For the past two decades, Windows and Mac computers have largely dominated the consumer computing landscape. This was a good situation for the accessibility community since both of the major players can be paired with screen reading and magnification solutions to perform everyday tasks. Google aims to upset this balance of power with its Chrome operating system, a somewhat radical departure from what most computer users are accustomed to.
Chromebook, Google's take on the laptop computer, and the Chromebox, a small desktop unit about the size of a cable box, are starting to gain in popularity, especially in the education market. Rather than loading programs locally on the machine, the Chrome OS is web-based, meaning that just about all functions are performed from the browser, whether you are using Gmail to read your e-mail messages, YouTube to watch a video, or Google Docs to write and collaborate on a project. Because of this, Chrome machines include relatively limited computing power, similar that of a netbook computer's. To make it all sing in terms of access, every Chrome machine includes a program called ChromeVox, Google's take on a screen reader. We put a Samsung Chromebox model through its paces to see if Chrome and the screen reader are ready for prime time. While our experiences were gathered using the desktop model, a portable Chromebook would render similar results. Our testing was done using Chrome OS version 26, the latest available as of the time of this article.
The Hardware
The Chromebox is a slender piece of equipment that easily fits on a shelf, bookcase, or television stand. With a length and width of just over 7 inches and about an inch in thickness, its size is barely smaller than a Mac Mini. Weighing in at a bit under three pounds, it includes six USB ports (including two on the front), several video output options (including HDMI), and a combination headphone and microphone jack. No keyboard, mouse, or monitor is included, so you'll need to connect these if you wish to use them. We performed all of our testing without a monitor attached, an advantage sometimes enjoyed by desktop computer users who are blind. The on/off button is on the front left side of the unit and includes raised markings for easy location.
Initial Setup
The first time you start up a device running the Chrome OS, you are guided through several setup screens. ChromeVox includes a global shortcut for starting and stopping speech output: Ctrl + Alt + Z. We were able to successfully turn on speech and go through the setup process independently. One thing we immediately noticed about Chrome is its relatively fast boot time, clocking in at about eight seconds on our model.
The setup guides the user through selecting a language and keyboard type, connecting to a wireless network, and signing into a Google account. Chrome saves all of your settings and user information to a Google account, and you can create one if you don't have one already. If you have a Gmail e-mail address, however, you already have a Google account and can use this to log in. Google has chosen this approach so that users can save and retrieve their settings across devices. One could essentially walk up to any Chrome machine, log in with their user name and password, and use it as if it were their own device. This also extends to accessibility functions in ChromeVox, so settings like speech rate, for example, will be remembered across machines.
Once you complete the setup process, the machine is supposed to locate and download the latest version of Chrome so your computer will automatically be up-to-date. Unfortunately, no speech output was given to indicate that the update occurred.
Getting Help
After completing the setup, you are presented with a mostly thoughtful ChromeVox tutorial. I say "mostly thoughtful" because the first screen did not self-voice, and it would be quite difficult to know how to read the tutorial without being told first. For this reason, it may be a better idea to read the online tutorial on another machine. Getting past this quibble, the tutorial includes information on navigating through webpage s, changing the voice, moving through tables, and other commonly used keyboard shortcuts.
ChromeVox includes a Keyboard Explorer, which allows you to learn the layout of your keyboard. While this is useful, we were unable to find a way to press specific key combinations to learn their function. Aside from this, a list of ChromeVox keyboard commands is available where you can arrow through dozens of ChromeVox commands and their current key assignments. Additional help is also available from the Google Group and e-mail discussion list, which is monitored by Google employees.
Browsing the Web
Since the major functions of the Chrome OS are all web-based, we'll focus first on the browser experience. After logging in, you can press Ctrl + N to open a new browser window. From here, you can perform a Google search, visit the Chrome Web Store to download apps (more on that later), or type in a website address.
Navigation on the web is primarily performed using the ChromeVox keys plus another key or keys. On a Chromebox with an external keyboard, for example, the ChromeVox keys are Shift + Search by default. (The "Search" key is the "Windows" key on a standard keyboard.) To move through a webpage, you press Shift + Search along with the up or down arrows. On a Chromebook, the ChromeVox keys are slightly different. All of these commands can be modified or reassigned.
The browser includes a nearly full complement of accessibility shortcuts, including keys to move between headings, lists, and forms, commands to navigate tables, and a links and headings list to jump quickly to specific parts of the screen. Both verbal and audio cues are given to indicate various page elements, such as buttons and combo boxes, and tones are played to indicate progress while loading webpages. Overall, the browser is able to decipher and present a variety of webpages with relative ease, which is probably one of its strengths when it comes to accessibility.
