Most of us take our ability to browse the web for granted, but for those with a visual impairment or other disability, it can be far more difficult. For Chrome users, at least, Google are on the case – and of all the major browser developers, they seem most dedicated to improving web accessibility.
As a colour-blind user myself, I've always been impressed by Google's commitment to making Chrome easier to use for people with visual impairments.
They really are willing to go the extra mile to improve accessibility – and because Chrome's capabilities are so easily expanded with third-party extensions, there are all kinds of other ways to customise your experience, whatever your needs.
Today, I’ll be taking a closer look, and sharing a few other must-have add-ons for those with particular accessibility needs.
Color Enhancer
One in 12 men and around one in 200 women experience some form of colour blindness – that’s about 4.5% of the world’s population.
For those users, certain common colour combinations can render text and images difficult or even impossible to make out. Some major sites are designed with colour blind users in mind – Facebook being a notable example– but sadly, they’re few and far between.
Enter Color Enhancer. Once installed, it walks you through a quick calibration process and then adds a customised colour filter for your browser. The beauty of this approach is that it’s specifically adapted to your own visual needs – so if you have any kind of trouble with colour vision, this extension is a must-have.
Also consider: Color Sphere! by MUDCUBE. This extension is an all-purpose colour toolkit. It can help you create harmonious colour schemes, identify specific colours on web pages by their HEX codes, and even simulate colour blindness to help improve your own site’s accessibility.
ZoomWheel
I
f you have a visual impairment other than colour blindness, then Color Enhancer might not do much good – but a little magnification might be just the ticket.
Now, Chrome can actually zoom in on pages without the need for any extensions – but ZoomWheelby UenX offers a much simpler and better way to magnify web pages.
With this installed, a semi-transparent magnifying glass icon will hover over the upper-right-hand corner of every website you visit. To zoom, all you have to do is move your mouse over this icon and turn the mousewheel!
What makes this particularly useful is that you can actually set a different preferred zoom level for every site you visit – as well as configure exactly how much the page is zoomed by when you turn the mousewheel. To top it all off, it can even add anti-aliasing to zoomed-in text, making it smoother and easier to read.
If you struggle to read small text – whether that’s due to a visual impairment or a condition like dyslexia – ZoomWheel is a much better option than Chrome's native zoom functions.
Also consider: High Contrast by Google. Rather than changing the size of the text, this extension heightens the contrast, making websites easier to read for people with certain visual impairments. Unlike similar extensions, this one is specifically calibrated to work seamlessly with many popular sites, making it an obvious choice.
ChromeVox
For some users, changing the colour or size of text on the web might not be enough – and if that’s the case, then a screen reader application can be a huge help.
Screen readers use text-to-speech synthesis to read out webpages through your headphones or speakers, and ChromeVox is Google’s own offering – and because it integrates directly with Chrome, it offers a host of really useful features.
For example, with ChromeVox installed, the browser makes a chiming sound when a page is fully loaded - so you know when it’s ready to navigate. It also offers sophisticated features for browsing pages and providing summaries of any page’s content without laboriously reading out every single word.
It’s a great way to browse the web without relying on your vision – so for users with more severe visual impairments, ChromeVox is a superb choice.
Also consider:Voice Actions for Chrome by Zachary Yaro. ChromeVox offers extremely powerful navigation options, but this third-party extension goes one better. With MetalMouth, you won’t even need your hands on the keyboard to navigate the web. Instead, you’ll be able to issue voice commands through a microphone. As well as making the web simpler to navigate, this also allows users to live out their boldest Captain Picard fantasies. Engage!
Virtual Keyboard
Moving beyond extensions for the visually impaired, this add-on by xonTAB is a great tool for anyone who has difficulty typing on a phyical keyboard.
With this installed, clicking on any text entry box will bring up a virtual keyboard on-screen. From here, you can simply click on the virtual keys to type in a URL, email or anything else.
This means that as long as you're able to control a cursor, you can enjoy all the advantages of a full keyboard. For many users with physical disabilities, a cursor is much easier to use than a keyboard – it can even be controlled with eye movements – and for those people, Virtual Keyboard is potentially an extremely useful tool.
Do you have a tip for making the web more accessible? Make sure you share it with our readers in the comments below.