A modern mobile phone is an indispensable device for most people, regardless of their health condition. But for people with disabilities, this is not just a convenient gadget, but a means of rehabilitation that can be more useful than many traditional TSWs.
Have you ever wondered what a smartphone gives you? It is not only instant calls and messages in messengers, but also fast Internet access, thousands of useful applications, photo, video and audio recording, as well as music, movies, weather forecast and social networks.
A modern phone is especially important for those who have sensory impairments, in particular for the visually impaired and the blind. It allows you to navigate in space, request help, place an order, and much more. Every smartphone has a built-in screen reader that literally lets you control the device using your voice, and also transmits all text information in voice form.
Today we will talk about the features of such a program on smartphones running the Android operating system. As a rule, it is Android that is installed on the most budgetary and affordable devices.
How do I enable the screen reader?
On most Android smartphones, there are several ways to launch the screen reader. Each of them can be done without using sight.
The most common way is to unlock the phone and simultaneously hold down two volume buttons - "plus" and "minus". As soon as the device emits a characteristic sound of an incoming message, the "use quick start" button will appear on the display. It will be about two fingers from the bottom of the screen and one finger from the right edge. Press it, and then again hold down both volume buttons and hold them for 10 seconds. This should launch the screen reader.
However, on some smartphones it runs much easier. Find the "home" button, as a rule, it is located in the lower middle and can be either physical or touch. Click it three times.
The third method is also associated with the "home" button. If you hold it down for 7 seconds, then on some smartphones the Google Assistant will open. Tell him in your voice the standard phrase: "okay, google". And then ask to turn on the screen reader.
In smartphones running on the Android operating system, there can be two by default - TalkBack (on most devices) and VoiceOver (on Samsung smartphones and some others). Accordingly, the command to Google Assistant will sound like this: "turn on the back." Or so: "turn on voice over".
There is another way for Samsung phones. On smartphones of this brand, you can hold down the power button for 5 seconds. Usually this button is located on the right or left side of the device and serves to turn on and off the display and the phone itself. After 5 seconds, you will hear an incoming message sound. Then place two fingers on the screen about 2 cm below the speaker and hold them in this position for 7 seconds. In this case, the fingers should be located at some distance from each other - leave at least 1 cm between them.
How to re-sound an incomprehensible phrase?
Surely many blind and visually impaired smartphone users are faced with a situation when a screen reader or other application "mutters" something inaudible and a person cannot understand what they are talking about. In such cases, the phone may re-sound the text by letter.
To do this, you need to use vertical swipes - these are the short movements of your finger up and down the screen. If you use TalkBack with standard settings, then with vertical swipes you can select the desired level of detail - characters, words, lines, paragraphs. And with horizontal swipes - to the right and to the left - you can move through the elements of the level you have chosen.
The VoiceOver screen reader requires only vertical swipes, which can be used to spell selected text immediately.
How do I copy the last phrase to the clipboard?
Very often, smartphone users need to copy the last phrase in the text to the clipboard, for example, to send someone the phone number or address indicated in the message. At the same time, there can be so many numbers and letters in it that it is better not to rely on memory.
The TalkBack screen reader has a context menu that lets you drag and drop the required text to the clipboard. To call the context menu - put your finger on this text and drag it as if you were drawing a rectangle - down and to the right. Study the menu that opens carefully.
In addition to copying the last phrase of the text to the clipboard, you can also open TalkBack settings, text-to-speech settings, turn off the screen backlight, making your smartphone inaccessible to the sighted, and use a number of other useful options.
How can I improve the accessibility of a non-voiced application?
Any smartphone application that does not provide dubbing for blind and visually impaired people can be partially dubbed using a screen reader. To do this, you need to open its settings and activate the item "sound identifiers of controls". After that, some control buttons in other applications will become voiced.
How to set up voice over text?
Some visually impaired and visually impaired people with residual vision can use a smartphone without a screen reader, but have difficulty reading text from the screen. For these users, there is a “sound on tap” feature that is part of Google's Android accessibility suite. When this function is activated, a mini-player will appear in the lower right corner of the screen, which will accompany the user in most applications.
If you need to read something, just click on the mini-player, and then on the selected text. The smartphone will then voice it in a voice form, after which the mini-player will hide and again turn into a small icon in the lower right corner of the screen.
Some smartphones may not have press-to-sound in accessibility settings. In this case, you can add it manually. Open Play Store and use your voice or text to ask for “accessibility”. Find the Accessibility for Android app from Google LLC - it will be the very first one on the list. Once you set it up, click-to-speak will appear in your phone's accessibility settings.
This feature is only available for Android operating system version 6 and newer.
How do I disable the screen reader?
If it becomes necessary to switch the smartphone to the usual mode of operation for a sighted person (for example, to transfer it to someone to use it), then the screen reader can be turned off, and then, when necessary, turned on again using a simple command.
You will need two buttons for changing the volume - "plus" and "minus". Press and hold them both for 5 seconds - the screen reader will turn off. You can turn it on in the same way, or even easier - turn it off and on again.
We are grateful to the experts of the Department of Information and Methodological Resources of the Novosibirsk Regional Special Library for the Blind and Visually Impaired for a detailed digest on the use of smartphones.
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The digest on the basis of which this material was prepared can be listened to here .