Chromebooks are great educational tools due to their small size, low price, and general ease of use. They also come packed with accessibility features. In this guide, we’re going to look at how to enable and use these features, as well as provide users with some handy keyboard shortcuts.

How to Open Accessibility Settings

First, there are two main ways to access the Chromebook’s accessibility tools:

The Quick Access Menu

1. Click the time in the bottom-right corner.
2. Select Settings (gear icon).
3. Scroll down and click Accessibility.

Enable Accessibility Menu

This puts accessibility tools directly on the taskbar:

1. Go to Settings → Accessibility
2. Turn on “Always show accessibility options in the system menu”

Accessibility Tools

Reading and Display

A. Screen Magnifier (Zoom)

Go to Accessibility → Display & Magnification.

Turn on:

• Full-screen magnifier OR
• Docked magnifier

Shortcut:

• Ctrl + Search + M (toggle magnifier)

B. High Contrast Mode

Improves visibility by increasing contrast. Turn on in Display & Magnification.

Shortcut:

• Ctrl + Search + H

C. Select-to-Speak (Text-to-Speech)

Reads selected text aloud.

• Turn on Select-to-Speak
• Press Search key, then click and drag over text

D. ChromeVox (Screen Reader)

Full screen reader for blind/low vision users. Turn on in Accessibility settings.

Shortcut:

• Ctrl + Alt + Z

E. Reading Mode

Simplifies webpages for easier reading.

• Open Chrome → Click the side panel → Enable Reading Mode

F. Highlighting & Focus

Some Chromebooks allow:

• Focus highlighting
• Caret highlighting (tracks typing location)

Hearing and Audio Adjustments

A. Live Caption

Automatically captions audio.

• Go to Accessibility → Audio & Captions
• Turn on Live Caption

B. Mono Audio

• Combines left/right audio channels
• Useful for users with hearing loss in one ear

Motor Control and Mobility

A. On-Screen Keyboard

• Useful for touch or limited mobility
• Found under Keyboard and Text Input

B. Dictation (Speech-to-Text)

Type using your voice.

• Enable Dictation
• Press Search + D to start speaking

C. Sticky Keys

Allows keyboard shortcuts one key at a time.

• Turn on in Keyboard settings

D. Cursor Size & Color

• Go to Cursor and Touchpad
• Increase size or change color for visibility

E. Auto-Click (Dwell Clicking)

• Automatically clicks when the cursor stops moving
• Useful for users who cannot click physically

This document is also available in PDF format. Click here to download.

This post originally appeared on the AT Help Desk website.

Tags: apps, assistive technology, AT HelpDesk, Atlantic Regional Office