[vi-android] Re: A Review of BIG Launcher, the Android App with Seniors in Mind - AccessWorld? - November 2013

  • From: Quentin Christensen <quentin.christensen@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: vi-android@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2013 15:12:54 +1100

Hi Aaron,

It's certainly a tricky scenario, as while there are a lot of great apps
around with nice large print, there are more which seem to expect that
everyone can read 6pt font!

For myself day to day I actually don't usually need Talkback, I can
actually read about 16 point, or even smaller for brief periods,
particularly if I'm wearing my high magnification reading glasses.

When I do use Talkback - often when I'm reviewing apps - what I tend to do
is turn Talkback on, then press the home key and try to keep Talkback in
the recent apps so I can then bring up the list of recent apps, and select
Talkback settings to get to it to turn it off.

I was using Big Launcher on my older phone (Galaxy Nexus).  I have switched
to Lightning Launcher on the note II though I do miss the larger text from
some areas of Big Launcher.

I actually started my blog to document my experiences with finding the best
large print setup although because of the interest in Talkback I do make
sure to try and test things with that as well.  My blog is at
http://qchristensen.wordpress.com/

To answer the question, in general what I've done is get a phone with a
large screen (Galaxy Note II though the note 3 and Galaxy Mega are out now
and bigger), use a launcher with larger icons and look for apps with large
print.  For a lot of things I can get apps with large print (Lemo memo for
notes, tweetdeck for twitter, aqua mail for mail, chrome for internet, Moon
Reader for reading books, and various easy to see games).  It's not ideal -
there are still a number of things which are small regardless.
Interestingly at the moment, while my Note II is still on Android 4.1.2, I
can use font size setter to make the fonts on a lot of things larger,
though I don't have the magnifier yet (it came in 4.2) - but when I get the
4.3 update (which the note II is due for by the end of the year now), I'll
have the magnifier but won't be able to adjust the font size beyond the
font size option in the accessibility settings (which in my opinion are
minimal at best).

Regards

Quentin.



On 20 November 2013 13:37, Aaron <blindgeek1989@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Quentin,
> With being a low vision user both of us are in the same boat as far as
> being between two worlds. How do you cope with using your vision to see
> things on your phone and also when you need to use talkback? Do you find it
> annoying to have to suspend talkback and then pull down the notification
> screen to pull it back up? How do you deal with reading small print on the
> screen  and just using your phone in general? I’m still trying to figure
> this out.
> Thanks,
> Aaron Linson
> Producer of The Cast Podcast <http://www.blindpodcaster.com>
>
> On Nov 19, 2013, at 8:18 PM, Quentin Christensen <
> quentin.christensen@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Hi John,
>
> Interesting, i just had a look and if you press the menu key and go to
> Nova Settings, "Desktop" is the first or second option, then "Home Screens"
> is the seventh option.  Then it gets tricky - this displays a grid of all
> your home screens, which you can explore or swipe through.  To delete one,
> you have to locate it, then double tap and hold, and it will vibrate to
> indicate it's moving, but then you have to drag it to the top middle of the
> screen where visually there is an X and if you drop it on the X, it will
> delete it - unfortunately that part doesn't read out or indicate in any
> way, so your options for deleting a page are either trial and error to find
> the right place to drop the page, or sighted help.
>
> With icons which appear on multiple screens, there are two options - if
> they are in the very bottom row, they are likely in the 'dock' - a group of
> five icons which appear on every screen - any changes you make to the dock
> will appear the same on every home screen, so it's worthwhile setting this
> up with things you do actually use regularly.
>
> If they are simply icons which are replicated on multiple pages then yes
> you can just delete the excess ones.
>
> Regards
>
> Quentin.
>
>
> On 20 November 2013 02:38, John J. Jacques <kg7fa2@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> Hi Quenton, thanks for that.  I will save your message and give it a try.
>>  One other question, do you know how to remove pages completely?  As I
>> mentioned, I have 8 pages and I don't think I need that many.  Hopefully,
>> I can remove the re-occuring apps, or are those apps on every page
>> regardless?
>>
>> Have a good one:
>> John
>>
>>
>> John Jacques
>> Amateur Radio Station: KD8PC
>> "Where Cat Is,  Is Civilization!"
>>
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