Google Chrome Accessibility

Here are a few tools which can be used in Chrome to help with reading and writing.  Here are instructions to get them and my reviews of them.

To Obtain Chrome Extensions:
1.  Go to Google Chrome Store.
2.  Search for the desired extension (ie. "dictation"0.
3.  Click the Add to Chrome button.

4.  Done!  An icon for the extension will be in the upper right corner of the Chrome screen.

To Manage your extensions (turn off/on or delete):
1.  Click the three bars in the upper right corner of the Chrome Screen.

 
2.  Click the Settings option from the pull-down menu.
3.  Click the Extensions link from the selections on the left.
4.  A list of your extensions will show up on the screen with options to edit them.

Here are the extensions....

Simple Dictation:  Covert your speech to text.

This Extension puts a microphone button in the upper right corner of the Chrome Screen.  Clicking on the microphone will open a window for dictation.  The dictation works pretty well.  It interpreted my speech as accurately as Dragon Dictation or Apple's Speech to Text.  The application interpreted my spoken punctuation and "new line" commands as well.

There is no STOP button.  The application stops listening and types when there is a pause in speech.  Therefore, it is not designed for essays or longer dictations.  I was able to get three or four sentences in, but only with a little pre-planning.  I wouldn't have been able to do this by stream of consciousness.  When speaking is resumed, the new text replaces the existing.  On a positive note, the applications saves previous dictations and it is possible to cut and paste them.

Once the speech is interpreted and the text is showing on the screen, there is one option:  "compose email".  The text can be cut and pasted into another document.

This tool could be fun to play with, but I think it would take a lot of perseverance for a student to use it for a writing accommodation.

Read & Write for Chrome

Once Read and Write is Downloaded, the Read&Write tab will appear above any Google Doc. It looks like this:

Click on the Read&Write tab to see a sub-menu:

Hover over each icon to reveal its function.  They are as follows:

Dictionary - Highlight a word and click the dictionary icon to get the definition.  Not only does the definition pop up, but it is in a very simple, readable format; highlighting the definition and clicking on the play button will read the definition aloud.

Picture Dictionary - Highlight a word and click the picture dictionary icon to see images relating to the word.  (In my test, this worked for dog, money, and plowed, but could not find an image for trudge or snowblower. ).  The images can be cut and pasted directly into the google document.

Play - Highlight text and click on the play icon.  The sentence being read will be highlighted yellow, while each word is highlighted blue as it is read aloud.  

Pause - Pauses text being spoken aloud.

Stop - Stops text from being spoken.

Fact Finder - Select text and click fact finder icon to initiate a web search on the selected text.  This feature worked consistently well in my tests.   

Translate - Translates selected text.  I was unable to determine how this is supposed to work.   Highlighting text and clicking on translate icon did bring up a dialog box with several choices for the word in a few languages.  However, I could not locate settings to change the language and the dialog box did not indicate what language each word was in.  I also tried to highlight a french word (fatigue) and choose translate.  It had the same effect as if it were in English.  This was not particularly useful and I could not readily find on-line documentation to help.

Collect Highlights - Use this tool to highlight multiple words or phrases and extract them to another document.  First, select each word or phrase and use the regular google tool bar to change the background color (or highlight).  Use one or more colors depending on how the selections will be organized.  Then click the Collect Highlights button.  All highlighted text will appear in another window for cutting and pasting. It can also be sorted by location or color.  

Vocabulary - This tool is used the same way that Collect Highlights is used.  Select each word to add to the vocabulary list by changing its background color.  Click the Vocabulary button to reveal a table showing each word, its definition, images of the item, and an editable field for your own notes.  This was pretty neat.

Here is a detailed video tutorial demonstrating use of the Read&Write for Chrome Extension: