Google Chrome accessibility update

Google Chrome has come a long way in the past 3 years, and the improvements definitely extend to accessibility support. The Google Access team have been working hard to make Chrome more accessible to a range of users.

Google Chrome accessibility

You can read about the technical details of Chrome keyboard, low vision and screen reader support in the Accessibility Technical Documentation. Suffice to say from a technical view point Chrome is almost up there with Internet Explorer on Windows, but still has a way to go to reach Firefox’s level of accessibility support. On OSX and iOS it’s close to Safari’s level of support.  On Linux Firefox is still the only choice. The technical improvements strongly suggest Chrome is nearing practical support for users with disabilities, but that can only be confirmed by the users themselves.

Chrome still has a way to go in regards to HTML and ARIA implementation and improved support for new HTML5 features is required, but the commitment is there and the work is being done. The people responsible deserve congratulations for their efforts to date and the hope is it will continue apace. Like browser development in general, accessibility support involves continuous work.

Chrome Frame

Chrome Frame pretty much inherits all improvements in HTML and ARIA support found in Chrome. A notable exception is that it does not support Windows High Contrast mode as this is provided in Chrome by a High Contrast extension.

Further Reading

Categories: Development

About Steve Faulkner

Steve was the Chief Accessibility Officer at TPGi before he left in October 2023. He joined TPGi in 2006 and was previously a Senior Web Accessibility Consultant at vision australia. Steve is a member of several groups, including the W3C Web Platforms Working Group and the W3C ARIA Working Group. He is an editor of several specifications at the W3C including ARIA in HTML and HTML Accessibility API Mappings 1.0. He also develops and maintains HTML5accessibility and the JAWS bug tracker/standards support.

Comments

AlastairC says:

It would be nice if they tackle the issue of zoom not triggering media queries.

Steve Faulkner says:

Hi Alastair,

has it been reported as a bug?