Accessibility: ChromeVox HowTo

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ChromeVox is an extension for Chrome, made available directly by Google. The extension has one of the nicest sounding voices on Linux for screen reading, as it uses the Google voices you're possibly familiar with on Android devices. While it's not one of the most common screen readers, it should help to give you the general feel of what using a screen reader is like, and help to show problem areas on websites and webapps.

ChromeVox's default action key is shift+alt. All commands require usage of this key combo. (It can be changed if you prefer another shortcut.)

After installing ChromeVox, it is enabled. It can be disabled or re-enabled by using the shortcut key and the a key (shift+alt+a).

Use shift+alt+arrows to jump around on the page. Often, but not always, the unprefixed arrow keys can also work.

shift+alt+n, letting go of keys, and then a special key like ; lets you jump to the next ARIA landmark. Likewise, shift+alt+p jumps back to the previous item. (You can jump to links with shift+alt+n,l; tables with shift+alt+n,t; headers with shift+alt+n,h; and so on…)

Start reading a page with shift+alt+r. You can then navigate with shift+alt+arrows to jump around spatially. In reading mode, you're also able to directly click items to jump to that area.

Note: Knowing how to use ChromeVox, especially the reading mode and toggle shortcuts, is useful if you want to have any web page read out loud, even if you're not specifically using the tool for accessibility reasons. (This is actually an excellent example of inclusive design.)