[accesscomp] two tips from Dan
- From: "Bob Acosta" <boacosta@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "tektalk discussion" <tektalkdiscussion@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 2 Nov 2012 09:32:05 -0700
There are two tips in this offering today.
The first is a response from Blind How regarding my question on affordable
speech ready cellphones and second is an article from AFB'S Access World
Registered. Hope it might provide a little help in your decision making
when considering a new cellphone.
*I. A few Accessible Cellphones Other Than An IPhone
Last week I was doing some research on afortable cellphones that come with
speech other than an IPHone. Below is a response from Everette Bacon
[ebacon@xxxxxxxx]
On behalf of "Blind How" Found at:
http://www.blindhow.com/ Hi There,
While this is probably not the complete list available, it is what I found
so far. If anyone has more ideas please email me so I can put together a
list of sites and a bit about each phone. I use an Iphone and agree it is
very accessible. However, everyone can not afford it and the related data
plans. "I received your question from www.blindhow.com:
There are very few cell phones out there that come with built in
accessibility for a blind person. I
myself use an I phone, and while it is a rather expensive device, the
gratification I get from using this
device on my own without any assistance is well worth it! I also have found
that I am using it for
many other purposes then just a cell phone.
Nevertheless, here are a couple of phones I know have built in
accessibility:
The Samsung Haven available only through Verizon Wireless.
The Snapfone available with most providers. You must purchase the snapfone
separately and set up a
contract with your preferred provider.
You can learn more about it at www.snapfone.com
Another really helpful website to find out which Nokia phones work with
Talks is www.blindsea.com
Here you will find a list of Nokia phones that work with both mobile speak
and talks!
You could also try the Android. I do recommend the new Samsung Nexus with
the Jelly bean OS pre-
installed. You can then download an app called talkback. This is very
accessible with this particular
phone and Jelly bean OS."
*II. An Evaluation of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean Using the Nexus 7
J.J. Meddaugh
For the past couple of years, AccessWorld has highlighted the benefits and
pitfalls of Android accessibility in several evaluations. While some Android
features have been accessible for quite some time, many shortcomings have
prevented the Google mobile operating system from achieving widespread
adoption. Manufacturers have released models without the required
accessibility features built in. Phones without physical keyboards have
offered limited functionality. Furthermore, there is no guarantee that the
latest version of Android will be available for any given device. Therefore,
while many tech-savvy users have indeed conquered and are currently using an
Android device, much improvement still needs to be made.
Google aimed to solve some of these concerns with Android 4.0 Ice Cream
Sandwich. This version allowed, for the first time, touch exploration of the
device, access to the built-in Web browser, and improved access to many
built-in Google applications. Darren Burton and Matthew Enigk evaluate an
early version of Android 4.0
<http://www.afb.org/afbpress/pub.asp?DocID=aw130302> in the March 2012
issue of AccessWorld, and although some of the
http://www.afb.org/afbpress/pub.asp?DocID=aw130302
concerns outlined in that article have been addressed, there is still room
for improvement.
Android 4.1, known as Jelly Bean, is the third major stab at accessibility
support from Google. This latest version of the Android operating system
first appeared on the Asus Nexus 7, a 7-inch budget wi-fi tablet, available
in 8GB and 16GB models. Jelly Bean has since been made available on several
phones, including the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy S3. Will the third
time be the charm for Google?
Initial Setup
Android 4.0 includes a rectangle gesture for turning on speech upon initial
launch. Drawing this shape proved difficult to many, primarily with
difficulties in activating accessibility features. Android 4.1 adds a second
option, a two finger tap-and-hold gesture. For best success, place two
fingers, slightly spread apart, in the middle of the device and press down
for a few seconds. If you are successful, you will be prompted to keep
holding your fingers to enable accessibility. While this gesture is a vast
improvement over the rectangle gesture offered in Android 4.0, some users
still report problems activating accessibility features.
Furthermore, if the initial setup screen is bypassed for any reason, sighted
assistance is still generally required. The fact that this issue remains to
be addressed is appalling to say the least. At minimum, there should be a
way to plug a device into a computer and activate accessibility using
software installed on the computer. The lack of a backdoor way to enable
speech in case of an emergency is a major oversight that Google has been
aware of for quite some time.
If accessibility does activate as documented, the user is presented with a
modified tutorial that guides the user through some of the new gestures and
features of Jelly Bean discussed below.
Gestures in Jelly Bean
Getting past the initial setup, the new interface for Android 4.1 is a vast
improvement in many areas. TalkBack, the built-in Android screen reader, now
includes a gesture mode that allows the user to navigate around the screen
and activate items. Some gestures will seem quite familiar to iPhone users,
such as swiping right and left to move through items and double tapping to
activate the last spoken item. The problem of activating the wrong item in
the Android 4.0 Explore by Touch mode has been eliminated.
Android 4.1 also includes gestures that allow the user to navigate by
character, word, or paragraph. To cycle through various navigation levels,
use an up-down gesture by swiping up and back down without lifting your
finger. The opposite down-up gesture cycles through the various navigation
modes in reverse.
Additional gestures are included, such as the ability to navigate through
lists a page at a time (right-left and left-right) and the ability to
quickly jump to various phone screens, such as the Notification Bar or
Recent Apps.
Other accessibility features are being added as the gesture mode evolves. A
recent version has added support for continuous reading, either from the
current position or from the top of the screen. Speech can now be silenced
by putting a finger near the light or proximity sensors on a device.
In addition to the gesture mode, Explore by Touch is still available for
jumping quickly to a specific part of the screen. A common method for
navigation is to tap the screen near the area where you believe the icon is
and then to swipe right or left until the icon is located. It's worth noting
that the status icons displaying battery life, signal strength, network
connectivity, and other information are treated as a single icon in
TalkBack, making it difficult to quickly obtain a single piece of
information (such as the date, the current time, etc.). While one could
install widgets to place these individual items on the home screen, this is
an issue that should be resolved.
