Accessibility Features For Everyone!

2 min readMar 20, 2023

Accessibility features are built into our tech to help those living with disabilities use technology more easily.

But here’s the thing: These features aren’t restricted to folks living with disabilities.

In general, I find that features that make things more accessible for ANYONE make things better for EVERYONE.

Here’s how YOU can use some of these features to make your life easier, whether or not you are living with disabilities:

Google Voice Typing

Are you a verbal processor?
Do you find it much easier to speak than to write?
Well, within Gsuite, you can access the “voice typing” feature which allows you to write document and even write speaker notes in your slide decks just by speaking.

Text to Speech Tools

What about the opposite? Do you find it much easier to take in information auditorily than via reading? What about using text to speech software.
Here’s a curated list of open source (free) software you can use for text to speech purposes.

Access the transcripts for your favorite podcasts

Is reading easier than listening for you? Do you love learning from podcasts?
Did you know that most podcasts also have a transcript available in the show notes?
And if they don’t, Otter.ai gives you 600 free hours of transcription a month.

Make the font bigger

On your phone, on your computer, on your Kindle, virtually anywhere there’s text on a screen you can make that text bigger and easier to read.

Closed Captioning/Subtitles

Create custom gestures

Do you want to make it easier to do a few key things on your phone? Add a task? Check your calendar?
You can create custom gestures to do exactly what you want. Here’s how:
On iOS you can do this via Assistive Touch
Here are some options for Android

What’s your favorite accessibility feature? (Teach me something!)

Originally published at https://www.alexishaselberger.com on March 20, 2023.