Chromebooks already have great screen reading capabilities built in...
Awww Google, how cute of you. Great? Nope. Next time, remember. Nothing about us, **without us**. ChromeVox has barely been updated in *years*, just like VoiceOver for Mac, and Narrator. ChromeVox barely has any options for fine-tuning verbosity, keyboard commands, pronunciation, and some keyboard commands, like Search + Control + A for accessibility actions, aren't even well-documented. I should know. I had to use an Acer Spin 713 for a good 3 months as my primary laptop. So kindly stop talking, then ask, then act before you speak further.
"Updated keyboard shortcuts and first-letters navigation in Google Drive"...
First letters navigation? Come on. Any blind person can *tell* that this wasn't written by anyone who uses these technologies.
And nowhere in this article is anything new for ChromeVox. See? This is the kind of, frankly, bullshit that I hate on GAAD. Just shut your mouth and listen for once.
https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/education/global-accessibility-awareness-day-2024/
@pixelate And braille is a complete train wreck! There is no clear documentation a complete disaster! Many of my kids are given Chromebooks by their school and the school will not purchase a Windows laptop for them. and they are often too poor to afford their own. I have spent a lot of time eyebrows deep in the bowels of Chromevox help and I want to stab someone from Google in the face right now!
@Pawpower Yeah, that's seriously the worst part. I was given that Acer Spin from my job. A good $699 machine, 16 GB of RAM, a great computer. Just, not great for blind people. But oh it's Google so it has to work well, right? Right? ...
@techsinger @Pawpower @pixelate ChromeOS I agree, but not at all regarding #android, remember the majority of #blind people globally are using android, iOS is only the majority in western europe and north america to start, and android’s #braille support is exceptional beyond the sole issue of HID bluetooth not working yet, which will befixed within the next few months, and currently that only prevents displays from #helptech and #humanware that are under 5 years old from working over bluetooth.
@dhamlinmusic @techsinger @pixelate I am deafblind myself, and I'm very interested in exploring the possibilities of android once they fix this display problem because I have HID displays only and I'm not interested in using an older one just so that I can use android and I do not want to use a display with USB while I am Walking down the street or otherwise moving. So I am eagerly awaiting this change.
@dhamlinmusic @Pawpower @pixelate Thanks for the information, but that hasn't been my experience at all with Android. If I may ask, what display are you using and do you encounter any of the issues below? All these have come up with a focus 14, a VarioUltra, and a Braille Sense U2. Some are slightly better than others as to the connectivity issue, which is basically that the displays will not stay connected across reboots and locks, and sometimes will not stay connected at all. I really don't want to use USB all the time, it makes things logistically more difficult. Honestly this is the biggest problem, I need reliable braille, and though iOS braille isn't reliable by any means, it's far more reliable than Android in my experience. Leaving that aside, I want speech and braille to be activated separately but usually to follow one another. Are both of these possible at the same time? Again, the input system for braille doesn't seem to work well on units with a keyboard. Generally, the whole thing seems to be walking on stilts, if I may put it like that, I'm just waiting for it to fall down and it usually does quite quickly. This is with Android 12 and 13, a TV box and a phone. The box is the one running 12. I'm comparing it to an iPhone SE 2020. What are you using for reliable and usable braille? Is there a specific phone/display combo which just works that you know of? Finally, you're quite right about the majority of blind users being on Android, indeed, android speech is still bad but has gotten better. However, the majority of blind users don't use displays and may not need them.
@techsinger @Pawpower @pixelate So I have used both a Pixel 6 and 7 running android 12-14, a Lenovo Tab M7 and M9 on android 11Go for the M7, and android 12 and 13 for the M9. I mainly have used an Orbit 20+ because that's what I have, though I know that @evilcookies98 uses a Bi40 with a Pixel 7. I have never had disconnect or pairing problems, it will reconnect after reboot no issue, and can be used to unlock the device each time without issue.
@dhamlinmusic @Pawpower @pixelate @evilcookies98 I'm sorry not to have answered this before, I've been on and off the PC recently. Thanks very much for the information, I no longer have an orbit, unfortunately, and have heard other good things about a pixel which may prompt me to get one. I appreciate knowing that there is at least one solution to one of the issues, particularly the most important of them.
@techsinger @Pawpower @pixelate @evilcookies98 Yep, the HID bluetooth update is coming later this year so most display should work at that point, and as for Pixel I would say either get a 9 this fall, or wait for the 11, the 10 will be first generation on google’s in house processors and we all know how first gen electronics can be.
@pixelate I mostly agree with you, but:
> First letters navigation? Come on. Any blind person can *tell* that this wasn't written by anyone who uses these technologies.
Here I think you're reading way too much into a minor grammatical slip, possibly by a non-native English speaker. Sure, this post was written on behalf of a megacorp, but it was still written by a fallible human, and we should be reasonable about minor mistakes like that.
@matt Yeah, you're right. It could be that.