Google Docs rolling out improved braille navigation and verbalizations

Google is working to improve braille support in Docs with a handful of new features today that cover navigation and output. 

It starts with a new keyboard shortcut — Ctrl+Alt+H on Windows or CMD+Option+H on Mac — to enable/disable braille support in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

When navigating with shortcuts, Google will announce where and what your cursor moves to: comments, headings, misspellings, and suggestions. Navigating lengthy documents and lists will also be more reliable moving forward.

In terms of speech output, assistive technology will verbalize images, misspellings, and grammar errors. The last update today deals with tables:

We’ve improved navigation and selection verbalizations when moving through tables and when selecting content, including announcing the entire cell’s contents. 

These five features will be rolling out over the coming weeks, and enabled by default for all G Suite and personal Google Accounts. The full release notes are below:

Please make sure to update to the latest versions of your assistive technologies and browsers to fully benefit from these improvements. 

• You can use the new Ctrl+Alt+H (CMD+Option+H on Mac) shortcut to toggle braille support in Docs, Sheets, and Slides. 
• When you use shortcuts to navigate, we now announce where your cursor moves to, including comments, headings, misspellings, and suggestions. 
• We improved the reliability of navigating through lengthy documents and lists. 
• Images, misspellings, and grammar errors are now verbalized directly by assistive technology.

More about Google Docs:

• Smart Compose, other web features coming to Google Docs, Sheets, & Slides on mobile
• Grammarly gets enhanced Google Docs integration w/ handy sidebar
• Dark mode arrives for Google Docs, Sheets, Slides for Android
• Google Docs Smart Compose and autocorrect coming to G Suite for Education