Chrome Accessibility

There are many Accessibility options available with Chrome devices. This page gives an overview of the more commonly used ones, with links for information about further options. If in doubt, please ask a librarian for assistance.

(For general information about using Chrome, go here.)


Zoom in

Make everything bigger or smaller

Press and hold ctrl + shift, and press the Plus (+) or Minus (-) keys to make the view bigger or smaller.

Make just the current page bigger or smaller

Press and hold ctrl, and press the Plus (+) or Minus (-) keys to make just the current page bigger or smaller.

NOTE: On touchscreens, you can place two fingers on the screen and move them apart or together to adjust the zoom (ie the same way tablet and smartphone screens work).

Screen Magnifier

Magnify your whole screen

To turn magnification on or off, press ctrl + search + m.

Use the mouse or touchscreen to change the area that is magnified.

Magnify part of your screen

To use the Docked Magnifier to view part of the screen larger, press ctrl + search + d.

This will divide the screen into two parts: the bottom part is at the default size, and the top part shows a zoomed-in area where you are working

More information about zoom and magnification options.

High Contrast Mode

To reverse the colours on the screen (eg to reduce glare), press ctrl + search + h.

NOTE: Images will have their colours reversed also, and will appear like photo negatives.


Screen reader

The Chrome operating system has a built-in screen reader called ChromeVox. This will read all text on the page.

To turn ChromeVox on or off from any page, press ctrl + alt + z.


When turned on, Select to speak will only read text on the page that is selected.

Turn Select-to-speak on

Follow this easy tutorial to turn on the Select-to-speak option.

Use Select-to-speak

Once turned on, to use Select-to-speak press and hold the search key and select a line of text with your mouse or trackpad.

More information about how to hear text read aloud.

Type text with your voice

You can also enable a Dictation option, which allows you to speak text instead of typing it.

  1. At the bottom right, select the time. Or press Alt + Shift + s.
  2. Click Settings .
  3. At the bottom, click Advanced.
  4. In the "Accessibility" section, click Manage accessibility features.
  5. Under "Keyboard and text input," turn on Enable dictation (speak to type).
  6. Tap or click where you want to type.
  7. Select the microphone icon, or press search + d.
  8. Say what you want to type.

If you are planning to use the Dictation option extensively, chat with your librarian about the best area in the library to do this.

Go here for further support on all Chrome Accessibility options.