[nfbmi-talk] a little detail about androyd access

joe harcz Comcast joeharcz at comcast.net
Wed Mar 23 13:38:43 UTC 2011


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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