tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82116390641781173432024-03-28T02:14:34.859-07:00Accessible AndroidGet Maximum Eyes-Free Use from Your Android PhoneAccess Anahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08435803946541325126noreply@blogger.comBlogger38125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8211639064178117343.post-67535535195545129082020-08-13T14:14:00.000-07:002020-08-13T14:14:42.100-07:00Android Accessibility Time CapsuleIf you’re searching for information about how to use your Android device with a screen reader, you’ve come to the wrong place. This blog was created when Android accessibility was starting out. This was long, long ago, and things were very different from the way they are now.<div><br></div><div>For current information on Android accessibility, check out Google’s own documentation, visit user communities, drop into Inclusive Android, or grab a copy of NBP’S Getting Started with Android.</div><div><br></div><div>This blog is here mostly as a historical artifact to document how far Android has come in terms of its accessibility for the blind.</div>Access Anahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08435803946541325126noreply@blogger.com67tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8211639064178117343.post-23882149151267647502011-09-08T11:33:00.000-07:002011-09-08T11:35:47.693-07:00How can I better enjoy my HTC EVO Shift 4G With Sense UI and Gingerbread?Contributed by Alex Hiironen<br />
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The HTC EVO Shift 4G from Sprint is an excellent Android phone, with hardware keyboard, physical navigational controller, and decent specs. One of its drawbacks, however, is the HTC Sense user interface. The Sense UI affects fewer of the phone's applications than <a href="http://accessibleandroid.blogspot.com/2011/03/how-do-i-work-around-accessibility.html">the Touchwiz overlay on some Samsung phones,</a> but Sense does require users to find some extra know-how or workarounds for certain things: the accessibility option in settings, the unlock gestures, the stock launcher, the call answer/reject/end gestures, the in-call screen, and the Contacts, Messaging, Alarms, and camera apps. Don't worry, most of this is still usable.<br />
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In this post, I explain how to work around the accessibility glitches in the HTC Sense interface on my Evo Shift. There may be a little variation, especially when it comes to the gestures, but most of this information should transfer to other HTC Sense UI phones.<br />
<h3>Finding Accessibility Settings in a New Sense UI Device<br />
</h3>When you walk into the store to check out Sense UI cell phones or when your new Sense UI device comes in the mail, the person who is helping you start accessibility may tell you there is no accessibility item in the phone's settings. No need to sound the alarm.<br />
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To restore the accessibility option to settings, direct the sighted person helping you to go into the Market and install <a href="https://market.android.com/details?id=com.google.android.marvin.talkback&feature=search_result">Talkback by Eyes-Free Project or by Google, Inc.</a> Doing this not only installs the screen reader but also adds the Accessibility option to Settings.<br />
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To start speech, have the person helping you go into Settings/Accessibility, and check both Accessibility and Talkback. After that, you're good to go, and can manage the rest on your own.<br />
<h3>A Note About the Instructions in This Post<br />
</h3>When I say, "Press enter to do something," I mean "Press the actual Enter key on the hardware keyboard," not the center of the arrow keys. The center button in the arrow keys only seems to move focus through lists of items.<br />
<h3>Unlocking the Screen on the Evo Shift<br />
</h3>To unlock the screen, press the power button at the top of the phone. Spiel or Talkback says the time. Place your finger in the very center of the screen (both horizontally and vertically) and swipe down, and the screen unlocks. This gesture applies to the Shift, but may not apply to all Sense devices.<br />
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Alternatively, unlock the screen by opening the hardware keyboard.<br />
<h3>Using the Stock Launcher in HTC Sense Phones<br />
</h3>The HTC Sense launcher or home screen is almost completely inaccessible, so you'll want to go to the Market to install a home screen you can use. Examples of home screens that work well with speech are <a href="http://accessibleandroid.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-do-i-use-eyes-free-shell.html">the Eyes-Free Shell by Eyes-Free Project or Google, Inc.,</a> and Launcher Pro by Federico Carnales.<br />
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The only part of the stock HTC launcher that is usable with a screen reader is the All Applications list. To access it, press the Menu key. Then you can scroll through a list of all the apps installed, and you can press the enter key on the one you want to use.<br />
<h3>Answering/Rejecting Calls on the Evo Shift<br />
