Tutorial: Using the Google Chrome Browser with JAWS or NVDA

This tutorial has been written by Mr. David Moore and done with the latest update of Google Chrome.

I will also use JAWS 18 and NVDA 2017.2 for this tutorial, because they both work the same in Chrome.

Finally, I will use Windows 10 Creators Update latest public build.

I will assume that you have downloaded and installed Chrome.

There should be a shortcut on your desktop.

First, I will launch Chrome. We will not create a home page until we get to the Chrome settings web page.

This is a lot like the Options page in Firefox, or the Options dialog in IE.

Pressing the Alt key, opens the one and only, Chrome menu, with many choices that I will arrow down through.

The first very important step, is to press Windows+up arrow to maximise the window. Chrome often opens with the window not maximise, and you will get undesirable

results.

I will press the Alt key.

The Chrome menu is open.

I will press insert+up arrow to hear the first option in this menu.

New Tab, CTRL+T.

You can press that command right from the web site you are on.

New Window, CTRL+N

You can press these commands right from your web page, instead of coming here.

New incognito Window.

History sub menu.

I will press right arrow here to see what is in this sub menu!

History, CTRL+H

So, there is a key command for reading your history.

You can read a few sites you were on right here.

I will press left arrow to close this history sub menu.

Downloads, CTRL+J

There is the command for opening your downloads you have downloaded with Chrome.

Next, the important Bookmarks sub menu.

I will press right arrow, to open this.

I hear, bookmark this page, CTRL+D

That command will bookmark the page you are reading.

Next down arrow, says show bookmarks bar, CTRL+Shift+B That command, will show your bookmarks on your Chrome browser for all to see. I do not want that.

Here is the important one.

manage bookmarks

The command is, CTRL+Shift+O

In here, you can organize your bookmarks into folders, see the bookmarks you have imported from different browsers, and very importantly, you can download,

to your computer, an HTML file of all of your bookmarks in Chrome.

On your computer, you can press enter on this file, after it downloads, and a page will show up in Chrome with a list of all bookmarks you have saved in

Chrome. This is an awesome way to download all of your bookmarks right to your computer, so you can back them up.

That is all for manage bookmarks.

Next, I hear import bookmarks and settings.

press enter on this, and you can import all bookmarks and settings from IE, and Firefox, right into Google Chrome, and they will be in their corresponding

folders.

Now, I hear all of my saved bookmarks as I continue to arrow down.

Very important!

Sometimes, when I open that bookmarks sub menu, I do not land on the choices I mension here, but instead, I start hearing my saved bookmarks. If this happens,

I press up arrow a few times, and it gets me to these choices.

Keep in mind, that many of these choices, like bookmark manager, have key commands, so you do not have to come to this bookmarks sub menu at all. You only

need to come here most of the time, to arrow through your saved bookmarks, and enter on the desired one.

The next few are very self explanatory.

The next one I will mension, is the more tools submenu.

I will press right arrow on this.

I hear Save Page as, and the command, CTRL+S.

Next, Save to desktop.

This allows you to save the favorite of the page right to your desktop. This is how you do this in Chrome, instead of doing this in the file menu in IE.

It is hidden under this more tools submenu.

Clear Browsing data, and there is the key command, CTRL+Shift+Delete key.

Extentions, In here, you can add extentions, delete extentions and so on.

These are the same as add ons, in IE.

They are called Extensions in Chrome.

The last two that I will mention, are settings, and the help sub menu.

Now, we will press enter on settings, and a web like page will open where the virtual cursor will turn on with JAWS, and NVDA will be in Brows mode.

First, on this page, there is an edit field to search for a setting to change.

You can simply press enter to get into forms mode with JAWS or focus mode with NVDA, and sign into Chrome with your email and password associated with

your Google Account.

This is very accessible now; a year ago, it was not.

Now, you can press enter on sync.

There is a combo box here, and I chose to sync everything that I bookmark and my history in Chrome to all devices. I can get on another computer, and all

of my bookmarks are on that second computer, for example. That is very powerful.

You can import bookmarks and settings here, just like you could under the Bookmarks sub menu.

Now, we have a series of headings, that you can just press H for heading, to get to.

Now, under the appearance heading, You first have themes, which I did nothing with.

Next, you can open the Chrome web store. You can get hundreds of extentions, and more.

Show Home, Here is where you can see what you set your home page to.

Now, there are two radio buttons, and I chose the one to enter with a custom web address.

Now, go to the search engin heading.

This is a heading.

There are headings on this settings page.

I chose to use Google search engin in the address bar. This is a combo box.

