Re: [AI] Accessibility head-to-head: Android vs Apple
I guess you haven't tested the clicking the home key thrise will bring you voiceover out of the box. I just bought an iPhone 5S and I myself configured it after clicking the home key thrise and bringing up the voiceover. Of course there is another option for connecting it with iTunes and bringing up the voiceover though. I can say iPhone is hundred per cent accessible out of the box. The android is telling that it has a feature to bring out talk back by drawing triangler on the screen. But so far to my knowledge none of the blindies got success with that. May be you can get android phones for cheaper price. Still, if you accidentally buying a phone like HTC one V, you may have to suffer a lots. It is not accessible at all. For the most point. Another drawback in India is, we cannot test the phone before buying. As per most the other countries, they are even giving thirty days returning offers with no questions asked. So as per Indian purchases, analyse before purchasing. As per iPhone, visit applevis.com for getting more details. -Original Message- From: AccessIndia [mailto:accessindia-boun...@accessindia.org.in] On Behalf Of Hozefa Tambawala Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2014 12:23 PM To: Accessindia Subject: [AI] Accessibility head-to-head: Android vs Apple Those of us using mobile devices alongside a visual impairment are in a much better position than even 10 years ago. For a long time there was only one game in town when it came to accessible phones, but Talks and Zooms from Nuance were only available on a limited range of handsets from one manufacturer. It wasn't perfect but at least it was there. And then there was Apple. The introduction of the iPhone 3GS and iOS 3 in 2009 brought with it a whole new way of working with what was becoming the most popular handset on the market. Four iterations later and the Apple model is holding strong and seems to be the de-facto choice for anybody with sight-loss. But there is a strong alternative which brings with it a range of further options to choose from and decisions to make. Most people have already made their choice (or had it made for them), but with new Android-based handsets being released all the time and a new iPhone on the horizon, now might be the ideal time to see what the two main sets of accessibility can and can't offer before you make your next purchase. This piece is aimed mainly at visually impaired and blind users but may also be of use to people who just want something that will make their phone or tablet use a little easier. Let's Begin First of all, let me set out my position. I am visually impaired but I have what some would call 'useful' sight. I use magnification generally when I'm in one place, and screen readers when I'm on the move or want to work in public without being nosed at! I use Apple iOS 7.1 on an iPad Air and iPhone 5. I also use Android 4.3 on a Samsung Galaxy Note 3. In this article I will give an overview of both options and leave it to you to decide. I wont give you a detailed guide on how to use individual features (these are numerous and can be found easily). The information is also based on using an unrooted/non-jailbroken device, so that no additional tech knowledge is necessary. It covers Screen Readers Magnification Speech and Magnification Combined Accessibility for non-disabled users 1. Screen Readers: Apple's 'VoiceOver' and Android's 'TalkBack' Let's go from the beginning; both screen readers can be activated "out of the box", because the option to enable them is present as part of the setup procedure. This means that - on iOS at least - you can switch on and set up totally unassisted (for TalkBack, sighted help may be needed solely to activate speech). In addition Apple accessibility settings can be configured from a connected computer via iTunes. General Settings Once you're up and running, the settings for both systems can be found within sub-menus. Shortcuts exist for toggling speech on/off without having to leave your current screen, but a big difference is that the VoiceOver Rotor can be used to quickly fine-tune settings (language, volume, typing mode etc) from anywhere, whereas many of the TalkBack settings can only be tweaked from within its menu. Talkback has a comprehensive tutorial to teach gestures, notifications and options. VoiceOver includes brief guidelines and a practice area where you can make 'dummy' gestures which are spoken to you without affecting the app or device. This will give you a fair grounding in the basics but for both systems the only way to get familiar and proficient is practice. Sorry! User Interface VoiceOver and TalkBack offer much the same in the way of actual use; swipe a finger left, right, up or down to navigate the screen elements, text or graphics. Double-tap a finger to make a selection. You can also easily read a page by character, word, se
[AI] Accessibility head-to-head: Android vs Apple
