Chromebook Accessibility Setting Shortcut

Feature Request

We received a request to investigate whether or not it was possible to enable the Accessibility Shortcut on Glow managed Chromebooks.

East Renfrewshire Council agreed to participate in a 2 month pilot to make sure there were no issues with enabling this feature. This is crucial when enabling a new feature in a live environment.

The pilot proved to be a success and the Glow Team received the positive feedback below,

Feedback from the accessibility menu switch on has been great, the learners know exactly where to go to access the tools, and they know that the experience will be the same even on a different Chromebook.

Teachers like the ease of finding the tools and how easy it is to explain where they are.

It’s been a tiny change that has had a massive impact on those learners who are now routinely using the tools, as I know that they would have been put off by searching through settings menus to try and find the tools in the first place.

Thank you so much for all your help with this. I was in a school today demonstrating the features to lots of classes, and knowing that the menu was there when the children logged in (without having to trawl through menus) was very beneficial. As was confirming to them the next time they switch on, the settings will be there automatically.

Lots of smiles today!

National Feature Update

We are now delighted to share that this feature has now been enabled for all Glow Managed Chromebooks. Therefore, when schools return in the new academic year, they will be able to access the Accessibility Settings with one click from the bottom right hand side of the system tray.

Image demonstrating where you can find the accessibility settings and what's included once you click on the accessibility settings.

What’s included in the Accessibility Settings?

Text-to-speech
Type text with your voice
Display: 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