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Uncovering the Accessibility of Tabs in Google Docs

June 5, 2025 • Darrell Shandrow Hilliker

Starting all the way back in April of 2024, Google announced a new tabs feature for Google Docs, providing another way of organizing information in documents similar to that already found in spreadsheets. Soon after that, as the new feature rolled out over the next six months, a support article entitled Use document tabs in Google Docs was posted with all the descriptions and instructions necessary for sighted, non-disabled users to avail themselves of the new capabilities. As blind and other disabled people started to encounter documents containing tabs, we wondered how we would be afforded equitable consideration. It turns out that, in large part, we were considered, even if that fact was not documented. If you’re still reading, then, please stay tuned, as the rest of this article will weave together information from several sources to describe how keyboard-only and screen-reader users can choose, create and rename tabs using keyboard shortcuts and menu selections.

Let’s start with listing the useful keyboard shortcuts, then move in to specific, step-by-step instructions for each significant task.

Please Note: These commands assume that a Windows PC is being used with the latest publicly available version of the Google Chrome browser. They may be slightly different on other browsers and operating systems.

  • Choose the previous tab: control+shift+page up. Note: Though the contents of the newly chosen tab will be available, screen readers cannot announce its label.
  • Choose the next tab: control+shift+page down. Note: Though the contents of the newly chosen tab will be available, screen readers cannot announce its label.
  • Show all available document outlines and tabs in a list: control+alt+a immediately followed by control+alt+h. Note: It is absolutely critical that you either hold down both control and alt while typing a and h, or that you enter each separate command rapidly, as control+alt+h by itself enables and disables Braille support. If you hear “Braille support disabled,” simply press control+alt+h again to turn it back on.
  • Create a new tab: shift+f11. Note: Screen readers will announce “tab added.”

Now that we know the available keyboard shortcuts, let’s dive in to some of the most essential tab management tasks.

Choosing A Tab

There are two ways to choose an existing tab: directly using a single keyboard shortcut or selecting an option from a menu.

Choosing A Tab Using a Keyboard Shortcut

  1. Open a Google Doc that contains two or more tabs.
  2. Press control+shift+page down to move to the next tab after the one currently chosen. Note: Although the contents of the new tab will be available, its name is not provided for screen readers to announce.
  3. Press control+shift+page up to move to the previous tab. Note: Once again, its name is not provided for screen readers to announce.

Using Show Tabs & Outlines to Determine the Current Tab or Choose a Different Tab

Although there’s no way to determine the currently chosen tab using a single keyboard shortcut, there is a way to get this information through a menu, which also represents another way to choose tabs.

Determining the Currently Chosen Tab

  1. Open or create a Google Doc that includes two or more tabs.
  2. Press control+alt+a immediately followed by control+alt+h to open the Tabs & outlines menu. Note: Keep in mind that, if you hear “Braille support disabled,” you will want to press control+alt+h by itself to reenable Braille support.
  3. If the screen reader announces the “Show Tabs & Outlines” button followed by the number of tabs, press enter to open the menu. If this button does not appear first, then you will be immediately taken to the menu.
  4. Press Escape to leave everything alone and stay on the currently chosen tab, or see below for choosing another tab using this menu.

Choosing A Tab Using the Show Tabs & Outlines Menu

  1. Open or create a Google Doc that includes two or more tabs.
  2. Press control+alt+a immediately followed by control+alt+h to open the Tabs & outlines menu. Note: Keep in mind that, if you hear “Braille support disabled,” you will want to press control+alt+h by itself to reenable Braille support.
  3. If the screen reader announces the “Show Tabs & Outlines” button followed by the number of tabs, press enter to open the menu. If this button does not appear first, then you will be immediately taken to the menu.
  4. Press the up arrow and down arrow keys to focus and hear all the available tabs.
  5. Press enter on the tab you wish to choose.

