Google just released a major accessibility-focused update that will be making life easier for users in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia. This update is available in Spanish. While the effort is limited to devices operating on Android 15 and higher, this step highlights our continued focus on user accessibility and experience.
The rollout brings Optical Character Recognition (OCR). This fantastic tool makes it a breeze for users to read text in a photograph, graphic, or screenshot. This new AI technology allows any device to understand words from images. It takes that text and translates it into a machine-readable format, making it easier for visually impaired people to access critical information quickly.
Besides that, Google has increased what its Gemini system can do, which was first rolled out in to TalkBack last fall. Gemini is an assistive technology that offers rich, nuanced descriptions of any image to a blind or low-vision user. Google used AI to automatically generate alt descriptions for images. When alternative text (Alt text) isn’t available, this makes sure users have a more complete experience of what’s pictured audiovisually.
Users can access this new feature in Chrome by tapping the three dot menu in the upper right corner. This straightforward interface makes it easy to access expanded image descriptions to encourage a more inclusive browsing experience.
Bringing features like these to Light shows that Google is really trying to live up to their continuing mantra of providing accessible technology for everybody. By leveraging OCR and Gemini’s capabilities, the company is responding to the needs of those who rely on assistive technologies to navigate the digital world.
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