For this post, I have decided to look at the assistive technologies I can find for Google Chrome, Chrome OS and Chromebooks, along with apps/extensions that might be considered assistive. To start with, I tried some Speech-to-Text apps and voice recognition:
"I'm trying to test this speech to text app . I'm finding that i have to speak slowly, and pronounce my words very carefully or not recognise the words . speaking this lonely is quite difficult than i don't enjoy doing kama it is making process of getting information into the computer slower and harder than i would be normal the avengers persistently mess recognises my location of the world, c o m n s . I would like to be able to say delete and have the word you said be deleted i still have to use my hands to do that ."
The App that produced this result was Dictation.io; it struggled somewhat with my accent I think! I two things that amused me were: 1) it didn't recognise the word comma in a sentence, 2) didn't recognise period in regards to a lesson. In a effort to get the recognition to realise I didn't want a comma or full stop inserted, I tried to speak quickly through the sentence; this had an effect but the recogition began to struggle with the speed.
I tried saying the same sentences to Google's Voice Search and I found that the recognition here was much more accurate and could deal with my pronunciation!
The SpeakIt extension for Chrome was very impressive. I used it on the various language settings and speakers on the different languages on Wikipedia - I was convinced I was listening to native speakers of the language. Highlighting the text and letting the extension read could be used not only for individuals with visual impairments but for first and second language learners.
The Chromebook comes packaged with an accessibility toolkit called ChromeVox. This is another screen reader that can navigate the browsers menus and can be set to read each letter or the whole paragraph by tapping the keys. What I found most interesting about this app was that it allows the alteration of the speed and pitch of the voice; higher pitches sounded younger and faster speeds allowed the page to be read faster. Depending on preference of the listener for young/old and male/female, a listener can engage more or less based on an environmental predisposition for a voice allowing them to access the content better. Learners with processing speed issues can use the slower speech in order to allow that to access curriculum better. J.J. Meddaugh of the American Association for the Blind comments on Chromevox on the association's site"
"Overall, the browser is able to decipher and present a variety of webpages with relative ease, which is probably one of its strengths when it comes to accessibility."Clearly there is some room for improvement where full accessibility is concerned but Google are on their way to meeting the needs.
"ChromeVox could use some improvements in speaking notifications and progress bars as it often gives no feedback, which can lead to confusion and frustration."
These were the typical app types and extensions available but I am interested in colour blindness as at least one student in each year I have taught over the last 10 years has had the genetic condition in some form. From my investigations, Microsoft and Apple do not have specific colour blind accessibility options so having the ability to enhance Chrome with Daltonize seems useful. The extension can be applied to a webpage and it will enhance the contrast of the colours that each of the three main colour blindness types need in order to better see the differences in colours: protanope, deuteranope and tritanope. I visited various image and colour heavy sites and tried out the extension; my student will test it to see if it helps him!
References
Meddaugh, J.J. (2013). A First Look at the Accessibility of the Google Chrome Operating System. Retrieved from: http://www.afb.org/afbpress/pub.asp?DocID=aw140502
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