Use Google Forms with a screen reader

When you use Google Forms, you can:

• Create forms and surveys to gather data and gain insights from anywhere.
• Select from multiple question types, reorder them, and customize each to fit your needs.
• Share your form through:
  • Email
  • Social media
  • Embedding it on a website
• Design and personalize forms to match your brand’s identity and make sure it looks great on any device.
• Have peace of mind with cloud-native infrastructure designed to keep your data safe and protected.

Introduction

This article is divided into sections with headings. To go to a specific section of the article, you can use the links below.

Topics

• Quick start
• Getting started
  • Learn the recommended browser & screen readers
  • Use Forms as a web application
  • Set up your screen reader
  • Open a form
• About the UI
• Navigate the UI
  • Use screen reader commands
  • Use keyboard shortcuts
• Complete common tasks
  • Add or edit items
  • Use the More menu
  • Adjust settings
  • Format, preview & publish form
• Review & analyze results
  • Check questions or responses
• Create a quiz
• Related resources

Quick start

1. On your computer, go to forms.google.com .
2. Open a form or create a quiz .
3. Add or edit items .
4. Format, preview, and publish your form.
5. When responses are ready, you can review and analyze your results .

When you edit the form, use the screen reader commands to navigate by edit field to each heading in your published form. Or, to move the focus:

• Navigate the buttons at the top of the UI:
  1. Press Alt+ s( Command+ Option+ son Mac) to move focus to the More button.
  2. Press Shift+ Tabto move focus to the other controls before the form.

• Navigate the “Settings” tab:
  1. Press Ctrl+ e( Command+ eon Mac).
  2. Optional: To open the “Questions” and “Responses” tabs, press the Rightor Left arrowkey.

To open the “Keyboard shortcuts” panel, and search or browse keyboard shortcuts, press Ctrl+ Slash( Command+ Slashon Mac).

Get started

Recommended browser and screen readers

Google Forms recommends Chrome and:

• NVDA or JAWS on Windows
• ChromeVox on ChromeOS
• VoiceOver on MacOS

Use Forms as a web application

To use Forms as a web application:

• Turn off the screen reader web browsing shortcuts. For details, go to Set up your screen reader .
• Use “Tab navigation” and some key Forms keyboard shortcuts to navigate and read instead of your screen reader’s commands. For details, go to Use keyboard shortcuts .

Tip:Sometimes, you should use Forms as a web page and use screen reader browser commands. We point out these times as they occur.

Set up your screen reader

To use Forms as a web application (reverse the toggle to use as a web page):

• JAWS:To turn off the “virtual cursor,” press JAWS+ zuntil you hear “Off.”
• NVDA:To turn off “browse mode,” press NVDA+ Spacebaruntil you hear a click sound like typing on a keyboard
• ChromeVox:To turn off “sticky mode,” quickly press Searchtwice until you hear “Sticky mode disabled.”
• VoiceOver:To turn off “quick nav,” press Left+ Right arrowkeys until you hear “Quicknav off.”

Open a form

1. On your computer, go to forms.google.com .
2. Open a form.
   • The keyboard focus is on your “Recent forms.”
3. To navigate to previous Forms, press the Right arrowkey.
   • Or, you can press Shift+ Tabto:
     • Open file picker.
     • Choose the sort options for your Forms.
     • Switch between grid and list view.
       • List is default and recommended.
     • Choose forms by owner.
     • Open the template gallery.
     • Start a new blank form.

Tip:To open a new blank form, in your browser’s URL bar, enter: forms.new .

About the UI

A new blank form has 2 items:

• Title and description
• Question

Above the form is a set of controls that are on the page of every form. These are the controls in order:

• Forms Home link
• The title edit field
• Move to folder button
• Star check box
• Help me create a form button
• Customize Theme button
• Preview button
• Undo button
• Redo button
• Copy responder link menu button
• Share button
• Publish button
• More menu button
• Google Account button
• 3 tabs with:
  • Questions
  • Responses
  • Settings
• A floating set of buttons to add items at the beginning of the form:
  • Add question button
  • Import questions button
  • Add title and description button
  • Add image button
  • Add video button
  • Add section button

Each item in the form starts with an edit field with the text of the title, question, or section.

Navigate the UI

Use screen reader commands

When a Form is published, to make navigation easy, each title, question, and section displays as a heading. However, when you edit each of these, these become edit fields instead of headings. So, use your screen reader commands to navigate by edit fields.

To show all other elements in the focused item like the “Formatting toolbar,” move the keyboard focus to the edit field.

Tip:Edit fields that are not titles, sections or questions will have published names like “Option value.”

Use keyboard shortcuts

• Preview the form:Press Ctrl+ Shift+ p( Command+ Shift+ pon Mac).
• Publish the form:Press Ctrl+ Enter( Command+ Enteron Mac).
• Navigate between elements at the top before the Form items:Press Tab.
• Navigate to the “More menu button” near the end of the elements at the top:
  1. Tab to a non-edit field.
  2. Press Alt+ s( Command+ Option+ son Mac).
• Navigate to the “Settings" tab:
  1. Tab to a non-edit field.
  2. Press Ctrl+ e( Command+ eon Mac).
  3. Press the Right arrowkey for “Questions” tab (Start of your form) or, Left arrowkey for “Answers” tab (Start of responses after you publish).
• Reorder questions:
  1. Tab to a non-edit field in a question.
  2. Then:
     • To move the question up, press Ctrl+ Shift+ k( Command+ Shift+ kon Mac).
     • To move the question down, press Ctrl+ Shift+ j( Command+ Shift+ jon Mac).

When the question is already at the top or the bottom of the form, these shortcuts have no effect.

