[FYI] Chrome Version 74 Accessibility Release Notes

5 views
Skip to first unread message

Laura (Palmaro) Allen

unread,
May 28, 2019, 8:06:01 PM5/28/19
to ChromeVox Discuss, chromebook-a...@googlegroups.com, chrome-acc...@googlegroups.com, axs-chrome-discuss, chromebook-acces...@googlegroups.com, Christopher Patnoe, Kyndra LoCoco, Austin Hertell, Lewis, Anil, Belanger, Karl, Erin Lauridsen, Mimi Lang

Hi everyone,


Hope you've been well! Chrome version 74 comes with a number of accessibility fixes and improvements across platforms. Here are some of the notable updates in this milestone.


  • Across Desktop Platforms

    • When focusing the tab strip (F6 on Windows, Ctrl+Back on Chrome OS) with a screen reader, tabs now announce their index (for example, 3 of 9).

    • The Task Manager (Shift+Esc) is now accessible with screen readers - you can navigate the table, pick columns to sort, etc.

  • Windows, Mac, Linux

    • Windows: fixed an issue with error messages associated with form fields.

    • Windows: improvements to loading time for some very large web pages, especially those containing mostly text and no structure.

    • Windows: improve experimental support for Narrator (use the --enable-experimental-ui-automation command-line flag)

    • Linux: improve experimental support for Orca.

  • Chrome OS

    • Fixed an issue with navigating to submenus with the keyboard in the File Manager.

    • Select-to-speak now provides better word highlighting with the built-in speech engine and any other speech engine that provides the length of the current word being spoken.

    • The Files app now lets you select multiple files with the keyboard

    • ChromeVox

      • New "speak text style" function

      • You can now use Search+Space to select menu items - previously only Space worked.

      • Having Select-to-speak and ChromeVox enabled simultaneously no longer causes problems with speech being interrupted when releasing the Search key.

  • Web Platform

    • Fixed issue where the number of items in a web menu was incorrectly counting hidden items.

    • Fixed performance issue affecting Slack.

    • Improved computation of aria-posinset to handle "flat" ARIA tree structures where all of the items are at the same level of the DOM.

    • Many improvements to screen reader accessibility verbalizations for built-in audio and video controls on the web.

    • Fixes to accessible API mappings for 'address'

    • Fixed issues with HTML tables where the thead, tbody, or tfoot elements were focusable.

    • Improvements to detecting row vs column headers in tables.

  • Android

    • TalkBack now announces when form fields are invalid.

    • Contenteditable text fields on the web are now accessible with TalkBack.

    • Turning TalkBack off now immediately switches the tab switcher from the simpler accessible switcher to the more visual switcher.

    • When doing a web search in the Omnibox, the "Refine" button in the auto-completed results is now accessible.



 Laura (Palmaro) Allen | Google | Chrome & Chrome OS Accessibility Program Manager | Pronouns: she/her

Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages