be viewable on their device, whereas Slides captions are viewable to anyone viewing the presentation. | |||||
Add captions to audio/video files in Google Drive | You can add caption files or transcript files to videos in Drive and view them during playback. You can upload the video, add caption files, and even translate the captions. | |||||
Options to help with a remote ASL interpreter | Many students not only use captions, but also work with ASL interpreters throughout the day. If your student is working with a remote ASL interpreter, consider pinning the video thumbnail with the interpreter so it appears in a larger view on the Chromebook screen.
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Try Live Transcribe available on the Google Play Store | A number of Chromebook models now support the Google Play Store, so you can access Android apps on your Chromebook. If you are using a model that supports the Google Play Store, you can download and use Live Transcribe to live caption audio in a wide variety of languages. | |||||
To learn more, check out these resources:Help Center articles | ||||||
Limited motor skills | ||||||
Overview | ||||||
Adjustments to the touchpad | ||||||
If your student has difficulty putting pressure on the touchpad to click, you may want to try turning on tap-to-click. This feature makes it possible to lightly tap the touchpad to click an item, instead of pushing down. If tap-to-click is helpful for your student, you may also want to try tap dragging in Chromebook accessibility settings. This feature lets you lightly double tap something and drag to move it on the screen – for example, if you wanted to rearrange Chrome tabs. If your student needs more support clicking, you may want to explore automatic clicks. With automatic clicks, you can simply hover over a given item and the Chromebook will click for you. You can choose if you want to left-click, right-click, double-click, click and drag, or scroll on a page just by hovering. You can also choose to pause clicking if you are reading and don’t want to click as you move the cursor. Within settings, you can make additional customizations such as choosing the amount of time before clicking and more. | ||||||
Adjustments to the physical keyboard | ||||||
On the keyboard side, Sticky Keys can be helpful for anyone who has difficulty pressing more than one key at once. For example, if you were to press a keyboard command with three keys, or even just capitalizing a letter when typing. Typically, you’d have to press and hold Shift, then press the letter to capitalize it. But with Sticky Keys on, you can press Shift, lift your finger, then press the given letter. Shift remains “sticky” for you. There’s also a way to adjust the keyboard repeat rate and the delay before repeating if your student leaves their fingers on the keyboard a little too long and it’s resulting in keys being typed in repetition. | ||||||
Typing on the virtual keyboard | ||||||
The on-screen keyboard is useful for anyone for whom it’s difficult or not possible to type on the physical Chromebook keyboard. When this is on, as you put your cursor into an edit field, the on-screen keyboard will appear in the lower portion of the screen. You can use this with the mouse or touchpad, a touchscreen, a connected joystick, or a head control device. The on-screen keyboard also has a handwriting mode available if your student finds that easier to use with the touchpad or a stylus. And there is a microphone icon that appears in the top-right corner that is great for dictating while using the on-screen keyboard. | ||||||
Using voice to enter text | ||||||
If your student prefers to use voice to enter text, there are a few different options available within the Chromebook and with Google Workspace tools. First, you can turn on Dictation within Chromebook accessibility settings. When this is on, a microphone icon appears in the lower-right corner of the screen near the time and battery level. From here, place your cursor into any edit field and then either click or tap that icon, or press Search + d, then begin speaking. This works across any edit fields on the Chromebook. If your student wants to dictate a longer assignment, give Google Docs voice typing a try. Within a Docs file, navigate to Tools > Voice typing, and a microphone icon will appear to the left of the writing area. Now you can click or tap that icon to begin speaking to type text. Voice typing also comes with a wide variety of voice editing and formatting commands if you want to explore a more hands-free experience. | ||||||
Using Voice Access to control an Android device | ||||||
If your student is using an Android mobile device, they can enable Voice Access in the device accessibility settings in order to control their device hands-free. The newest version of Voice Access supports English, Spanish, French, German, and Italian. | ||||||
Setting up Switch Access | ||||||
Switch Access is an alternate input method for your Chromebook. When you use Switch Access, it scans the items on your screen until you use a switch to make a selection. Switches can be used with the built-in keyboard, or with an external device that you connect through Bluetooth or USB. Important note: If you want to use an external device for your switches, make sure it’s connected to your Chromebook before you set up Switch Access. To turn on Switch Access on your Chromebook, at the bottom right, select the time. Or press Alt + Shift + s. Then, select Settings > Accessibility. Under Keyboard and text input, select Switch Access > Switch Access settings. When you turn Switch Access on, a setup guide appears to help you set up your switches. Assign a switch to the Select action. Then you can use this switch to select items on the screen. If you want to use multiple switches to move the selector between items on the screen, you can assign switches for the next or previous actions. If you only have one switch, you can move between different items on the screen when you turn on Auto-scan. | ||||||
TipYou can rerun the setup guide to set up different switches. EXPLORE RESOURCES: | ||||||
To learn more, check out these resources:Video tutorialsHow to use speech to enter text on your Chromebook Chromebooks by keyboard: Navigating the ChromeOS interface Chromebooks by keyboard: Browsing tabs and links Chromebooks by keyboard: Chrome menu options and shortcuts Chromebooks by keyboard: Searching and the address bar Chromebook mobility assistive functionalities Help Center articlesTurn on Chromebook accessibility features | ||||||
Executive functioning challenges or difficulty focusing | ||||||