Those of us using mobile devices alongside a visual impairment are in a much better position than even 10 years ago. For a long time there was only one game in town when it came to accessible phones, but Talks and Zooms from Nuance were only available on a limited range of handsets from one manufacturer. It wasn't perfect but at least it was there. And then there was Apple. The introduction of the iPhone 3GS and iOS 3 in 2009 brought with it a whole new way of working with what was becoming the most popular handset on the market. Four iterations later and the Apple model is holding strong and seems to be the de-facto choice for anybody with sight-loss. But there is a strong alternative which brings with it a range of further options to choose from and decisions to make. Most people have already made their choice (or had it made for them), but with new Android-based handsets being released all the time and a new iPhone on the horizon, now might be the ideal time to see what the two main sets of accessibility can and can't offer before you make your next purchase. This piece is aimed mainly at visually impaired and blind users but may also be of use to people who just want something that will make their phone or tablet use a little easier. Let's Begin First of all, let me set out my position. I am visually impaired but I have what some would call 'useful' sight. I use magnification generally when I'm in one place, and screen readers when I'm on the move or want to work in public without being nosed at! I use Apple iOS 7.1 on an iPad Air and iPhone 5. I also use Android 4.3 on a Samsung Galaxy Note 3. In this article I will give an overview of both options and leave it to you to decide. I wont give you a detailed guide on how to use individual features (these are numerous and can be found easily). The information is also based on using an unrooted/non-jailbroken device, so that no additional tech knowledge is necessary. It covers Screen Readers Magnification Speech and Magnification Combined Accessibility for non-disabled users 1. Screen Readers: Apple's 'VoiceOver' and Android's 'TalkBack' Let's go from the beginning; both screen readers can be activated "out of the box", because the option to enable them is present as part of the setup procedure. This means that - on iOS at least - you can switch on and set up totally unassisted (for TalkBack, sighted help may be needed solely to activate speech). In addition Apple accessibility settings can be configured from a connected computer via iTunes. General Settings Once you're up and running, the settings for both systems can be found within sub-menus. Shortcuts exist for toggling speech on/off without having to leave your current screen, but a big difference is that the VoiceOver Rotor can be used to quickly fine-tune settings (language, volume, typing mode etc) from anywhere, whereas many of the TalkBack settings can only be tweaked from within its menu. Talkback has a comprehensive tutorial to teach gestures, notifications and options. VoiceOver includes brief guidelines and a practice area where you can make 'dummy' gestures which are spoken to you without affecting the app or device. This will give you a fair grounding in the basics but for both systems the only way to get familiar and proficient is practice. Sorry! User Interface VoiceOver and TalkBack offer much the same in the way of actual use; swipe a finger left, right, up or down to navigate the screen elements, text or graphics. Double-tap a finger to make a selection. You can also easily read a page by character, word, sentence, paragraph or even the whole screen at once. Both can provide feedback via pitch-changes (to differentiate between a highlighted keyboard character and one that is entered) and overall they are well up to the job. They also make use of "contextual menus" in order to make changes to the way you read and manipulate text in different settings, so you will get different options depending on the app you're using (or even your current position within the app). Interestingly enough, Talkback has the option to only read aloud the content of secure fields when earphones are connected, whereas iOS will always speak the character you just entered. If you're likely to be using more than one Android device (or want to be able to use a friend's one without too much fiddling)) you can import and export your settings for quick transfer. Voice and Language As with most screen readers, voice characteristics can be customised in both systems to give a range of language, quality, speed and verbosity. The range of voices, genders and bit-rate vary but Talkback allows additional TTS (text-to-speech) language data to be downloaded at will. Voice package updates are also released by Google separately to the periodical operating system updates. Screen Blanking Screen-reader users are familiar with the puzzled looks that sighted people have when they encounter a computer being used with a bl
