[rehab] Mobile Accessibility: Code Factory Goes Android!

[Code Factory News (no reply)]

Logo Code Factory


Caroline Ragot - Marketing
<mailto:marketing at codefactory.es>marketing at codefactory.es

Mobile Accessibility for Android


Mobile Accessibility: Code Factory Goes Android!




Features Touchscreen Navigation, Speech 
Recognition, Web and Email Access, and Nuance’s Vocalizer® Text-to-Speech


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE




Terrassa (Barcelona), Spain, March 2nd, 2011

Today, Code Factory is delighted to introduce 
Mobile Accessibility, a screen-access application 
that allows people who are blind or have low 
vision to use an Android phone in an intuitive, 
easy and simple way. Mobile Accessibility is the 
first accessible Android application that permits 
intuitive touchscreen navigation of Android 
phones, featuring text readback via natural 
sounding voices powered by Nuance’s Vocalizer® text-to-speech technology.

“Mobile phones have proved to be among the 
fastest-changing consumer technologies in the 
world – particularly with the advent of the 
Android platform. So making mobile phones 
accessible to the blind and visually impaired is 
therefore challenging, fascinating, thrilling and 
totally exciting all at the same time,” explained 
Eduard Sánchez, Code Factory’s CEO. “There was no 
doubt that we would target the  Android platform, 
as we very quickly realized that there was a real 
need in this specific market for an accessible 
solution that can provide a user-friendly 
experience for all blind and low-vision 
consumers. Mobile Accessibility allows everyone, 
from beginners to the most tech-savvy, to use an 
Android phone, no matter if it has physical keys or is touchscreen-only.”

Mobile Accessibility is two products in one:
    * A suite of 10 accessible applications 
(Phone, Contacts, SMS, Alarm, Calendar, Email, 
Web, Where am I, Apps and Settings) that have 
been specially designed for the blind and 
visually impaired. They all have a simplified 
interface whose textual information is spoken 
using Nuance Vocalizer® voice synthesis.
    * A screen reader that allows users to get 
out of the suite and navigate the standard interface of their phone.

“Mobile Accessibility provides both access to the 
mainstream apps of the phone and access to 
special apps for blind people. Why? Because our 
philosophy has always been to allow our users to 
use the phone the same way as everyone else. 
However, we also believe that having some special 
apps for the most common tasks can be extremely 
useful if it means gaining in productivity,” added Eduard Sánchez.

The major features of Mobile Accessibility are the following:
    * Touch navigation: You can use Mobile 
Accessibility not only with the trackball or the 
physical keyboard of your phone, but also with 
its touchscreen! Simply move your finger around 
the screen and the voice synthesis will read the 
text located under your finger. Or if you prefer, 
you can also swipe up/down/right/left and tap on 
the screen to navigate through the interface. And 
if you wish you can enable sound and vibration feedback.
    * Easy to input text: In or outside the 
Mobile Accessibility suite you can use the touch 
QWERTY keyboard as well as the speech recognition 
to write text quickly and easily. Imagine writing 
an SMS or an Email using your voice only.
    * Voice synthesis: Code Factory has been 
making mobile phones accessible to the blind and 
visually impaired for many years now, and they 
know that the voice matters... and a lot! For 
Mobile Accessibility, Code Factory has partnered 
with Nuance® to leverage its trusted Vocalizer 
text-to-speech technology, providing consumers 
with natural sounding voice readback.

“With around 314 million visually impaired 
persons around the world, we believe that it’s 
our joint obligation to facilitate access to 
information and mobile communication to everyone” 
says Arnd Weil, VP & General Manager Automotive / 
Consumer Electronics, Nuance Communications. “By 
offering screen reader functionality for Android 
phones using Nuance Vocalizer, Code Factory gives 
blind and visually impaired persons access to one 
of the most important mobile platforms with the 
market’s most natural sounding and intelligible voices.”

Inside the Mobile Accessibility suite of 
accessible applications you can do the following:
    * Phone: Make calls, answer calls, hear the 
caller ID and manage your call log.
    * Contacts: Manage your contacts, even those 
from social networks such as Facebook.
    * SMS: Compose and read short messages. Manage conversations.
    * Alarms: Set your alarms.
    * Web: Full web browser experience, similar 
to what you can find on your PC. Jump by the 
control of your choice (links, paragraphs, 
headings, forms, etc.) to navigate faster to the 
information of your interest. Bookmark your favourite webpages.
    * Calendar: Create, edit and delete a 
calendar entry. View all events per day, week or month.
    * Email: Full access to your Gmail account
    * Where am I? : GPS application that gives 
you updates on your current location.
    * Settings: Change ringtone. Configure 
feedback and notifications (vibration or audio). 
Configure keyboard echo, punctuation verbosity, speech pitch and rate, etc.
    * Quick access to date and time, phone status 
information such as battery level and network 
coverage, number of missed calls and unread messages, etc.

