Turn on Chromebook accessibility features
You can make your Chromebook easier to use by turning on accessibility features that work best for your needs.
Turn accessibility features on or off
- Sign in to your Chromebook.
- Click the status area, where your account picture appears or press Alt + Shift + s.
- Click Settings.
- Click Show advanced settings.
- In the "Accessibility" section, tick or untick the box to turn any of these options on or off:
- Show accessibility options in the system menu: Adds the Accessibility menu item to your status area.
- Show large mouse cursor: Makes the cursor bigger and easier to see.
- Use high contrast mode: Inverts colours to make text easier to read.
- Enable sticky keys: Holds down the accessibility shortcut keys (Shift, Search, Ctrl, Alt) so you don’t have to press them first every time.
- Enable ChromeVox (spoken feedback): Describes what is happening on the screen.
- Enable screen magnifier: Makes items on the screen bigger. Pan around to see them.
- Enable tap dragging: To move objects on the screen, double-tap and drag your finger.
- Automatically click when the mouse pointer stops: Click without pressing your mouse, touchpad or other pointing device. You can also choose the length of the delay before clicking.
- Enable on-screen keyboard: Shows an on-screen keyboard that can be clicked with a mouse (or tapped if you have a touch screen).
- Play the same audio through all speakers: Play all sounds together (mono sound) rather than separately (stereo sound).
- Highlight the text caret: See a coloured circle that fades until the cursor reappears or moves.
- Highlight the mouse cursor: See a coloured circle around your cursor while it’s moving.
- Highlight the object with keyboard focus: See a coloured rectangle around an object.
Set up accessibility features
For some accessibility features, you can change the settings depending on your needs.
First, turn on tap dragging by following the steps above.
Next, make sure the tap-to-click setting is turned on:
- Click the status area, where your account picture appears.
- Click Settings.
- Under "Device," click Touchpad settings.
- Tick the box to "Enable tap-to-click".
To use the feature, double-tap the object and hold, then drag it to move.
To click without physically pressing your mouse or touchpad, follow the steps above to turn on "Automatically click when the mouse pointer stops".
You can set how long your Chromebook pauses before clicking:
- Point your mouse at the "Delay before click" drop-down menu.
- From the list that opens, choose how long you’d like your Chromebook to pause before clicking.
First, press Search, Shift, Alt or Ctrl, whichever key starts the keyboard shortcut. Next:
- To keep a key pressed until you finish the keyboard shortcut, or until you unpress it, press the key twice.
- To unpress a key, press it a third time.
ChromeVox is your Chromebook's screen reader. To have screen behaviour described to you or web pages read out loud, hold down the Shift and Search keys (or Windows key on a Windows keyboard), then press the arrow keys to highlight the area you'd like read to you.
For your security, your Chromebook will not say your password out loud when you sign in.
You can turn spoken feedback on or off by pressing Ctrl + Alt + z.
To use a refreshable Braille display, plug the display into a USB port on your Chromebook, then turn on spoken feedback by pressing Ctrl + Alt + z.
Chromebooks support most refreshable USB Braille displays. If your display doesn’t appear to be compatible, please contact us at chromevox-discuss@googlegroups.com.
Casey is a Chromebook expert and author of this help page. Help her improve this article by leaving feedback below.