Google Calendar gets a new accessibility feature for its web client – Times of India

Google has announced a new accessibility feature for the web version of Google Calendar. This new feature called Announce Shortcuts will help visually impaired users to go through their event details more easily. The tech giant has updated its blog post to explain how this feature will work and its availability across different accounts. Google has explained that these shortcuts can allow users to hear Calendar details on demand. This will help users to know the key details of their schedule without having to navigate through the whole information.
Google Calendar Announce Shortcuts: Availability
The Announce Shortcuts feature for Google Calendar has already started rolling out and is expected to reach all users before October. This new feature will be available for all Google Workspace customers including — legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers. Moreover, the Announce Shortcuts feature will also be available for people using personal Google accounts.

How will this feature work
The company has explained how users can avail of the Announce Shortcuts feature on Google Calendar. As per the blog, Google has assigned seven numbers (1-7 on the keyboard) for users to know different details like — title, date and time, guestlist and other details about any event.
These shortcuts will help Google Calender to announce the content of an event for those who use screen readers. On Windows, the shortcut is Alt+number (1-7) and it varies across different platforms.
Google has also mentioned that this feature doesn’t have any admin control and end users can view the keyboard shortcuts in Calendar by pressing Ctrl+/ (on Windows and ChromeOS) and Cmd+/ (on Mac).

To access Announce Shortcuts, use these keyboard combinations — Alt+ number for Windows, Alt+Shift+number for ChromeOS and Option+number for Mac. Apart from this, Google Calendar is also equipped with multiple other keyboard shortcuts that can help disabled users to have a better experience.
Google has continued developing new accessibility features for users who are visually impaired. Earlier, the company added improved announcements for braille comments and highlights that are available on the web version of Google Docs. the tech giant also recently started offering users more control over their accessibility preferences.

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