Renaming A Tab

  1. Open or create a Google Doc that includes two or more tabs.
  2. Press control+alt+a immediately followed by control+alt+h to open the Tabs & outlines menu. Note: Keep in mind that, if you hear “Braille support disabled,” you will want to press control+alt+h by itself to reenable Braille support.
  3. If the screen reader announces the “Show Tabs & Outlines” button followed by the number of tabs, press enter to open the menu. If this button does not appear first, then you will be immediately taken to the menu.
  4. Press the up arrow and down arrow keys to focus and hear all the available tabs.
  5. Once you have found the tab you wish to rename, press the tab key to move to the “Tab options” button menu and press the space bar to open it.
  6. Press down arrow until Rename is selected, then press enter to choose this option.
  7. Enter or edit the tab’s name and press enter to make the change.
  8. Press Escape to close the Tab options menu.

Adding A New Tab

When adding a new tab to a document, it is created at the end of the existing tabs regardless of where you are editing. This means that, if a document already has four tabs, a new tab would be labeled “Tab5” which would be the last option in the Show tabs & outlines menu and the last tab visually displayed.

  1. Create or open a Google Doc that has at least one tab defined. In most cases, this will be true of all documents as of the June 2025 date this article was originally published.
  2. Press shift+f11 (as described on a Windows PC running Google Chrome). Observe that the screen reader will announce “tab added” and you will return to the place where you were editing.

There are other features in the Show tabs & outlines and Tab options menus, such as adding, duplicating and deleting tabs, which work in exactly the same way as everything that has already been documented, so they will not be covered in this article.

While there are accessible ways to manage tabs in Google Docs, it would be very nice to see Google documenting them as they have done many other capabilities, including docs and editors themselves. It would also be very nice if they enabled the screen-reader announcement of the currently chosen tab after the control+shift+page up or control+shift+page down commands were pressed. If you agree, please be sure to Contact the Google Disability Support Team to directly request these critical positive changes.

Citations

Please Note: While I am including the accessibility-specific citations for the sake of completeness, they do not document tabs functionality as of the writing of this article in June 2025.

Categories: accessibility, documentation, guides, technology, tips, web accessibility
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F6 Is Your Friend

June 20, 2021 • Darrell Shandrow Hilliker

From enterprise collaboration software to web browsers, the little-known F6 keyboard shortcut can do many things that make our lives as blind computer users much easier and more productive.

In Slack F6 moves between the major portions of the window, such as channel navigation and workspace selection. It is, in fact, virtually impossible to access critical functionality, such as channels and direct messages, without pressing F6. Please review the Use Slack with a Screen Reader article for additional documentation. J.J. Meddaugh’s fantastic AccessWorld article An Introduction to Slack, A Popular Chat App for Teams and Workplaces provides a great starting point for using Slack from a blind user’s perspective.

In the Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox web browsers, F6 jumps out of the address bar and moves focus directly into the currently loaded web page with the screen reader’s browse mode or virtual PC cursor active and ready for immediate action. It is not necessary to press tab several times to move through the browser’s toolbar.

In Microsoft Office apps, such as Excel, Outlook and Word, F6 moves focus between major elements of the window, such as the ribbon bar, list of messages, document area and the status bar.

Let’s discover together all the additional productivity boosts we can achieve through keyboard shortcuts like F6. What is your favorite keyboard shortcut? How does it increase your productivity?

Please tell us how you and your family are handling social distancing, feeding yourselves, vaccination and generally getting along, especially from a blind perspective, as we move out of the time of the Coronavirus. Please send an audio recording or a written message to darrell (at) blindaccessjournal (dot) com or tell us about it on our social media channels.

Blind Access Journal, and the Hilliker family, must frequently rely on sighted assistance in order to get important, inaccessible tasks done. In most cases, we have chosen Aira as our visual interpreter. If you are ready to become an Aira Explorer, and you feel it in your heart to pass along a small gift to the journal or our family, we ask that you use our referral link. Your first month of Aira service will be free of charge, we will receive a discount on our bill and we will thank you for supporting the important work we do here at Blind Access Journal.

