screenreader
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Google makes its screen reader easier to use on Chromebooks
To improve the Chromebook experience for users with visual impairments, Google announced a new version of its ChromeVox tool this week. First, the screen reading feature is now the default option on all Chromebooks running Chrome OS 56 and newer. All you have to do to turn it on is hit Ctrl + Alt + Z.
Facebook's tool for blind users can describe News Feed photos
Facebook has launched a new tool for iOS that can help blind, English-speaking users make sense of all the photos people post on the social network. It's called automatic alternative text, and it can give a basic description of a photo's contents for anyone who's using a screen reader. In the past, screen readers can only tell visually impaired users that there's a photo in the status update they're viewing. With this new tool in place, they can rattle off elements the company's object recognition technology detects in the images. For instance, they can now tell users that they're looking at a friend's photo that "may contain: tree, sky, sea."
Google aids accessibility with ChromeVox reader, better YouTube captions and more
Engineers from Google have commandeered a booth at this year's CSUN accessibility conference and they're keen to talk up their latest efforts. For the visually impaired, there's now a beta version of a Chrome screen reader called ChromeVox (demo'd after the break), plus improved shortcuts and screen reader support in Google Docs, Sites and Calendar. Meanwhile, YouTube boasts expanded caption support for the hard of hearing, with automatic captions enabled for 135 million video clips -- a healthy tripling of last year's total. Check the source link for full details or, if you're anywhere near San Diego, go and hassle those engineers the old-fashioned way.
