On May 18, Google celebrated Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2023. On this occasion, Google announced a slew of new accessibility features that will help make the product and services more accessible to people with disabilities. The new accessibility features are available for Android, Chrome, and other services.
The most prominent among all accessibility features is the expansion of Google's Live Caption feature to Android tablets. The feature will come to Samsung's Galaxy tablet lineup with updates. Previously, the Live Caption feature was available on Android, Chrome, and Google Meet. This summer, Google has optimized the Live Caption feature for Android tablets with a new ‘captions box' as part of the rollout.
Galaxy phones to get Google Live Captions support in French, Italian, and German
Also, the ability to respond to Live Captions by typing out, which will be read aloud at the other end, is expanding to Android phones, including Samsung Galaxy phones. The Google Pixel 4, 5, and other devices are also getting Live Caption support in French, Italian, and German.
Moreover, Lookout is also cooking up a new Q&A feature that will use the Google DeepMind visual language model. This will help describe the images that do not have any alt text. Besides, people will be able to ask multiple questions about the image by either typing or using voice commands.
According to the blog, Google Maps will place the wheelchair-accessible place icon in a more prominent position. Also, Chrome can now detect URL typos and suggest websites based on corrections. Talkback in Chrome is also getting upgraded, and now it can analyze the Tab Grid with support for Tab Groups, bulk tab actions, and re-ordering.
Last but not least, Google has made the upcoming Wear OS 4‘s text-to-speech experience much faster and more reliable. And it will be followed by two new sound and display modes on Wear OS 3.