• Insert the elements after a focused item without the use of the floating set of buttons:
  1. Tab to a non-edit field.
  2. Then:
     • Question:Press Ctrl+ Shift+ Enter( Command+ Shift+ Enteron Mac).
     • Title and description:Press Ctrl+ i,then h( Command+ i,then hon Mac).
     • Image:Press Ctrl+ i,then p( Command+ i,then pon Mac).
     • Video:Press Ctrl+ i,then v( Command+ i,then von Mac).
     • Section:Press Ctrl+ i,then b( Command+ i,then bon Mac).
     • Duplicate the focused item:Press Ctrl+ Shift+ d( Command+ Shift+ don Mac).
• Open a list of shortcuts:Move focus to a non-edit field, then press Ctrl+ Slash( Command+ Slashon Mac).
  • Optional: Enter a search term in the focused “Search keyboard shortcuts” combo box to reduce the results. From there:
    1. Toggle your screen reader to Virtual/Browse/Sticky/QuickNav mode.
       • If focus isn’t on the table, navigate to the next table.
    2. To hear the function names that match your search, navigate down the left column.
    3. To hear the shortcut, navigate to the right column.
    4. Optional: If needed, navigate back to the first column and continue.
       • Or, to explore matches in another category of functions, navigate to the next table.
    5. When you find your desired shortcut, toggle the screen reader mode.
    6. To return to the content, press Escape.

Tips:

• To browse all presented shortcuts without the need to perform a search, you can also use the steps above.
• To review all shortcuts in a web page, go to Keyboard shortcuts for Google Forms .

Complete common tasks

Add or edit items

In your form, you can:

• Add an item:
  1. Tab to a non-edit field.
  2. Press Ctrl+ Shift+ Enter( Command+ Shift+ Enteron Mac).
• Edit items:Tab to these fields or buttons:
  1. Title:Enter the item’s title like a question for your form.
  2. Question types:To choose a type of question for your form like multiple choice or short answer, in the “Question” drop-down menu:
     1. Press Upand Down arrowkeys.
     2. To select, press Enter.
  3. Question details:The question details change based on the question type.
  4. Action buttons:These buttons let you:
     • Duplicate the question
     • Delete the question
     • Make the question required
  5. Answer key (Only for Quizzes ):To choose correct answers, assign points, or add explanations, use the Answer key.
  6. More options:The “Menu” button at the end of each question allows you to select other options like going to a different section of the form based on the answer.

Use the More menu

1. Tab to a non-edit field.
2. Press Alt+ s( Command+ Option+ son Mac).
3. Press Down arrowkey for options like:
   • Make a copy
   • Move to trash
   • Pre-fill form
   • Embed HTML
   • Print
   • Unpublish form

Adjust settings

To open the “Settings” tab between the top buttons and the Form items,

1. Tab to a non-edit field.
2. Press Ctrl+ e( Command+ eon Mac).
3. Then, you can:
   • Manage response:
     • Collect email address
     • Allow response editing
     • Limit to a single response
   • Manage presentation:
     • Show progress bar
     • Shuffle questions
     • Provide a confirmation message
     • Provide a summary
   • Manage default settings :Form and question defaults

Format, preview & publish form

Use the buttons at the top to:

• Customize theme:To open the Theme panel:
  1. Tab to a non-edit field.
  2. Press Alt+ t( Ctrl+ Option+ ton Mac).
  3. Press Tabto choose:
     • Fonts for:
       • Headers
       • Questions
       • Text
     • Header image
     • Theme color and background
• Preview:To open the form in a new tab:
  1. Tab to a non-edit field.
  2. Press Ctrl+ Shift+ p( Command+ Shift+ pon Mac).
  3. When done, close the browser tab.
• Share:To share your form with collaborators:
  1. Tab to a non-edit field.
  2. Press Alt+ s( Command+ Option+ son Mac) to focus the “More” menu button.
  3. Press Shift+ Tabtwice to the Share button.
• Publish:To open a pop up to create the online form and verify or change who can respond,

  When published, press the same keyboard shortcuts to get a responder link.

  1. Tab to a non-edit field.
  2. Press Ctrl+ Enter( Command+ Enteron Mac).

Review & analyze results

For deeper analysis of the responses, you can get charts with response data or open the data with Google Sheets and other add-ons.

• Choose where to save form responses .
• View and manage form responses .
• Use add-ons, Apps Script, AppSheet, and Looker Studio .

Check questions or responses

To open the “Settings” tab,

1. Tab to a non-edit field.
2. Press Ctrl+ e( Command+ eon Mac).
3. Press the Rightor Left arrowkeys to choose between “Questions” and “Responses” tabs.
   • Questions tab:You can add and edit questions.
   • Responses tab:You can:
     • Set the form to accept or not accept responses.
     • Choose the destination for form responses.
     • Read responses individually or as a summary.
     • If you select “Individual,” to read the responses, you might need to change your screen reader to “Forms mode” or “Focus mode.” On the “Individual” tab, you can grade responses for quizzes .

Create a quiz

1. On your computer, go to forms.google.com .
2. Open a form.
3. To open the “Settings” tab,
   1. Tab to a non-edit field.
   2. Press Ctrl+ e( Command+ eon Mac).
4. Press Tab in the Settings tab.
5. Check the “Make this a quiz” checkbox.

Tip:To quickly create a new quiz, go to g.co/createaquiz .

To learn more about answer keys, grading, and sharing results, refer to Create & grade quizzes with Google Forms .

Related resources

• Publish & share your form with responders
• Use Google Sheets with a screen reader
• Use Google Drive with a screen reader