Wednesday, October 23, 2013

FREE Screen-Reader!

It appears that Google is ramping up their accessibility features. They may prove to be a serious power house for our special needs users. 
Orange Box Is Reading

I have recently stumbled upon ChromeVox, which is their screen reader that installs into the browser Chrome. Google makes this app available for no cost.  First you would need to install Chrome on your computer, which is also free. Chrome works on PC, Apple, and Linux platforms.  ChromeVox can be downloaded here

When in Chrome, anywhere there is text (not a picture of text) the user can click on it. The text will be surrounded by an orange highlight box as shown in the picture.  Chrome will begin reading with a reasonable quality voice.  

Another great feature is the online tutorial which Google makes available. It is designed to be learned through experiential education (which is always better than didactic instruction), and very thorough.

Anyone else using ChromeVox out there? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Yes, that is shameless self-promotion in the picture above.

Happy therapy!

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