Abstract:

Our objective, in two investigations, was: (1) to provide a listing of safe browser extensions for Google Chrome that are likely to be useful for college students with disabilities, and (2) to provide the results of an empirical study of students with and without disabilities about which browser extensions they use, what they use these for, and why they do not use more browses extensions. Our findings indicate that there are many potentially useful browser extensions that could support students with and without disabilities to do academic work. But it appears that these are not used with any great enthusiasm for school work. Indeed, our findings show that the most popular uses of extensions are for shopping, adblocking, and entertainment. We provide a listing of safe extensions that can assist students with disabilities, speculate about why these are not used more extensively, and make recommendations for accessibility service providers and for the browser industry.

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