- Google is adding new accessibility features to Android's TalkBack and Chrome browser.
- The TalkBack function now integrates Gemini, making it easier to understand what's on the screen for low vision/bling people.
- Additionally, Android is getting Expressive captions while Google Chrome gets Text zoom and OCR capabilities.
It’s Global Accessibility Awareness Day, and firms are adding new features to their existing list of features. Meta just added descriptive Meta AI capabilities and Live AI. Similarly, both Android and Chrome have lots of accessibility features, and Google’s treating them with a few more to enhance the experience of those who suffer from hearing or vision loss.
In a blog post, Google announced that it’s imbuing its TalkBack service with Gemini powers. For those unaware, TalkBack is great for those with blindness or poor vision, as it speaks and describes what’s on the screen when users interacts. Gemini in TalkBack will help describe, say, an image on your Android phone’s screen. Similarly, users can also ask follow-up questions about the contents of the images or the entire screen.
Google’s Material 3 Expressive has been the talk of the town, but another expressive aspect coming to Android are captions. Expressive captions are available in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia, and can express the audio more accurately. For example, if there’s a sports commentary and the commentator says “Amaaaazing shot”. Instead of the caption reading “Amazing”, it will read accurately.
Chrome is getting two new accessibility features — Page Zoom and easier PDF access. Page Zoom will let you increase the size of the text on a webpage without zooming into the entire page. With OCR support like in many PDF readers, you can now copy and search for text inside a PDF opened via Chrome.
What are your thoughts on these new Accessibility features on Chrome and Android? Let us know in the comments below.
