Eyes-Free Android This blog details my use of various Android devices with Android Accessibility turned on. In combination with the eyes-free shell, this turns Android into a personal communication device that aids in independent living. and
Monday, March 21, 2011 TalkBack Refreshed: Accessible On-Screen Keyboard And More ... Android Access: TalkBack Refreshed 1 Android Access: TalkBack Refreshed The latest enhancements to TalkBack now brings Android Accessibility to devices without a physical keyboard. Many of these enhancements also improve the overall TalkBack experience on all devices. 1.1 Highlights •New TalkBack Keyboard. •On-screen talking keyboard enables text entry via the touch screen. •Text review provides spoken feedback when moving the cursor by character, word, sentence, or paragraph. •Virtual D-Pad for navigating the Android user interface. •Global TalkBack commands enable one-click access to oft-used commands. 1.2 TalkBack Keyboard The TalkBack Keyboard is an Accessible Input Method (Accessible IME) that when activated enables you to enter and review text via the touch screen. To use this feature, you need to first activate the TalkBack keyboard via the Language and Keyboard option in the Settings menu. Next, customize the TalkBack Keyboard to taste via the TalkBack Keyboard Settings option --- here, you can customize additional features including auditory feedback as you type. Finally, open your favorite editing application, long-press on an edit field, and select TalkBack keyboard as your default IME. Note that you need do this only once; once the TalkBack keyboard has been made the default, it persists across reboots. 1.3 Entering Text On The Touch Screen TalkBack keyboard is an on-screen keyboard that supports touch exploration along with synchronized spoken and auditory feedback. This means you can now enter text when using devices that don't sport a physical keyboard. But wait, there's more here than meets the finger at first touch. Once you have activated the TalkBack Keyboard, you can switch the keyboard among three states by long-pressing the volume up/down buttons: Hidden The TalkBack keyboard is not displayed. Navigating You get access to an on-screen virtual D-Pad, along with Back, Home, Search, and Menu buttons. Typing An on-screen qwerty keyboard. My preferred means of using the keyboard is to turn on auditory feedback from within TalkBack Keyboard Settings, as well as having SoundBack active. In this mode, you hear keys as you explore the keyboard along with an auditory icon; picking up your finger types the last key you explored. Typing produces a distinctive key-click. The on-screen keyboard occupies the bottom 1/3 of your screen. While entering text, explore and find the top row, then move above it to hear what you have typed so far. 1.4 Reviewing Text By Character, Word, Sentence Or Paragraph You can now navigate and review text by character, word, sentence or paragraph. Use a two-finger tap to move forward through these navigation levels; a two-finger double tap moves in the reverse direction. Once you have selected your preferred mode of navigation, you can use Up/Down on the physical track-ball/D-Pad, or alternatively, flick up or down on the virtual D-Pad to move forward or backward through the text being reviewed. Note that text review works when the TalkBack keyboard is in either/navigating/ or typing mode; personally, I find it less error-prone on keyboard-less devices to first switch to navigating mode when reviewing text, since it is easy to inadvertently enter spurious text otherwise. 1.5 Using The On-Screen Virtual D-Pad Placing the TalkBack keyboard in navigating mode provides an on-screen virtual D-Pad --- this is especially useful on devices that do not have a physical D-Pad or track-ball on the front of the device. When active, the virtual D-Pad occupies the bottom one-third of the screen, and fast-flicks in that area has the same effect as moving with a D-Pad or track-ball. Tapping anywhere within the virtual D-Pad is the same as clicking with the track-ball. The corners of the virtual D-Pad also provides Back, Home, Search and Menu buttons --- these are especially useful on devices that lack explicit physical or capacitive buttons for these common Android actions. You can explore the virtual D-pad by moving your finger around the D-Pad area; crossing the top-edge of this area provides haptic and auditory feedback that can be used as an orientation aid in finding the virtual buttons on the corners. 