The next heading, is on start up.

Finally, here is where you set up your home page.

There are three radio buttons here.

I chose the third one, to open a selected page or selected pages.

Next, I was able to enter:

www.Google.Com.

That is my home page that will open each time I start Chrome.

Next, you get to the heading advanced settings.

You have to press enter on this, to open it up, because it is collapsed.

As soon as you press enter, you down arrow to:

Privacy and settings heading.

Each of these buttons, say clickable.

Here, press enter to check, or to uncheck.

When you press enter, you will hear JAWS go into forms mode and NVDA go into focus mode, so just press enter again. So really, you press enter twice to

check, or enter twice to uncheck.

Next, there is:

Passwords and forms heading.

Press enter twice here on each clickable button to check or to uncheck.

Languages, I do nothing with that.

Downloads.

This is where you set where you want your downloads to go, and you can set whether you want to be prompted each time you download something.

I definitely want the prompt.

I do nothing with the Printing or accessibility headings.

The System heading, you can turn on or off open proxy settings.

Lastly, there is the reset heading, with a button to enter on that will reset Chrome back to its default settings.

That is it for settings.

Notice, we made a lot of changes under the advanced settings. You cannot see these, unless you press enter to expand these.

Now, just press CTRL+F4 or CTRL+W to get out of this settings page, and go back to Google Chrome. The settings page, opens in a new tab in Chrome, that

is why you can press CTRL+F4 or CTRL+W to get out of it.

Now, press the Alt key again. Up arrow once to get to the end of the menu where we were with the settings.

You see exit, up arrow and you see the help sub menu, right under the settings choice.

I press right arrow on this help sub menu, and you can enter on the help center to get a lot of help using Chrome.

To open a web site, just press CTRL+L or Alt+D and type the URL.

Chrome for me, is so much quicker with web sites that involve streamming TV and Watching movies, and so on.

For me, Chrome opens large news sites very quickly compared to IE.

Lastly, All JAWS and NVDA navigation key commands work in Chrome. For example, you can press F7 to open a list of links with JAWS, and the elements list

with NVDA. All of that is the exact same.

 

List of google chrome shortcuts

 

.

Shortcut Keys Description
Alt+Home Open your homepage.
Alt+Tab Toggle between browser windows
Alt+Left Arrow Back a page.
Alt+Right Arrow Forward a page.
F11 Display the current website in full-screen mode. Pressing F11 again will exit this mode.
Esc Stop page or download from loading.
Ctrl+(- or +) Zoom in our out of a page ‘-‘ will decrease and ‘+’ will increase. Ctrl+0 will reset back to default.
Ctrl+1-8 Pressing Ctrl and any number 1 through 8 will move to the corresponding tab in your tab bar.
Ctrl+9 Switch to last tab.
Ctrl+0 Reset browser zoom to default
Ctrl+Enter Quickly complete an address. For example, type computerhope in the address bar and press Ctrl+Enter to get https://www.computerhope.com.
Ctrl+Shift+Del Open the Clear Data window to quickly clear private data.
Ctrl+Shift+B Toggle the bookmarks bar between hidden and shown
Ctrl+A Select everything on a page
Ctrl+D Add a bookmark for the page currently opened.
Ctrl+F Open the “find” bar to search text on the current page
Ctrl+O Open a file in the browser
Ctrl+Shift+O Open the Bookmark manager.
Ctrl+H Open history in a new tab
Ctrl+J Display the downloads window
Ctrl+K or Ctrl+E Perform a Google search
Ctrl+L Move the cursor to the browser address bar and highlight everything in it.
Ctrl+N Open New browser window.
Ctrl+Shift+N Open a new window in incognito (private) mode.
Ctrl+P Print current page or frame.
Ctrl+R or F5 Refresh the current page or frame.
Ctrl+S Saves the current page
Ctrl+T Opens a new tab.
Ctrl+U View a web page’s source code
Ctrl+W Closes the currently selected tab.
Ctrl+Shift+W Closes the currently selected window.
Ctrl+Shift+T Reopens the last tab you’ve closed (up to 10).
Ctrl+Tab Moves through each of the open tabs.
Ctrl+Left-click Open the link in a new tab in the background
Ctrl+Shift Left-click Open the link in a new tab and switch to the new tab
Spacebar Moves down a page at a time.
Shift+Spacebar Moves up a page at a time.
Home Go to top of page
End Go to bottom of page
Alt+Down Arrow Display all previous text entered in a text box and available options on a drop-down menu.

 

 

This is the end of the tutorial.