</h3>Gestures to answer and reject calls on Sense UI phones vary, depending on the version of Android you're running and on whether the screen is locked or unlocked. With the Shift and Gingerbread (2.3), the following instructions apply:<br />
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To answer a call while the phone is locked, simply swipe down from the very center of the screen, like when you unlock it.<br />
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To reject a call while the screen is locked, do the gesture in reverse, swiping up, starting at the bottom edge of the screen protector, if you have one, or above the 4 capacitive function keys. This makes the phone stop ringing and sends the call directly to voicemail.<br />
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To answer a call while the screen is unlocked, like when you're on your home screen or in another app, tap the on-screen answer button, which is located in the bottom left portion of the screen above the capacitive home and menu buttons. Having a screen protector helps. If you have one, locate the button by finding the edge of the screen protector and tap about .25 inch or .5 cm from the left. To do this, I usually hold the phone in my left hand and reach around so I can touch the button on the screen with my left thumb. It takes practice, but is second nature once you've done it enough. With the phone positioned in landscape, these buttons move to the long edge of the screen and become a bit longer and easier to tap.<br />
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To reject a call while the screen is unlocked, like when you're on your home screen or in another app, tap the on-screen ignore button, which is located in the bottom right portion of the screen above the capacitive back and search buttons. It's the same spot for answering, except on the right side of the screen. I find these gestures are easier to do by holding the phone in one hand and reaching around with my thumb to do the tapping.<br />
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Some users of FroYo (2.2) and earlier answer calls with a free app called <a href="https://market.android.com/details?id=com.ysrsoft.shakecall&feature=search_result">Shake Call by YSRSoft.</a><br />
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Since the Sense UI has removed the Use Power Button to End Call accessibility feature, you can also reject calls by pressing the power button.<br />
<h3>Ending Calls on HTC Sense Phones<br />
</h3>Ending calls is a little trickier on Sense UI phones because an accessibility feature allowing the power button to hang up has been removed, so you have to use the on-screen end-call button.<br />
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To end a call or hang up, pull the phone away from your face so the screen wakes up, find the lower left center of the screen, and tap it. The spot is roughly between the two capacitive buttons on the left and a little over 1 inch or 2.5 cm above the bottom edge. You have to do a little practicing, but after a few taps in that general area, it will be second nature. The phone plays a short tone to confirm the call has been ended.<br />
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You're probably thinking, "Why can't I just open the keyboard and arrow to the end call button?" You can, but I've found that sometimes Talkback or Spiel doesn't speak in the in-call screen, even when I have the phone far enough away from my face to avoid interfering with the proximity sensor. On those occasions, I've had to restart the phone to hang up at the end of a call or voicemail. It's much more efficient to use the touch gestures to answer and hang up calls.<br />
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Note: when attempting to touch the on-screen end call button, try not to tap the home or other capacitive keys. If you do, you'll have a tough time getting back to the in-call screen. The process involves using status notifications to return to the phone app and preying you get to the right screen so you can tap the "end call" button.<br />
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Some users with FroYo (2.2) and earlier end calls with a free app called Shake Call by YSRSoft.<br />
<h3>Adding, viewing, and Deleting Contacts using People<br />
</h3>People, the Contacts app on the Shift, is fairly accessible. You can add and delete contacts with a screen reader. You do have to arrow around more than usual to get things to speak, but it's doable.<br />
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When the app opens, you're on the "add contact" icon. Press enter on this to create a new contact. <br />
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To scroll through the list of contacts, open the ap and down-arrow. Pressing enter on someone's name enables you to call, text, set ringtone, and edit the contact details for that person. The options on this screen are spoken fairly well with Spiel. If you don't hear anything after pressing down arrow, press the down-arrow again. There are some unlabeled image buttons, which clutter the screen. To return to the contact list, press the back button.<br />