1.6 Global Commands In addition, selecting the TalkBack Keyboard as your default input method enables a set of global commands that can be accessed from your physical keyboard --- eventually, we will make these available via the soft keyboard as well. Here are a list of the current commands: Command Description Key Battery Speaks the current battery level menu + B Time Speaks the current date and time menu + T Connectivity Speaks the connectivity state of each connection: WiFi, 3G, etc menu + O Repeat Repeats the last TalkBack utterance menu + R Spell Spells the last TalkBack utterance menu + S These shortcuts are listed in the Accessibility Preferences application where they can be edited. You can choose between menu and search for the modifier, and any letter on the keyboard for the letter. 1.7 Summary All of these features work on Android 2.2 and above. In addition, TalkBack makes WebView accessible in Honeycomb --- look for a separate announcement about accessibility enhancements that are exclusive to the Honeycomb release in the coming weeks. Author: T.V Raman Date: 2011-03-16 Wed HTML generated by org-mode 7.4 in emacs 24 Posted by T. V. Raman at 5:42 PM 9 comments: Storm Dragon said... These new features sound great. I got a phone with a built-in keyboard but sometimes it would be nice to just do something quickly and it sounds like the on screen keyboard will make that easy. Looking forward to the upgrade. Thanks for all the work on TalkBack. March 21, 2011 10:10 PM Tuukka said... Are scandinavian letters (å, ä, ö) supported? March 22, 2011 7:57 AM David said... On the other hand, on my OG Droid, Talkback keyboard is insisting on being the default, even after boot. It totally screws up my screen and I have to jump through hoops to turn it off and get back to my standard keyboard. How do you tell this invasive program NOT to assume such self-importance? Since it can't be deleted, it could at least be well-behaved. It's an OG Droid! I have a keyboard. I don't need a virtual keyboard. March 22, 2011 8:04 PM mdelolmo said... This post has been removed by the author. March 25, 2011 2:05 AM Tung said... Is it possible to add other keyboard/IME for TalkBack? Its even better if it can read the standard keyboard, instead of a dedicated one. Also are there any plan to allow of reading screen by tapping various area on the screen and control by gesture just like what Symbian,iOS and Windows Mobile 6 do? March 26, 2011 8:01 PM drauks said... The Talkback keyboard is interfering with the built in standard Android keyboard when using other locale than English. I'm using Swedish and the Talkback keyboard is named "Android keyboard", exactly the same as the built in one. So now I can't use the standard keyboard. If I switch to English locale the Talkback keyboard is named "Talkback keyboard" and no longers interfere with the standard keyboard. Please fix this. April 5, 2011 5:04 AM Mohd. Ahtesham Shaikh said... Hi, Please let me know which phones work best with android OS. Is it better to go for phones with physical qwerty key pad or touch screens have become better in terms of accessibility. I am using talks on Nokia N82 but now wish to switch to Android phone for better aps and gps navigation. I have many questions to come on GPS navigation in future. May 10, 2011 10:24 PM DCF Oldahm said... I'm really disaointed, I've just baught HTC wildfire S love the phone but talkback just doesn't working properly on the V Dpad menu brings up the context menu but you can not choose options. apps menu will not work, and you can not select icons from the home screens, is this a HTC incompatability or not. Loved the phone not happy about taking it back. :-( May 17, 2011 2:20 PM Manuel said... I like the Talkback keyboard, but I think it still needs some improvement. For example, it seems you can't navigate within a Dialog/Spinner. I guess this is exactly what DCF Oldahm complains about. I have tried on N1 and Galaxy Tab. July 20, 2011 2:39 AM Post a Comment Newer Post Older Post Home Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom) Followers Blog Archive ▼ 2011 (5) ► August (1) Accessible GMail On Android ---- Eyes-Free Email O... ► May (1) Leveraging Android Access From Google IO 2011 ▼ March (1) TalkBack Refreshed: Accessible On-Screen Keyboard ... ► January (2) Eyes-Free Shell RefreshedIntersection Explorer --- Now Intersections Sound ... ► 2010 (25) ► October (1) Walking About With A Talking Android ► September (1) TalkBack, Eyes-Free Shell Refreshed --- Now With E... ► August (1) Eyes-Free