Are Those Pesky Chromebook Accessibility Tools Really Useful?

Do your students continually turn on those pesky Chromebook accessibility tools like the onscreen keyboard, or the gigantic mouse, or high contrast mode?  Do those tools help anyone? Does any student really use them? You'd be surprised.

Let's take a look at the purpose behind those pesky little tools.

First of all, how do students turn on the tools? And, maybe more importantly, how do you make them turn them off!

When students click on the bottom right, just as they would when they want to sign off or power down the device, there is an option called Accessibility. By clicking on the icon, students will see all the accessibility tools allowed on the Chromebook and can click the titles to turn them on and off. When there is a green check mark next to the tool, it is on. Click the tool again to turn it off. The check mark goes away. Some tools, when turned on, will show an icon in the bottom right corner next to the date/time/battery icons.

So, who should be using these tools? Many of our students don't need them, but some may find them beneficial. Here is what they do, and who might want to use them!

Enhance Visual Clarity
Screen Magnifier Full Screen or Docked	Full Screen - magnifies the screen. Docked - separates the screen to magnify where the cursor is.	Students with visual impairments, or teachers who want to show students screen directions.
Adjust Mouse Cursor Size	Makes the cursor arrow huge.	Younger students who struggle to click.
High Contrast Mode	Inverts the colors so backgrounds are black and text is white or color.	Students with visual impairments or light sensitivity.
Highlight Cursor and Text	Cursor: adds a red circle around the cursor Text: adds a blue circle to text fields	Individuals with low vision or those who have trouble navigating the Chromebook.

Voice Input and Output
ChromeVox	A screen reader - reads everything on the screen.	Students with visual impairments.
Select to Speak	A Chromebook Reader - click the speaker icon in the bottom right and highlight text to be read.	Students who need text read aloud.
Mono Audio	Stereo recordings alternate sounds in both speakers or headphones. Mono makes the full audio sound come from both. So users don’t miss part of the audio.	Students with auditory impairments or who may have impairment in one ear.
Dictation	Chromebook Voice Typing - click the microphone button to have what you say typed on the page.	Slow typers, poor spellers, or those students who need help getting thoughts on paper.

Keyboard Input
On Screen Keyboard	On the surface, this looks like a regular on screen keyboard. But it has some cool features. 1)It actually lets you draw/write using the squiggly line. (one the top bar across the keyboard. 2) It allows for emojis! (bottom left smiley icon) 3) You can dictate from the keyboard. (microphone icon on top bar)	Students who use eye tracking software to navigate a device.  Students turn this on all the time, and I don’t think they even know about the cool features!
Automatic Clicks	Turn it on to have whatever the mouse is on be clicked. A circle appears around the cursor and when the circle turns from blue to green, the mouse “clicks”	Students with physical impairment and can’t click buttons, or students who struggle to click.
Sticky Keys	When sticky keys are enabled, a key, when  pressed, becomes “sticky”, and will stay selected for several seconds even after the user moves a finger So, if a students needed to click ctrl + C, the control key, they can click ctrl, make it sticky, and move to click the C.	Students with physical impairments or those who have trouble pressing multiple keys at once.

To learn more about these features, take a look at this blog post by John Sowash! https://www.chrmbook.com/chromebook-accessibility/