Student Resources
Browser Extensions to Improve Accessibility
Google Chrome offers many free extensions (found at the Google WebStore) to improve accessibility for content found on the web.
Five of our favorite extensions are: Pericles, Volume Master, Magnifying Glass (Hoover Zoom), Zoom for Google Chrome and Kurzweil Read the Web.
Pericles is a text-to-speech screen reader extension. It can be added to your Chrome browser, then accessed to have web-based text read aloud. Speed, pitch, and volume can all be adjusted with basic controls that are available for the extension.
Volume Master is a volume booster that can increase the volume by up to 600%. By adding and accessing the extension, you can use a simple slider control to significantly boost the audio volume for web-based content.
Magnifying Glass (Hoover Zoom) is a magnifying glass tool that allows the cursor to function like a magnifying glass and enlarge portions of the viewing area on the screen. By adding and accessing the extension, you can have a digital magnifying glass handy whenever you need it while viewing webpages.
Zoom for Google Chrome is an easy to use extension that can quickly zoom in to enlarge text on your computer screen. Zoom allows you to zoom in or out on web pages with ease.
For students who have a Kurzweil accommodation and account set up through DSPS, there is also a Kurzweil “Read the Web” extension that can be added to Chrome for text-to-speech of web-based content. The Kurzweil extension requires an account from DSPS (username and password must be inputted in order to use). Please contact DSPS if you have questions about accessing this resource.