Browser
The Chrome browser ships with the latest versions of Android and is largely
accessible, but navigating through complex websites can cause the browser to
freeze. The simple navigation levels discussed above can be used to move
through Web pages. Some additional controls, such as the ability to navigate
by headings, lists, or tables, would be effective additions. Indeed, some of
these options are possible using a Bluetooth keyboard, but this is not
always a practical solution. The Mozilla Firefox Web browser discussed below
is also another option to consider.
On-screen Keyboard
Android 4.1 has eliminated the need for a third-party keyboard, bringing the
previous features of the Eyes-Free Keyboard into the latest version. To use
the Eyes-Free Keyboard, move your finger to a letter, symbol, or function
icon, then lift your finger to activate the button. This generally works
well, but we would like to see some increased responsiveness in this mode.
It's also possible to navigate through typed text to make changes and
corrections. By default, for security reasons headphones are required to
enter passwords. While this is a good idea in theory, the option should
probably be turned off by default, especially to allow for entering wi-fi
and e-mail passwords during the initial set-up.
Voice Input
Google has vastly improved Voice Search in Android 4.1, allowing for spoken
answers to many common queries. For instance, one could ask "What is the
temperature in Seattle?" or "What was the score of the Tigers game?" and
receive a nearly instant spoken response. This feature works well with
VoiceOver silenced to allow for the voice query to be spoken.
Jelly Bean includes a new instant dictation feature, which is a mixed
blessing for TalkBack users. Now, TalkBack correctly speaks words as they
are typed, but this can interfere with the voice input, causing words to be
entered more than once if the microphone hears TalkBack's speech. Possible
workarounds are to use headphones or to turn the speech volume down to a
level where the microphone does not detect TalkBack. Android 4.1 also
includes support for offline dictation, meaning an Internet connection is
not required to use voice input as is the case for other devices.
Documentation
I was pleasantly surprised to find an entire chapter dedicated to
accessibility in the Nexus 7 manual
<http://support.google.com/nexus/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2692467> . The
chapter describes the available accessibility gestures and gives tips for
navigating around popular applications. Slowly, more resources are appearing
to offer users assistance with their Android device or provide step-by-step
instructions. As more users adopt the platform, these resources will likely
expand.
Additional Customizations
While this review has focused on the built-in accessibility features of
Android 4.1, some additional apps are worth mentioning.
Shades
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.googlecode.eyesfree.shade
s> is a simple app that allows you to turn the screen brightness down to
zero, similar to the screen curtain feature on the iPhone. This allows for
increased privacy and is also likely to save battery life. It's compatible
with Android 2.3 and up.
Mozilla has made significant strides with the accessibility of the Android
version of the Firefox Beta Web browser
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mozilla.firefox_beta> .
Users may prefer the increased navigation options available when compared
with the built-in Chrome browser.
Several additional text-to-speech voices are available for Android, giving
the option for more human-sounding speech synthesis. One of the latest
additions is the familiar suite of voices from Acapela TTS Voices
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.acapelagroup.android.tts>
.
These voices have been found to be highly responsive and a welcome
improvement when compared to the built-in offerings.
BrailleBack
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.googlecode.eyesfree.brail
leback> is an initial attempt at braille display support for Android. The
current implementation was quite unstable and only included support for
grade one braille output. While I appreciate the initial progress in this
area, this is an app that could use some major improvement.
Limitations
There are several additional accessibility features that would improve the
Android experience for users who are blind or have low vision. For instance,
there is currently no way to programmatically turn speech on or off, a
feature often useful for applications with built-in gesture support or for
having a non-speech user use your device temporarily. Other welcome
additions would be the ability to add alternative text for unlabeled icons
and a method to control the verbosity level of the screen reader. It's worth
noting that Android has vastly overhauled its accessibility services for
developers, which means that chances have improved that a third-party screen
reader including many of these requests will be developed.
Android on the Job
Determining if Android is a suitable platform for your employment needs will
depend largely on your job requirements and daily routine. Like most mobile
operating systems, the strengths of Android include managing contacts,
reading e-mail, and browsing the Web. If you need to check your messages
while traveling, schedule appointments, utilize GPS tools, or keep simple
notes, Android 4.1 includes all of the tools necessary to accomplish these
tasks. For producing large documents, managing spreadsheets, or updating
databases, a laptop computer may be a better mobile aid. Indeed, many
business professionals use a combination of mobile devices and laptop or
desktop computers, providing higher productivity while on the job.
Conclusion
To be fair, it's difficult for most reviewers to give a truly unbiased
review of Android accessibility. Those who use the iPhone as their primary
device are likely to have different expectations than someone who has been a
regular Android user. Ultimately, you will need to evaluate the various
solutions currently available and decide which features are most important
for your situation. While not perfect, Android 4.1 has taken some major
strides toward a complete accessibility solution, but some additional
customizations or third-party apps may be necessary for an optimal
experience. I look forward to further developments from Google and hope they
come sooner rather than later. Google has the tools to become a leader in
accessibility and should do all it can to further explore this opportunity.
Send messages to dthompson5@xxxxxxxxx
This message has been scanned by Microsoft Security essentials
"For nothing is impossible with God." Luke 1:37
Robert Acosta, President
Helping Hands for the Blind
Email: boacosta@xxxxxxxxxxx
Web Site: www.helpinghands4theblind.org
You can assist Helping Hands for the Blind by donating your used computers to
us. If you have a blind friend in need of a computer, please mail us at the
above address.
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