I’ve long promoted Firefox because of the many Firefox add-ons that help make web browsing accessible for individuals who require alternatives. I’m still a big Firefox fan.  Recently, however, I’ve been looking at Google Chrome. As it has matured, Chrome has become an increasingly accessible browser.  Chrome accessibility is enhanced by add-ons that are available from the Chrome Web Store.  While Google is working to make its products accessible, its ‘Web Store’ does not have an ‘Accessibility’ category.  This means you need to know what you are looking for so you can effectively search for it.  I’ve discovered and tested several helpful Chrome extensions, and I’m sharing the first of these today.

Speakit! is an extension that provides effective text-to-speech for selected text on any web page.  There are three ways to activate Speakit! and have it read the selected text

• Click on the icon that installs to the right of the address bar, near the top right corner of the screen.

• Use the context-menu by right-clicking the mouse

• Use a customizable keyboard shortcut.  By default this is ctrl + shift + s

Note:  Right-clicking on the Speakit! icon allows you to open an ‘Options’ menu in order to customize the keyboard shortcut or to make sure that Speakit! is enabled in the context menu.

Speakit! automatically detects and provides text-to-speech for all languages supported by Google, with the exception of Bulgarian, Japanese, and Arabic.