Review: Droid2 From MOT ► July (1) Welcoming Loquendo Susan To Android (FroYo) ► May (4) Stitcher And TalkBack: The World In My EarsAn Eyes-Free View Of Android At The Google IO Sand...Audio Books On Android --- Thanks Librivox!Using Android Market Eyes-Free ► February (3) Eyes-Free: TalkBack And Shell ImprovementsEyes-Free Updates: Marvin And TalkBack SimplifiedSilencing Speech With A Wave Of Your Hand On Andro... ► January (14) 1Vox --- Your Query Is Our CommandYouTube And TalkBack --- Entertainment On The GoUsing TalkBack With Google MapsTalkBack: An Open Source Android ScreenreaderIntroducing The Android Access FrameworkConnecting The Dots: Marvin And Android AccessEyes-Free Home: The Marvin ShellTalking PhoneBook: Eyes-Free Communication DeviceTalking Dialer: Eyes-Free Communication DeviceStroke Dialler For AndroidIntroducing Marvin --- Eyes-Free Interaction On An...An Introduction To YouTube Channel EyesFreeAndroid...Eyes-Free G1 --- My First Talking Android!Welcome To Eyes-Free Android About Me T. V. Raman View my complete profile On 10/13/11, Divyanshu Ganatra <[email protected]> wrote: > Dear Ajay, > Thank you for pointing that out. You're absolutely correct. > Divyanshu > > On 10/10/11, Ajay Minocha <[email protected]> wrote: >> Hi sir >> that one is not talks but it's talkback >> please don't mind but this can creat great confusion >> hope you will understand >> regards >> >> On 10/10/11, Divyanshu Ganatra <[email protected]> wrote: >>> Hello, >>> Mobile accessibility works, however only with ten most basic >>> applications. Make sure you buy a handset with key pad and not touch >>> alone. something like the samsung pro B .. >>> the other 2 screen readers are free namely talks and spiel.. >>> all can be installed at the same time. >>> android phones have a bit of a learning curve, so be prepared to learn >>> and be patient. >>> Divyanshu . >>> >>> On 10/9/11, Gaurav sharma <[email protected]> wrote: >>>> hello friends i m gaurav from himachal. i m looking to purchase an >>>> android phone. i have heard that, mobile accessibility software works >>>> well wit android phone. is there any user in the list? who r using >>>> android phone? or know about it? and also tell me its cost and where >>>> from i get it. pls give me your valuable suggestion.s. Thanks in >>>> advance. >>>> >>>> Register for AccessIndia convention 2011(November 12-13) at: >>>> http://www.accessindia.org.in/harish/convention.htm >>>> >>>> Search for old postings at: >>>> http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ >>>> >>>> To unsubscribe send a message to >>>> [email protected] >>>> with the subject unsubscribe. >>>> >>>> To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, >>>> please >>>> visit the list home page at >>>> http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in >>>> >>>> >>> >>> Register for AccessIndia convention 2011(November 12-13) at: >>> http://www.accessindia.org.in/harish/convention.htm >>> >>> Search for old postings at: >>> http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ >>> >>> To unsubscribe send a message to >>> [email protected] >>> with the subject unsubscribe. >>> >>> To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, >>> please >>> visit the list home page at >>> http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in >>> >>> >> >> >> -- >> Ajay Minocha >> Mob : +91 - 7 8 2 7 1 8 8 4 5 5 >> E mail : [email protected] >> [email protected] >> >> Register for AccessIndia convention 2011(November 12-13) at: >> http://www.accessindia.org.in/harish/convention.htm >> >> Search for old postings at: >> http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ >> >> To unsubscribe send a message to >> [email protected] >> with the subject unsubscribe. >> >> To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, >> please >> visit the list home page at >> http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in >> >> > > Register for AccessIndia convention 2011(November 12-13) at: > http://www.accessindia.org.in/harish/convention.htm > > Search for old postings at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > > To unsubscribe send a message to > [email protected] > with the subject unsubscribe. > > To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please > visit the list home page at > http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in > > Register for AccessIndia convention 2011(November 12-13) at: http://www.accessindia.org.in/harish/convention.htm Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
