(Floe) Benchmarking browser add-ons & extensions for interface manipulation
Favourite extensions and add-ons have been bolded below.
Firefox
General portal: http://www.accessfirefox.org/
Description |
Website |
Key words |
|---|---|---|
Accessibar (works with old versions of FF, doesn't work with new versions yet) |
Toolbar |
|
Readability add-on for FF: "Strips out unnecessary page elements down to the main content of a web page and presents it in a simple, clean, and very easy to read format that is customizable." |
Styling |
|
Themes for firefox (including navigation button styles and sizes) |
http://www.accessfirefox.org/Firefox_Accessibility_Themes.php |
Browser theme |
Theme font and size changer |
Font |
|
Page zooming buttons for FF main navigation panel |
Toolbar |
|
JISC TechDis Toolbar and Style Sheet Wizard |
http://www.techdis.ac.uk/index.php?p=1_29_6 |
Toolbar |
Text to Voice add-on for FF: "It gives Firefox the power of speech. Select text, click the button on the bottom right of Firefox window and this add-on speaks the selected text for you... Audio is downloadable." |
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/text-to-voice/ |
Text-to-Speech |
NoSquint add-on for FF: "NoSquint allows you to adjust the text-only and full-page (both text and images) zoom levels as well as color settings both globally (for all sites) and per site." Uses responsive layout for full page zooming. |
Styling |
Opera
General portal: https://addons.labs.opera.com/addons/extensions/category/accessibility/?language=any
Description |
Website |
Notes |
|---|---|---|
Show/hide passwords |
https://addons.labs.opera.com/addons/extensions/details/show-hide-passwords/1.3/?display=en |
|
Makes access keys easier to see and read through |
https://addons.labs.opera.com/addons/extensions/details/excesskey/1.21/?display=en |
Keyboard |
Offers more options in the browser toolbar |
https://addons.labs.opera.com/addons/extensions/details/extream-fast-forward/1.1/?display=en |
Toolbar |
Offers user a hovering table of contents box at the top right corner of a webpage |
https://addons.labs.opera.com/addons/extensions/details/table-of-contents/1.2.2/?display=en |
Navigation |
Opens a link in a background tab on long press |
Mouse |
|
Can capture and display mouse movements on screen through a right click + gesture |
https://addons.labs.opera.com/addons/extensions/details/mouse-trail/1.21/?display=en |
Mouse |
Safari
Extensions started coming out in June 2010, when Safari 5 was released with extension support, so many are new or under development.
General portal: http://extensions.apple.com/
Description |
Website |
Notes |
|---|---|---|
On link mouseovers, browser status bar at bottom left corner displays URLs of links and visual icons for file types when it's a download link |
|
|
Type to Navigate: When user types a link that's displayed, it will come into focus and the user can press enter to open the link. If there are other links with similar text, pressing apple+G will advance the focus to the next link. apple+shift+G will shift focus to the previous link. |
Keyboard |
|
Invisible status bar: similar to ultimate status bar: on link mouseover, browser status bar at bottom left corner displays URLs of links |
|
|
Click to Flash: inspired by the web plugin, this blocks flash content from loading automatically. User manually plays flash content as they wish |
Images |
|
Mouse Gestures: user can assign commands to certain mouse gestures |
Mouse |
|
Middle-click autoscroll (already a built-in feature on Firefox) |
Mouse |
|
Image Block: blocks most images from loading on webpages |
http://www.slicefactory.com/browser-extensions/image-block-safari/266 |
Images |
Keystroke: allows user to customize keyboard shortcuts |
Keyboard |
|
Google Tool Bar: Adds a toolbar for google products/pages |
Toolbar |
|
Autopagerize: auto loads paginated web pages for continuous scrolling/browsing |
|
|
Macintosh Helper Extension: resets background colors and images to white so you can change the readability of the text on pages |
linked via http://extensions.apple.com, but the linked site doesn't have a download link for the extension |
Styling |
Access Keys: If a website supports keyboard shortcuts, this extension displays a toolbar that shows you what the shortcuts are for that site. Hitting Control+Alt and the specified key allows you to use the shortcuts. |
linked via http://extensions.apple.com, but the linked site doesn't have a download link for the extension |
Keyboard |
Exposer: give the user a preview of the content on the open Safari tabs, similar to Mac OSX Expose |
http://contact.maypril.se/ |
Navigation |
Instapaper Article Tools: adds a floating palette of buttons to articles that allow you to do various tasks such as go back, archive, return to read later, delete, and more. |
Toolbar? |
Chrome
General portal: https://chrome.google.com/extensions/featured/accessibility?hl=en
Description |
Website |
Notes |
|---|---|---|
Zoomy: changes zoom level of entire page's content according to resolution and browser size. Essentially zooms a website to fit the browser window automatically. |
https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/jgfonhdeiaaflpgphemdgfkjimojblie |
Zoom |
Allows users to load their own custom style sheets on Chrome (not a native browser feature) |
https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/pdfbjinabdohnegjnbfgdgohlhegamnm |
Style sheets |
Readability tool |
https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/jggheggpdocamneaacmfoipeehedigia |
Styling |
Type-ahead-find: searches and jumps to text as you type it into the search field (similar to the native search functions on safari and firefox) |
https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/cpecbmjeidppdiampimghndkikcmoadk |
Keyboard |
ChromeVis: allows users to magnify any selected text using either the mouse or keyboard. The magnified text can be displayed in an anchored lens (fixed box at the top of the page) or in a floating lens (floating box that hovers adjacent to selected text). User can customize the text and background colours of the magnified text |
https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/halnfobaneppemjnonmmhngbfifnafgd |
Zoom |
Keyboard Navigation: user presses comma to activate extension on a page. all links on a page will be displayed with annotations. user types annotations and corresponding link will be focussed. pressing enter or return will click/select the link. |
https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/abcekjakjehkpheoaadhkjfcdodpjbgk# |
Keyboard |
Smooth Gestures: allows a user to customize and use mouse gestures |
https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/lfkgmnnajiljnolcgolmmgnecgldgeld |
Mouse |
Change Colors: allows users to style their webpage display colours (fonts, background, links, etc.). Offers different font family options, ability to add custom fonts, show/hide images or animated images, keyboard shortcuts |
https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/jbmkekhehjedonbhoikhhkmlapalklgn |
Styling |
Autozoom: allows for users to save custom zoom settings for specific sites (allows for subsequent adjustment as well) |
https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/ocdkpkoaonnchdakgkmmcmnihhhgbjch |
Zoom |
TidyRead: improves readability, similar to readability extension. Offers a UI options toolbar at the top of the page though, with contrast, size, width settings and more. |
https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/emihmdgocahignhmlajgccbiaacoddej |
Styling |
Daltonize: can filter a page to show how images appear to color blind users and can "daltonize" the images to expose details in images to color blind users |
https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/efeladnkafmoofnbagdbfaieabmejfcf |
Color blindness |
gleeBox: offers users a wide number of keyboard commands (listed in the manual. see second website URL) |
https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/miinkdcjglbkbanpkghnkgkgbamdkgji |
Keyboard |
PlainClothes: offers users the ability to simplify and customize their web content colours, linked text, with a preview pane as well |
https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/kleiknekfnnaaibjhlamidabhmckbddc |
Styling |
Allows users to set the minimum font size shown on webpages |
https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/pofdgleodhojjnibdfnlapkadjepdnka |
Font |