Thursday, September 15, 2011


Update: Improved accessibility for Google Calendar

Posted by Florian Niemann, Software Engineer (from official gmail blog)


Today we announced some of the updates we've released recently to make Google's applications more accessible to the blind community. Google Calendar now has new keyboard shortcuts and better screen reader support for our blind users. Members of the blind community can now useJAWSVoiceOver and ChromeVox to manage your calendars, create and edit events or simply browse your events. Here are a few examples of how screen readers and keyboard shortcuts work with Google Calendar: 

  • In your calendar lists, you can use the up and down arrow keys to navigate between your calendars. For each calendar in the list, you'll hear its name and can use the spacebar to turn the calendar on or off. To remove a calendar from the list, use the delete key.
  • In the agenda view, you can use the up and down arrow keys to move between events and use the left and right arrow keys to move between dates. To expand an event and expose the event details, press enter. To go to the event details page, type 'e'. To remove an event, press delete. Although agenda view provides the best screen reader experience today, we are also working on improved accessibility for other views.
  • In the guest list on the create/edit event page, you can navigate around using the up and down arrow keys. Use the spacebar to switch a guest's status between optional and required. To remove a guest from the list, use the delete key.
  • Additional keyboard shortcuts make it easier to use Google Calendar no matter which view or screen you're on. Type 'c' to create an event, '/' to start a search, and '+' to add a calendar.
For a complete list of keyboard shortcuts and to learn more about using Google Calendar with screen readers, please visit the help center. With these new accessibility features, we hope to make it easier for everyone to use Google Calendar. Please use this form to share your feedback directly with the accessibility team so we can continue to improve our products.