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One thing to keep in mind while in the main contact list is that, if you arrow down after you've reached the end of the list, you get to the most inaccessible part of the application. It seems to be a list of categories, and the enter and arrow buttons have no effect on these items. You need to force close and restart the contacts app to exit this area and use People again.<br />
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To add a contact, arrow to the "add contact" icon at the top of the contact list and press enter. It should be the item with focus when People opens.<br />
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When focus moves to the Name edit box, Spiel doesn't announce that it's an edit box, it just says, "Name." Go ahead and type the contact's full name and down arrow until you hear, "phone, edit text." You can specify multiple numbers and emails for a contact. It's just a little trickier, but the arrows are your friend in this app, so you can do it with Spiel if you're patient enough.<br />
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As you continue arrowing around to enter other details, you encounter lots of items that Spiel announces as "add." These are for birthdays and so on and make use of nonstandard picker controls, which are inaccessible, so arrow past them.<br />
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When you finish adding all the details you want for the contact, arrow down several times until you get to the "save" and "cancel" buttons. Save is on the left, and cancel is to the right of that. To save your changes, either press enter on the "Save" button or simly press the Back key.<br />
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Note: The contacts app allows for the creation of groups so you can send messages to multiple people at the same time. I haven't used this functionality, so I don't know if it's accessible or not.<br />
<h3>Using the messaging App in HTC Sense<br />
</h3>The messaging app that comes with the EVO Shift 4G is not all that different from the stock messaging app.<br />
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To compose a new message, just launch the app and press enter, as focus moves directly to the "compose message" icon when you start the app.<br />
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To add contacts to the "to" field, hit right arrow once while on the "To" field. This puts you on an unlabeled button. Press enter on this. The contact list comes up, allowing you to check as many as you wish. At the bottom is the "done" button. The great thing about this button is that it tells you how many contacts are selected, such as "Done (6)" button.<br />
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To return to the "to" field and the rest of the message, hit left arrow After pressing enter on the Done button. Then down arrow to the message body, where you can type your message. When you're done, press right arrow to move to the send button and press enter.<br />
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To reply to a text message, some workarounds are required because it is not possible to open a conversation and move to the message body field directly. Instead,hit enter on the conversation in the list, and arrow to the specific message you wish to reply to. Then do one of two things:<br />
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Either … long press enter to bring up the context menu for the message, and press enter on "Reply." When you do, focus moves to the message body edit field, where you can type your reply.<br />
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Or … press enter on the message in the thread, then tap the bottom center of the screen to move focus to the edit field.<br />
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Whichever method you use, Spiel says, "Add text," when focus moves to the message body. The next thing to do is to type your reply, press enter, then right arrow to the send button, and press Enter again. I've found that pressing enter in the message body field before moving to the send button works all the time. If I skip this step, focus stays in the message field or the app has other strange behavior.<br />
<h3>Setting Alarms with Alarm Klock<br />
</h3>The default clock app on the Evo Shift is inaccessible, so go to the Market, and download a free app called <a href="https://market.android.com/details?id=com.angrydoughnuts.android.alarmclock&feature=search_result">Alarm Klock by Craig G/,</a> which is easy to use and 100% accessible. Here is some basic information on how to use this app:<br />
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To set an alarm in Alarm Klock, start by opening the app and setting the time you wish the alarm to go off. When the app. is launched, focus moves right to the Add Alarm button. Press enter there, and explore the new screen. The items are organized top to bottom, so hitting left or right arrow doesn't wrap around confusingly. the screen shows some edit boxes and some buttons labeled +1, -1, +5, and -5. The +/-1 buttons are for setting the hour, and the +/-5 buttons are for setting the minutes. You can also enter the time manually in the edit fields. The AM/PM button is to the right of the time edit fields. Pressing enter on it toggles between the two, and Spiel speaks the new status when you arrow away and back again. After setting the time, down arrow to the OK button and press enter.<br />