Executive functioning skills include things like flexible thinking, self-control, and working memory. If your student struggles with executive functioning skills, you might notice that it can be tough for them to focus and pay attention, stay organized, keep track of their assignments and tasks, and more. Below are some ideas for how to support your student using Google tools like Google Workspace for Education, and other apps and extensions. This guide is focused on some of the tools available, but we understand that supporting a learner with executive function and focusing challenges may be nuanced in a way that specific tools cannot address. Check out this article from the Research Institute for Learning and Development for tips on providing holistic support. | ||||||
Overview | ||||||
Support organization with Google Drive, Keep, Docs, and Classroom | ||||||
Access live captions during lessons
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Set a schedule and reminders with Google Calendar | ||||||
Calendar can be a helpful tool to set events and reminders so your student can remember key deadlines and manage their class schedule. If your student uses Google Classroom for school, they can also view due dates in Calendar and in their class’s calendar in Classroom. If your student finds Google Calendar overwhelming, classroom support specialists we’ve spoken to suggest using Google Keep as a daily calendar. Each time slot has its own color box, and the student can tap it to make it disappear when that time has passed. As an alternative, students can also send themselves scheduled emails in Gmail, which can act as reminders later in the day, week, or month for example. | ||||||
Support organization with Google Drive, Keep, Docs, and Classroom | ||||||
Encouraging good organization of assignments and notes can go a long way. We talked with one teacher who says that she treats Drive like her students’ virtual backpacks, and spends time talking about creating folders, good naming conventions, color coding, and more to help her students stay organized – we loved that idea! Classroom and Keep can also be helpful tools for keeping track of tasks and important materials.
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Screen adjustments to support focus | ||||||
Reduce distracting elements on the page with reading mode | Use reading mode on your Chrome browser to enlarge text and line height to make it easier to make out letters and words. Reading mode also reduces distracting elements on the screen, like images and videos, to help your student focus on a page’s primary content. You can also customize settings like the typeface, font size and spacing, and text and background color. EXPLORE RESOURCES: | |||||
Minimize distractions with full-screen mode | When focusing on a given assignment, it can be really helpful to minimize distractions. One thing that your student can try is entering full-screen mode when working on an assignment by pressing the full-screen button in the top middle of the Chromebook keyboard. This hides other apps and windows, to promote better engagement on the assignment itself. | |||||
Support working in two spaces at once with Dualless | Sometimes, your student may need to view two items at once – for example, if they need to watch an assigned video and answer questions about the video in a Docs file. You can have multiple tabs and windows open at once, but sometimes it can be distracting to flip back and forth between them. Your student can try the Dualless Chrome extension in this case, which makes it easier to arrange where windows are displayed on the Chromebook screen. For example, you could choose to have the window with the video take up the right half of the screen, and the Docs file with questions take up the left half of the screen with one click within the extension icon menu. Then with one more click, you can adjust back to the default. | |||||
Additional focus support | Managing time can also be difficult for children with executive functioning challenges. This can be even harder without the greater structure and accountability created in the physical classroom environment. One thing to consider is using a physical clock or timer, or an electronic one like the Stopwatch & Timer Chrome extension to set time limits for homework time or break time. There are other extensions, such as StayFocusd, to help students limit the time they spend browsing websites and social media. Another thing to keep in mind is creating incentives and rewards for good work and successful focus time. Creating rewards such as time outside, a virtual play date, or even something like 15 minutes playing with the Chrome Music Lab or other games can be great motivators and also help provide critical breaks throughout the day. Special thanks to the Research Institute for Learning and Development for their contributions to this section. | |||||
Accessing live captions during lessons | ||||||
Give learners more time to process and participate, or help them refocus on their task or conversation with live captions of their lesson. | ||||||
Ask the teacher to turn on captions when presenting in Google Slides | Slides comes with the ability for a teacher to turn on automatic captions when presenting to the class. Teachers can turn on captions by clicking Present, then pressing the CC button along the bottom of the interface. If this functionality is helpful for your student and the teacher is not presenting lessons with Slides captions, you might consider advocating for this change. | |||||
Use automatic captions in Google Meet | If your student is joining lessons through Meet video conferencing, it’s possible to use Meet automatic captions, which provide captions of the live spoken conversion right within the Meet interface. If your student turns this on, the captions will only be viewable on their device, whereas Slides captions are viewable to anyone viewing the presentation. | |||||
Dyslexia and other | ||||||
If your student has a specific need or disability they have been getting more hands-on support for in the classroom environment, we recognize that you may be trying to fill in the gaps presented by the loss of that support. We wanted to share some tips and tools that are available to support individuals with dyslexia. | ||||||
Overview | ||||||
Built-in features that might be helpful Hearing text spoken aloud with Select-to-speak Adding more visibility to key items on screen with highlights | ||||||
Built-in features that might be helpful | ||||||
