[Electronics-talk] [VICUG-L] Improved Android accessibility with Talkback screen reader update

[Baracco, Andrew W]

FYI!
Andy

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.

Source URLs:
http://groups.google.com/group/eyes-free/browse_thread/thread/a4e
4251126a22797/
http://eyes-free.blogspot.com/2011/03/talkback-refreshed-accessib
le-on-screen.html

--
Jonnie Appleseed
with his
Hands-On Technolog(eye)s
reducing technology's disabilities
one byte at a time


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