To hear Mobile Accessibility in action listen to 
videos and audio demos at 
<http://www.codefactory.es/en/products.asp?id=415#video>http://www.codefactory.es/en/products.asp?id=415#video 


Mobile Accessibility supports all Android phones 
from version 2.1 and above. Please note that 
voice recognition is only supported with version 
2.2 and above. Note also that if you want to use 
the screen reader functionality of Mobile 
Accessibility you will need a phone with physical 
navigational controls such as a trackball or 
trackpad. You can find more information about 
Android phones at 
<http://www.google.com/phone/#manufacturer=all&category=all&carrier=all&country=all&reset_filters=1>http://www.Google<http://www.google.com/phone/#manufacturer=all&category=all&carrier=all&country=all&reset_filters=1>.com/phone/#manufacturer=all&category=all&carrier=all&country=all&reset_filters=1 


At the time of this release Mobile Accessibility 
is only available in English, but soon Code 
Factory will release other versions of Mobile 
Accessibility for Spanish, Italian, German, 
French and Portuguese. Note that Mobile 
Accessibility doesn't support multiple languages 
at one time. If you buy the English version of 
Mobile Accessibility you will not be able to use 
it in another language like French or Spanish. 
There will be a specific version of Mobile 
Accessibility for each language and each version 
will have to be purchased separately.

You can now get a Mobile Accessibility Demo from 
the Android Market and try the product for free for 30 days:
    * Mobile Accessibility Demo US: 
<https://market.android.com/details?id=es.codefactory.android.app.ma.vocalizerenudemo&feature=search_result>https://market.android.com/details?id=es.codefactory.android.app.ma.vocalizerenudemo&feature=search_result 

    * Mobile Accessibility Demo UK: 
<https://market.android.com/details?id=es.codefactory.android.app.ma.vocalizerengdemo&feature=search_result>https://market.android.com/details?id=es.codefactory.android.app.ma.vocalizerengdemo&feature=search_result 


Soon Mobile Accessibility will be available for 
purchase through the Android Market at the price 
of 69 EUROS. You can purchase the application 
directly from the Market application of your 
Android phone, or from the web page 
<https://market.android.com>https://market.android.com 
. Before buying the app make sure to check out 
our website at 
<http://www.codefactory.es/en/products.asp?id=415>http://www.codefactory.es/en/products.asp?id=415 
to see what carriers offer the product for free to their customers.

To learn how to use Mobile Accessibility for 
Android, please consult the user guide at 
<http://www.codefactory.es/MA/en/ma_1_0_manual.html>http://www.codefactory.es/MA/en/ma_1_0_manual.html. 
For technical assistance, please submit a ticket 
through Code Factory’s Help Desk at 
<http://www.codefactory.cat/helpdesk/>http://www.codefactory.cat/helpdesk/.

For more information about Mobile Accessibility 
and Code Factory subscribe to the Mobile 
Accessibility mailing list at 
<http://www.codefactory.es/en/list.asp?id=88>http://www.codefactory.es/en/list.asp?id=88, 
visit our website at 
<http://www.codefactory.es>http://www.codefactory.es 
or follow the company on Twitter at 
<http://twitter.com/codefactory>http://twitter.com/codefactory 
and use the hashtag #MA to talk about Mobile Accessibility.


About Code Factory

Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Terrassa 
(Barcelona), Spain, Code Factory is the global 
leader committed to the development of products 
designed to eliminate barriers to the 
accessibility of mobile technology for the blind 
and visually impaired. Today, Code Factory is the 
leading provider of accessible mobile 
applications such as screen readers, screen 
magnifiers, and Braille interfaces. Code 
Factory’s products are compatible with the widest 
range of mainstream mobile devices running on 
Symbian, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry Smartphones, 
and Android. Among Code Factory's customers are 
well known organizations for the blind such as 
ONCE in Spain, and carriers such as AT&T, 
Bouygues Telecom, SFR, TIM and Vodafone.


About Nuance Communications, Inc.

Nuance is a leading provider of speech and 
imaging solutions for businesses and consumers 
around the world. Its technologies, applications 
and services make the user experience more 
compelling by transforming the way people 
interact with information and how they create, 
share and use documents. Every day, millions of 
users and thousands of businesses experience 
Nuance’s proven applications and professional 
services. For more information, please visit: 
<http://www.nuance.com>nuance.com.

For more information, feel free to contact Code Factory S.L.:


Code Factory, S.L., Rambla d'Egara 148 2-2, 08221 Terrassa (Barcelona)
<http://www.codefactory.cat/helpdesk/>HelpDesk, www.codefactory.es
Code Factory, S.L. - 2011