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Color Change App: Google

Review of the Color App for Chrome Books.

Google is slowly beginning to create accessibility features for people with visual impairments available in the Google Play Store that you can download for free.

The one that I will be focusing on today is called “Color Change App.”

To download the app, go to the “Google Play Store” and follow the below directions:

1. Click Download

2. Then find the picture of the paint can in the upper right hand corner in the search box of the Google Search box

3. Click the paint can and a drop down menu of color options will appear 

Features

The Color Change App gives the low vision user the option to choose from a variety of Google Search color options to make using the Google Search engine more accessible to those with contrast sensitivity. 

Review 

While it is great that the Color Change App is giving users with low vision and contrast sensitivity more options to make their internet experience more accessible, there are still some limitations and changes to this app that would make it even better for people with low vision and contrast sensitivity:

1. While the Chrome Books system voice over feature called “ChromeVox” works for most text displayed in the Chrome internet search, the app would be even more accessible for low vision audiences if the color options in the drop down menu box below the paint can were accessible with ChromeVox.  This would give the user an audio component to their options and possibly decrease the visual challenge of the task.

2.  It was helpful that the app was accessible with the Chrome Book’s system magnification feature.

3.  The color change options are only accessible in the Google Search window and results pages, not in the entire Chrome Book operating system.  The Chrome Book’s accessibility options could be better if these color change options were provided universally across the operating system.

Overall, I am grateful that the Google Play programmers created an app with as many color options available to people with low vision and contrast sensitivity that makes searching Google less visually fatiguing.  However, the app could be improved upon it could be used with ChromeVox or other voice over options.

By Julie Johnson

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