Hearing text spoken aloud with Select-to-speak | Within Chromebook accessibility settings, you can turn on a feature called Select-to-speak. When this feature is on, a little icon appears in the lower-right portion of the screen near the time and battery level. You can click that icon and then use the mouse cursor or touchpad to click and drag a box around certain content on the screen. You can select a very small amount of text or a large portion of the screen, but only your selection will be read aloud. Your student can click that icon or press the Ctrl key to stop speech. If your student is using a touchscreen Chromebook, they can use their finger or a stylus in a similar way. Simply tap the icon on the screen and then use one finger or the stylus to drag a box around content to be read aloud. You’ll notice that there is word by word highlighting as the Chromebook reads aloud. You can change the highlight color in Select-to-speak settings if your student prefers a different one. You can also adjust the rate of speech, pitch, and language. To do this, access Select-to-speech settings within Chromebook accessibility settings. | |||||
Adding more visibility to key items on screen with highlights | This feature makes it possible to draw a colorful focus ring around the mouse cursor, the text carrot as your student types, or the keyboard-focused item if your student mainly uses the keyboard to navigate. These focus rings only appear when an item is in motion – for example, when you’re moving the mouse cursor. After that they will fade into the background. Your student may benefit from using the highlight around the text caret, to draw more focus around each letter typed. | |||||
Reduce distracting elements on the screen with reading mode | Reading mode is a customizable reader view in the side panel of Chrome browsers. Reading mode reduces distracting elements on the screen, like images and videos, to help your student focus on a page’s primary content. Reading mode allows users to customize settings like the typeface, font size and spacing, and text and background color. Reading mode is also available on Android devices. Easily download and turn on Reading mode to personalize your student’s screen reading experience. | |||||
Support writing by enabling your student to speak to enter text | ||||||
If your student prefers to use voice to enter text, there are a few different options available within the Chromebook. | ||||||
Dictation | First, you can turn on Dictation within Chromebook accessibility settings. When this is on, a microphone icon appears in the lower-right corner of the screen near the time and battery level. From here, place your cursor into any edit field and then either click or tap that icon, or press Search + d, then begin speaking. This works across any edit fields on the Chromebook. | |||||
Google Docs voice typing | If your student wants to dictate a longer assignment, give Google Docs voice typing a try. Within a Doc file, navigate to Tools > Voice typing, and a microphone icon will appear to the left of the writing area. Now you can click or tap that icon to begin speaking to type text. Docs voice typing also comes with a wide variety of voice editing and formatting commands if you want to explore a more hands-free experience. | |||||
Spelling and grammar | Google Docs has powerful spelling and grammar tools built in. In the document menu, select Tools, and make sure that the following are enabled:
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Personal dictionary within spelling and grammar | If your student is studying a topic or writing fiction that may include unusual words, you can add custom words to the dictionary. These will then be included in the spelling and grammar checks. To do so:
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Helpful third-party Chrome extensions to further customize your student’s experience. | ||||||
BeeLine Reader | BeeLine Reader uses a color gradient to guide your eyes from the end of one line to the beginning of the next. This seemingly simple tweak makes reading easier and faster because it allows you to transition between lines quickly and effortlessly. Many people are able to read 20% or 30% faster with BeeLine, even on their first try. BeeLine is used by students from grade school to grad school and has been adopted by education platforms like Bookshare and Blackboard. | |||||
Read&Write | Read&Write for Google Chrome™ provides personalized support to make documents, web pages, and common file types in Google Drive (including Google Docs, PDF, and ePub) more accessible. It’s designed to help everyone engage with digital content in a way that suits their abilities and learning styles. Read&Write offers a range of powerful support tools to help your student gain confidence with reading, writing, studying, and research, including text-to-speech, text and picture dictionaries, speech-to-text, word prediction, and more. | |||||
Ginger | Writing support designed primarily for non-native language writers, but also helpful for users with dyslexia. Helps with in-line sentence rephrasing, grammar correction, and translation. Ginger’s advanced features include reading what an individual has written back to them, and a “personal trainer” that keeps a record of where correction was used most often and then recommends where you might want to focus for self-improvement. | |||||
Helperbird | Offers lightweight tools to customize font size, word spacing, line heights, colors, contrast levels, and more. Helperbird’s reading support includes a customizable ruler to help you know exactly where you are on the page. Additional features include storing notes for later, text-to-speech, and the ability to select potentially difficult words to have them spoken out loud or to retrieve a dictionary definition in-line. | |||||
Font customization extensions | There are a number of extensions available that make it possible for your student to change the fonts used on pages to one that they find preferable. For example, some students may be more comfortable reading with the OpenDyslexic font, an open source font created as a support for readers with dyslexia. This extension overrides all fonts on web pages with the OpenDyslexic font (or another font of the user’s choice). On an Android device, learners can download and turn on Reading mode – a customizable reader view. Reading mode enables learners to choose from a curated list of fonts that may be more helpful to them. This feature also enables learners to adjust other aspects of the typography such as size, line height, letter spacing, contrast, background color, and more. | |||||
To learn more, check out these resources:Video tutorialsHow to use Select-to-speak on your Chromebook How to use speech to enter text on your Chromebook Help Center articles | ||||||
Updated August 2023