Looking for the Best Free/Cheap Visual Impairment Software for Chromebooks

[ultimatepie]

Hey everyone! I’m looking for free or budget-friendly software to help people with visual impairments on a Chromebook. Any recommendations for screen readers, magnifiers, or other accessibility tools?

 

Appreciate any suggestions! 👀💡

[PotNoodleTech]

We use Extension Read&Write from Texthelp for a handful of pupils - lets you do a lot of that kind of stuff some pupils just use it to change background colour, some use it for screen reading or highlighting etc.

 

It's not free but it's not that expensive per licence.

Edited January 29, 2025 by PotNoodleTech

[dhicks]

Hey everyone! I’m looking for free or budget-friendly software to help people with visual impairments on a Chromebook.

 

ChromeOS (and Windows and MacOS) have built-in accesibility options, are those not proving enough?

[ultimatepie]

just very basic

[kearton]

Deja Vu! I was asking the Chromebook hardware vendors at BETT last week if they had anything specific to offer for visual impairments, but the answer was no.

Basically, there are no real hardware solutions. (I was wondering about large key/screen versions etc?).

There is just the in-built ChromeOS offerings, like ChromeVox

e.g https://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/chromebook/accessibility/

[machy]

We push out something called "Eye-Able® - Accessibility Assistant" which works ok for what we need

ID: mpifhmmgeeofnfpehedbokjmlcgnlhbn

 

Soft recommendation as I'm sure there's better

[foofighterjim]

Interesting timing, I had quite a long conversation with Dell at BETT that it was disappointing that they only had a 10" screen Chromebook in their range, as with VI step one is usually a larger screen and then accessibility solutions on top of that. Acer on the other hand had a brilliant range of different types and sizes of Chromebook.

[TronXP]

Read and Write from Texthelp is worth the money. on a secondary note Acer support is horrible for Chromebooks

[PotNoodleTech]

Acer on the other hand had a brilliant range of different types and sizes of Chromebook.

 

And the hinges will snap after a year on every single one of them! AVOID!

[dhicks]

(I was wondering about large key/screen versions etc?).

 

We issue our teaching staff 14" Asus Chromebooks, a reasonably large screen for a portable device. You can, of course, plug pretty much any laptop / Chromebook into a desktop touch screen - we've just bought a 24" one for around £150.

[PotNoodleTech]

What desktop touch screen did u buy mr d hicks?

[dhicks]

What desktop touch screen did u buy mr d hicks?

 

This one:

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Touchscreen-Monitor-Speakers-Desktop-Computer/dp/B0D7C61KD5/ref=sr_1_3

 

I've not got it out of the box and set up yet as there's possibly a change of plan as to exactly what we're plugging it in to.

[mrstrong]

We use these:

ColorVeil

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/colorveil/bgbbjohpdmpalhmjeomfhepgomagjmfm

 

OpenDyslexic font

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/opendyslexic-for-chrome/cdnapgfjopgaggbmfgbiinmmbdcglnam

 

this used to be good but stopped working

immersive reader

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/use-immersive-reader-on-w/fmidkjgknpkbmninbmklhcgaalfalbdh