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To give your new alarm a label and maybe assign it a different sound from the default alarm ring, go to the app's main screen, up arrow to the new unlabeled alarm, and press enter. This brings up a totally accessible screen for setting the alarm ringtone and other options. You can change the time here as well. Most of this is self-explanatory, so I won't go into any detail.<br />
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To stop a ringing alarm, simply slide your finger across the screen from left to right, about 1 inch or 2.5 cm from the bottom edge,. The alarm sound will stop immediately and place you on the HTC lock screen. You can then either swipe down to unlock or hit the power button to put the phone back to sleep.<br />
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To snooze a ringing alarm, simply tap the screen once near the center.<br />
<h3>Using the Camera<br />
</h3>The camera in HTC Sense is as inaccessible as the camera in stock Android, but you can still take pictures.<br />
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Don't smirk. Taking pictures may be useful even for totally blind people. For example, I was once in a lunch room where there was a new microwave I didn't know how to use. I took a quick snapshot of the front panel and sent it to a friend, and a few seconds later, I had enough info to warm up my lunch.<br />
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To take a picture, open the camera app, and press Enter while you're pointing the back of your phone at the object you wish to take a picture of. The menus don't read and there's no way to adjust picture quality, but the defaults are fine. The pictures are stored as ImagX.jpg, where X is a number, and placed on the SD card\dsim\100MEDIA.;<br />
<h3>Conclusion<br />
</h3>The EVO Shift 4G is an excellent phone once you learn to work with it. It would have been a better device if HTC left well enough alone, but even so, this phone is usable with hardly any 3rd party apps.Access Anahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08435803946541325126noreply@blogger.com207tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8211639064178117343.post-18938649638614549622011-06-19T13:26:00.000-07:002011-06-19T13:26:17.747-07:00How do I set and use alarms on Android?Android phones come with an accessible alarm clock app, which is surprisingly handy. On the road, users can have their phones wake them up in the morning. At home, they can set alarms for the start or end of their exercise routines, the time needed to boil an egg, the beginning of a favorite TV show, or the times they normally take any medication. At work, they can set alarms for specific tasks (e.g., work on X for an hour before moving on to Y for today). This post covers setting, using, and managing alarms with the stock alarms app in Android 2.2. <br />
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The process is similar in 2.1, but the app to search for is called Alarms, not clock.<br />
<h3>Finding the Alarms<br />
</h3>The Alarms app is part of an app called Clock. To find it, users start at their home screens, find the All Applications list, navigate to Clock, and launch the app. Once in Clock, users scroll to and press the selector on Alarms. The steps are as follows:<br />
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• From the stock home screen, scroll to and press the selector on All Applications or on Sliding drawer; then scroll to and press the selector on Clock.<br />
• From the Eyes-Free Shell, down-stroke to Applications; type the letter C and scroll down to Clock, or use stroke dialing. Then press the enter, selector, or Search button.<br />
• From Mobile Accessibility, swipe down to Apps, double tap, swipe to Clock, and double-tap again. The MA suite has it's own alarm clock app called Alarms.<br />
<h3>Getting Familiar with the Clock Screen<br />
</h3>The clock app has an interesting organization, which is easiest to conceptualize as an interrupted loop. When the app opens, focus is on the Dim button, and scrolling down once moves focus to the Alarms button. If users scroll left from Dim, focus moves to Music, Gallery, and Alarms, and from Alarms, they can scroll up once to return to Dim. If users start at Dim and scroll down once to Alarms, they can scroll right to Gallery, Music, and Launcher, and from Launcher, they can scroll up once to return to Dim.<br />
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Pressing the Menu button while on the Clock screen moves focus to Alarms, Add Alarms, and Dock Settings. The Alarms item on the Clock screen and the one accessed from the Menu button open the same screen; likewise, Add Alarms from the Clock Menu options opens the same screen as Add Alarms from the Alarms screen.<br />
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Pressing the selector on Gallery, Launcher, or Music while on the Clock screen launches the default photo, music, or home screen app.<br />
<h3>Setting an Existing Alarm<br />