The Chrome Web Store
Things start to get a bit more interesting when visiting the Chrome Web Store to download apps and extensions. Much like a smart phone, Chrome offers thousands of additional applications and extensions that can be used to customize your device. We wanted to test this out by downloading one of the additional text-to-speech voices for ChromeVox. After navigating to the page for the voice using the browser and selecting the "Add to Chrome" button, however, a dialog box pops up, which is hard to locate and navigate. Focus is not placed in the box, making it difficult to figure out what the next step is to install the voice. After fiddling around with some possible key combinations for a bit, it appeared as if I was finally able to install the voice, but no confirmation was spoken, making it nearly impossible to figure out if I actually succeeded. ChromeVox could use some improvements in speaking notifications and progress bars as it often gives no feedback, which can lead to confusion and frustration.
Google Docs and Drive
Like the rest of Chrome OS, word processing is performed entirely on the cloud using the web-based Google Docs interface. Google Docs allows users to edit and share documents with a focus on collaboration. In essence, one person could create a Google document and then allow others to edit it while viewing the changes in real time.
Upon opening Google Docs, you are placed in a typical word processing window and able to type and edit text. I was able to use standard navigational commands, such as using Ctrl + Right/Left Arrow to move by word, and ChromeVox spoke appropriately. I could also move to the toolbar to change the current font or add comments to a document. Not all common functions speak, however. When using the Shift key to select text, no indication was spoken as to what text I was selecting.
Perhaps the biggest issue with text editing has to do with speech lag and responsiveness. A fast keyboardist relies on nearly instantaneous feedback when typing, in order to quickly correct errors and move around the document. While typing, we experienced a quarter of a second lag using the default voice with ChromeVox. While this may not seem like a long time and is perhaps acceptable for web browsing, it can be a real time killer when attempting to type a long article. In other words, there was a quarter of a second delay from the time I pressed a letter until the time ChromeVox spoke that letter. This is an issue that is not unique to ChromeVox but one that must be tackled in order to ensure an effective and efficient screen reading experience.
Incidentally, by purchasing a Chromebook or Chromebox, Google provides 100 gigabytes of free storage for two years from a web-based file hosting service similar to Dropbox. This additional space is available by redeeming an offer on the Chrome website. After pressing the "Redeem Offer" button, a pop-up appears, which is not accessible, and ultimately locks up speech entirely, so I was not able to obtain my additional space.
Chrome OS Settings and Customization
ChromeVox includes some basic settings for customizing how text is presented, accessible from the Options menu. Simple adjustments like the rate and pitch of the voice are also available using hotkeys. The amount of punctuation that is spoken and whether characters are spoken as you type can also be adjusted. Advanced options like a user dictionary for fixing mispronounced words are not currently available, however.
The Future
The Chrome OS is in its infancy when compared to the Windows and Mac operating systems, and accessibility hurdles are to be expected. Google in recent months has become more proactive in improving access by launching a beta program and giving away dozens of free Chromebooks to users who are blind or visually impaired. If Google wants to seriously pursue the education market and, by all accounts, it does, it will need to improve accessibility to the Chrome OS. ChromeVox shows a lot of promise and potential and can become a fully-integrated screen reader as long as the entire Chrome development team is on-board. We expect all of the built-in apps of the operating system to work out of the box and to use a consistent and intuitive interface. While the web browser and parts of Chrome are quite usable now, much work still needs to be done. We look forward to the results and possible improvements from this beta program and will closely follow its development.
The Bottom Line
With models starting at around $200, Chromebooks are priced competitively with other low-end laptops. While the Chrome operating system includes a wealth of built-in accessibility with ChromeVox, we hesitate to recommend the Chromebook as an efficient day-to-day tool for most users. If you are seeking a low-cost machine to surf the web and check e-mail, then you may want to give Chrome a look. However, for much of anything else, including word processing, sticking to Windows or the Mac would likely be your best bet at this point. That being said, the development of ChromeVox has been quite rapid in recent months, and the viability of the Chrome OS for users of assistive technology could change quickly. If it does, we'll be sure to update you in AccessWorld.
Have you tried a Chromebook, or are you participating in Google's beta program? We'd love to hear your impressions. Send us a comment, and we may publish it in a future issue of AccessWorld.