If you use Twitter, let’s get connected! Please follow Allison (@AlliTalk) and Darrell (@darrell).

Categories: accessibility, assistive technology, documentation, technology, tips
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Inaccessibility in the Hospital: The Adventures of My Daughter’s Fourth Eye Surgery

May 20, 2016 • Darrell Shandrow Hilliker

My four-month-old daughter is sleeping, so, in belated celebration of Global Accessibility Awareness Day, I thought I would describe our experience with her fourth Glaucoma surgery from an accessibility point of view.

Before I get started, let me say that I think Phoenix Children’s Hospital always treats my daughter very well and provides her with excellent care. I also believe the staff at the hospital do the best they know how to make the experience as accessible and pleasant as possible.

Allison, Allyssa and I arrived at Phoenix Children’s Hospital one hour before Allyssa’s scheduled surgery start time of noon. As we have done with previous surgeries, we contacted the hospital’s Language Services department to request accessible, electronic copies of Allyssa’s discharge instructions and medical records. As has been the case for previous surgeries, we agreed to receive a secured email containing the discharge instructions prior to leaving the hospital, followed by the remaining records tomorrow.

In order to check our daughter in for surgery, I initialed and signed several pieces of paper, including consent, financial responsibility and health insurance documents, without fully reading their contents. The person at the front desk simply provided me a one- or two-sentence summary of each document. There wasn’t enough time to fully read each piece of paper.

A screen in the waiting room displayed the status of Allyssa’s surgery, without any alternative means of independently obtaining the same information.

When our daughter had recovered sufficiently to be discharged, an initial miscommunication almost resulted in our failure to receive the promised accessible instructions. It was difficult for the nurses to understand why we were insisting we could not simply wait until tomorrow to receive our discharge instructions from medical records. Advocacy and awkward conversations with supervisors were required in order to make sure we received the same instructions regularly afforded sighted patients without incident.

In this case, everything turned out fine. No service was denied, Allyssa recovered without incident and we went home with accessible, easy-to-read follow-up care information.

So, you may ask, why am I bothering to write about this incident if, in the scheme of all things inaccessible, this situation enjoyed a happy ending? I am doing so to point out the difference between accommodation and accessibility, and to suggest ways of implementing realistic solutions that value and serve the needs of everyone, including people with disabilities.

As things stand right now, when Phoenix Children’s Hospital receives an accessibility request like ours, it is handled through the Language Services department as an accommodation, similar to situations where a translator is needed in order to help someone who does not understand English. In that framework, my requests for universal accessibility are met with shrugs, because I appear to be asking for nothing less than a perpetual universal translator to automatically convert all printed materials into Braille on the fly. Obviously, I am not requesting such an unrealistic solution, but my inability to successfully communicate this fact to those who may be able to change things for the better means overall accessibility for all patients remains at a standstill.

So, now that we know what’s not wanted, what would represent a better solution that embraces true accessibility, rather than just slapping on another Band-Aid?

I am asking Phoenix Children’s Hospital to make the following changes in order to improve the accessibility of their services for everyone:

  • Insure all the hospital’s websites, including bill pay and patient portal, meet internationally-recognized accessibility standards such as WAI-ARIA and WCAG and undergo regular user-acceptance testing by a diverse group of stakeholders for ongoing accessibility.
  • Insure the secure email system is being operated by a vendor with a deliberate, publicly stated commitment to accessibility.
  • Implement techniques to create or generate all PDF documents in ways that meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
  • Provide accessible display screens and kiosks, or supply similarly proactive alternatives, such as smart phone apps and text messages, that work for everyone, including people with disabilities.
  • Enact clear policies and procedures for positively and proactively handling accessibility requests from employees, patients and the general public as appropriate.
  • Train staff to value accessibility and understand the difference between it and reasonably accommodating a request for a service such as language translation.
Categories: accessibility, advocacy, documentation, opinion, PDF
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