</h3>A few alarms are preset on the phone, and each time a new one is set, it is added to the chronological list of alarms, so the quickest way for users to set an alarm is to scroll through the list of existing alarms and check one. The steps are these:<br />
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1. Launch Clock from the home screen using the steps described in an earlier section of this post.<br />
2. Navigate to and press the selector on Alarms.<br />
3. Scroll through the list. The first item is an Add Alarm button, and the last item is Clock Display, which returns focus to the Clock main screen. All the items in between are individual alarms, listed chronologically (e.g., 9:00 a.m. appears before 3:30 p.m.).<br />
4. Find the desired alarm, and do one of the following:<br />
a. Long-press (2-3 seconds) the selector, scroll to Turn Alarm On, and press the selector there.<br />
b. Short-press the selector, scroll to and press the selector on the Turn on alarm checkbox to check it, scroll through the alarm details and edit if desired, and navigate to and press the selector on Done, or simply press Back to set the alarm and return to the previous screen.<br />
5. Press Back several times or Home to return to the home screen.<br />
<h3>Setting a New Alarm<br />
</h3>The process of setting a new alarm feels long and tedious the first time or two. After that, it becomes quick and efficient.<br />
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1. Launch Clock from the home screen using the steps described in an earlier section of this post.<br />
2. Press Menu.<br />
3. Navigate to and press the selector on Add Alarm.<br />
4. Fill in the alarm information. Initially, the screen appears to have only two items: a Turn On Alarm checkbox and below it a Set item. Scroll up or to the right from Set and more items appear. They form a rough grid and are as follows from left to right and top to bottom :<br />
a. Increment Hour & Increment Minute – Briefly pressing the selector on one of these items adds one hour or one minute to the number that is already in the edit field (e.g., from 10 to 11). Pressing and holding the selector down on these controls increases the hours or minutes, depending on how long the selector is pressed: holding it down a couple of seconds increases by a small amount, and holding it down several seconds increases by a larger amount. When the selector is released, focus returns to the appropriate edit field, but the number does not refresh automatically for the screen reader, so you need to scroll up or down, then back, to hear the new number in the edit field.<br />
b. Hours edit field, Minutes edit field, & AM/PM button – The edit fields show the current time, so if it's 11:35 AM, the Hours edit field shows 11; the Minutes edit field shows 35; and the AM/PM button is set to AM. Enter the time you want the alarm to go off by typing into the edit fields or by pressing the selector on the Increment or Decrement controls (above or below). On many phones, it may be necessary to erase the current time before entering new numbers with the keyboard. If your phone does not have a number row, it may be necessary to press the alt key twice in each edit field before typing numbers. Scroll left to and press the selector on the AM/PM button to toggle between AM and PM. If the Talkback keyboard is enabled and you have trouble scrolling out of the edit fields, try pressing alt twice, then once more, before attempting to navigate away from the edit fields again.<br />
c. Decrement Hour & Decrement Minute – Briefly pressing the selector on one of these items subtracts one hour or one minute from the number that is already in the edit field (e.g., from 10 to 9). Pressing and holding the selector down on these controls decreases the hours or minutes, depending on how long the selector is pressed: holding it down a couple of seconds decreases by a small amount, and holding it down several seconds decreases by a larger amount. When the selector is released, focus returns to the appropriate edit field, but the number does not refresh automatically for the screen reader, so you need to scroll up or down, then back, to hear the new number in the edit field.<br />
d. Set & Cancel – Pressing the selector on these confirms or clears the alarm time and returns focus to the previous screen.<br />
5. Once the alarm has been set, focus moves to a screen with additional options. Scroll through them and make any changes. Options are as follows:<br />
a. Turn Alarm On – This checkbox is already checked for you. Press the selector to uncheck it if you don't want to hear the alarm.<br />
b. Time – This shows the time you expect the alarm to go off. Pressing the selector here moves focus to the Alarm Set screen described in Step 4.<br />
c. Repeat – This dropdown list is set to Never by default. Pressing the selector here moves focus to a list of the days of the week. If you want the alarm to go off on Monday through Friday, but not on Saturday or Sunday, SCROLL TO AND press the selector ON Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday to check those days; then scroll to and press the selector on OK.<br />
d. Ringtone – The default alarm ringtone sounds like an old fashion alarm clock. To change it, press the selector on this item, navigate to and press the selector on the ringtone of your choice, then jump to the bottom of the ringtone list with alt+down-arrow, scrolling down one more time and pressing the selector on OK.<br />
