I have to disagree with you on a couple of points and agree with
you on others. First of all, everybody is different in their usage
patterns and a virtual keyboard might not be right for them. Some
people are good touch typists and not wanting the extra delay of
listening to the key before lifting one's finger or double tapping might
be their preference. Me, I have a Bluetooth keyboard so I can type in a
moving vehicle, to search for a gas station, restaurant, respond to a
text message, etc. It doesn't mean that I don't use the virtual
keyboard but choice is wonderful.
Actually you are wrong about the reasons for doing away with physical
keyboards, Sure, the cost per device is greater because of the extra
component, design, and manufacturing cost, but you are not taking into
account demand. Producers would be foolish to not produce a product
that the masses wanted. Nobody has to buy their product and unless
there is no competition, then what you say has more credibility. As
long as the niche is large enough to make a profit by filling, someone
will. What a business looks at is how market share and profit per unit
are the greatest in total. They will sacrifice either profit per unit
or market share for the combined maximum. finally, speech isn't for
everybody and they might benefit from other options. Some people can't
speak clearly or not at all, in that case, a physical keyboard might
benefit them. Code factory did create a product to benefit us. where
they failed is in timely improvements to their product to keep it on the
cutting edge. They struck deals with carriers and because they failed
to update their products, they were surpassed. If windows makes
narrator more robust and easier to use, Jaws and window eyes will
disappear in favor of narrator, NVDA and System access. This is good
becuase the cost for accessibility falls and that benefits us.
On 7/28/2013 7:24 AM, Paul McKee wrote:
Hi Guys
First of all sto say "hang in there", virtual keyboards, like anything
else, get easier the more you use them. One of the best things I did
as my sight began to fail was to learn to touch type and I still do
that now, fairly quickly. When I was presented with a virtual screen
initially I was rubbish and wanted to see the keypad that code factory
had built for Nokia, the one where you tapped in zones almost like
with old style texting )I think that was called T9). I flirted with
full quwertyphysical keyboards on two different phones and I didn't
get on well. When you're learning it's all about muscle memory and
with a physical keyboard if you hit the wrong key you have to delete
and try again. I found I would delete and then make the same mistake
again and sometimes again! With a virtual keyboard if you hit the
wrong key, you are told straight away and you simply slide your finger
to the correct key, usually only one key away. I still type on a phone
or tablet with one finger but a lot less errors.
Three more points firstly I don't think the manufacturers are making
touch screens or keyboards because of perceived demand. They continue
with keyboards either they there is a niche market or because they are
tooled up to do that. They make touch screeens because they are
cheaper to make and assemble in volume and provide more real estate
for advertising etc for the service providers. I know this is cynical
but few phone makers are there to fulfill our wishees.
Next point is that phones are increasingly geared towards speech, with
Siri, Google voice and the upcoming Moto X all taking the general
phone user towards speech. This will help us even more and bear in
mind that the virtual keyboard has a speech button, not long ago we'd
have to search for a little microphone icon, speech is becoming embedded.
Finally, and on topic, code factory have always put us first and taken
accessiblity forward in leaps. I paid a fair amount for MA because it
was the first step into Android and it was safe, stable and familiar.
However the competition and the mainstream phone access has cuught up
or overtaken. They need to think of something innovative once more, it
might even be the old tappy tappy keyboard or an easier interface to
other Android apps. But let's not forget what they have done already
with MA and hope they can come up with the next quantum leap. Perhaps
we can guide them as to what would be ideal for us, would it be a
physical keyboard, a better virtual keyboardor awesome speech input?
Hang in there people and count your blessings on the fantastic
improvements in the last five years or less, that have made us hungry
for more.
Cheers
Paul
On 28/07/2013 05:40, Leslie Fairall wrote:
Correction on my part. I only described how to get into the virtual
keyboard settings under Mobile Accessibility. To use the virtual
keyboard, long press your volume up key. I really stink, but am
trying to learn? Is landscape the best layout? Should I use the
dynamic keyboard. I want to be able to use both before it's all over.
Since my phone has Jellybean, I can take my time learning since my
phone isn't going out-of-date anytime soon.
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