Turn on Chromebook accessibility features

You can make your Chromebook easier to use by turning on accessibility features that work best for your needs.

Step 1: Find accessibility features

1. At the bottom right, select the time. Or press Alt + Shift + s.
2. Select Settings    Accessibility.
   • Optional: To have quick access to accessibility features, turn on Always show accessibility options in the system menu.

Step 2: Turn on a feature

Choose the accessibility features that you'd like to use:

• Text-to-speech: Turn on the screen reader or Select to Speak.
• Type text with your voice: Turn on dictation.
• Display: Turn on high-contrast mode or screen magnifier, or change screen resolution or text size.
• Keyboard: Turn on sticky keys, on-screen keyboard, keyboard focus highlighting, keyboard repeat rate or word prediction. Learn how to type with your voice.
• Mouse and touchpad: Turn on navigation buttons in tablet mode, automatic clicking, tap dragging, cursor highlighting, or change the cursor's size or colour.
• Audio: Play all sounds together through all speakers or play sound on startup.
• Chrome Live Caption: Turn on Chrome Live Captions for media played on your Chrome Browser.

Tap and drag your finger to move objects

1. At the bottom right, select the time. Or press Alt + Shift + s.
2. Select Settings   Accessibility.
3. Under 'Mouse and touchpad', select Open mouse and touchpad device settings.
4. Turn on Enable tap dragging.

To use tap-to-select, double-tap the object and hold, then drag it to move.

Use keyboard shortcuts one key at a time

1. At the bottom right, select the time. Or press Alt + Shift + s.
2. Select Settings   Accessibility.
3. To enter keyboard shortcuts sequentially, under 'Keyboard and text input', turn on Sticky keys.

To use sticky keys, press Search , Launcher , Shift, Alt or Ctrl, whichever key starts the keyboard shortcut.

• To keep a key pressed until you finish the keyboard shortcut, press the key twice.
• To unpress a key, press it a third time.

Use buttons to navigate in tablet mode

You can use buttons instead of gestures to switch between apps and interact with your Chromebook in tablet mode. Learn how to change from laptop to tablet mode.

1. At the bottom right, select the time. Or press Alt + Shift + s.
2. Select Settings   Accessibility. 
3. Under 'Mouse and touchpad', turn on Show navigation buttons.
4. At the bottom, the buttons will appear.
   • To go back to the previous screen, at the bottom left, select Back .
   • To go to your home screen, at the bottom left, select the Launcher . Or press Alt + Shift + L.
   • To view all your open app windows, at the bottom right, select Show windows .

Get more help

To find out more about how to use accessibility features on your Chromebook, take a look at the Chromebook accessibility video series.