To mark Global Accessibility Awareness Day, Google
unveiled a collection of new accessibility features
features, including AI-powered, personality-driven settings for users’ most popular assistive tools. These updates aim to enhance the usability of Android and Chromebook devices, making them more accessible to people with disabilities.
Earlier this week, Google also launched new AI-driven scam protection features in Chrome browsers, signaling another move towards changing how people view technology’s impact on their everyday activities.
For Android users, Google is enhancing the Talkback experience — its screen reader tool for those who are blind or have low vision — with new Gemini features. These updates will allow users to ask questions about the descriptions provided by Talkback, providing live information about what is on the screen by asking specific questions while using the tool.
Google first introduced Gemini for Talkback in 2024, aiming to provide support for onscreen images that lack alt text, making it more accessible for users to interact with visual content.
More Human Captions
Moreover, Google is refining its Expressive Captions feature. Launched in December, this tool offers enhanced captions that capture not only speech but also vocal expressions and emotional nuances, including gasps, elevated tones, and ambient noises. The upcoming update will build upon this by incorporating additional elements such as the speaker’s distinct pronunciation styles—such as stretched vowels—or prolonged sounds, along with expanded descriptions of auditory cues like whistles.
For Chromebooks, Google is collaborating with College Board—the non-profit organization responsible for managing AP exams, SATs, and college admission processes—to incorporate its accessibility tools into the Bluebook test application. This partnership enables students to utilize their Chromebook’s supportive functions, like screen readers and magnifiers.
ChromeVox screen reader
And Dictation, when participating in a College Board exam.
Furthermore, mobile Chrome users can now use the Page Zoom feature to zoom in on just the text of a webpage, rather than the entire screen. Additionally, Google is introducing Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for PDFs, allowing screen readers to interact with and understand scanned PDFs.
Featured image credit: Needpix
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