e. Vibrate – This checkbox is checked by default. Press the selector here to uncheck it if you do not want the phone to vibrate when the alarm goes off.<br />
f. Label – This item allows you to name the alarm. Press the selector here, type the label name in the edit field, then scroll to and press the selector on OK. The label name is spoken when the alarm goes off. This is a handy feature as names simplify choosing an alarm and act as reminders of what the alarm is for. So if you have a favorite show, you can set an alarm for it, then find it quickly by naming the alarm after the show, and if you're busy getting dinner ready, you can have two alarms set for the same general period of time, one called Casserole for turning off the oven and another called pudding for chilling the dessert. <br />
g. Done, Revert, Delete – These three items appear at the bottom of the list of options. Done saves the alarm information. Revert clears the alarm settings. Delete discards the alarm. Navigate to and press the selector on any of these, or press back to accept the current settings and return to the previous screen.<br />
6. When the alarm goes off, press the hardware volume or camera button to stop or snooze the alarm.<br />
<h3>Setting Alarm Behavior<br />
</h3>The Clock app offers users the option to determine alarm behavior through the Settings item on the alarm screen. The choices made in this Settings screen affect all alarms and remain in place until they are changed to something else.<br />
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To set alarm behavior, do the following:<br />
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1. Launch Clock from the home screen using the steps described in an earlier section of this post.<br />
2. Navigate to and press the selector on Alarms.<br />
3. Press the Menu button.<br />
4. Navigate to and press the selector on Settings; then scroll through the following items, making changes as desired.<br />
a. Alarm in silent mode – Checking this item allows the alarm to ring even when the phone is set to vibrate or silent mode. This item is checked by default as many users silence their phones at night.<br />
b. Alarm volume – Pressing the selector here pulls up a screen with a seek control and OK and Cancel buttons. Arrowing right on the seek control increases the volume of the alarm while arrowing left decreases it. Pressing the selector on OK sets the volume level and moves focus to the previous screen. <br />
c. Snooze duration – Pressing the selector here opens a list for setting the interval between snoozes. Options are 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 minutes. Navigate to and press the selector on the desired item. Then press Back to return to the previous screen.<br />
d. Volume and camera button – Pressing the selector here pulls up options that determine what effect the volume and camera buttons have on the alarms. Options are None, Snooze, Dismiss, and Cancel. Choosing None means that pushing the volume or camera button does nothing while the alarm is ringing. Snooze means that pressing the volume or camera button stops the alarm temporarily, and Dismiss means that pressing Volume or Camera stops the alarm once and for all. Press Back to return to the previous screen.<br />
5. Press Back several times or Home once to return to the home screen.<br />
<h3>Stopping and Snoozing Alarms<br />
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When an alarm rings, users can stop it temporarily (snooze) or completely (dismiss), depending on their setting in the Volume and Camera option described in the previous section of this post. <br />
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What to do when the alarm rings:<br />
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• If the option is set to Dismiss, press the physical volume or camera button to stop the alarm permanently. <br />
• If the option is set to Snooze, Press the physical volume or camera button to stop the alarm temporarily. When the alarm rings again, press the camera or volume button again. To stop the alarm permanently, pull down the status bar (by touching the top of the screen and sliding your finger down until you hear, "Status bar" or "Notifications"), scroll through the items, pressing the selector on the alarm label (e.g., Casserole), and press the selector to dismiss the alarm.<br />
• If the option is set to None, press the physical navigational controller or open the keyboard to wake up the phone, then down-arrow once to the Snooze item, and press the selector. To stop the alarm permanently, left-arrow from Snooze to Dismiss, and press The selector. This method of snoozing or dismissing alarms requires practice, unless screen reader volume is set to maximum, because the ringing alarm drowns out speech.<br />
<h3>Deleting and Editing Alarms<br />
</h3>When a new alarm is set, it is added to the chronological list of existing alarms so users can quickly access and reuse it at any time. <br />
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To quickly turn on an existing alarm – While on the list of alarms, scroll to the desired alarm, long-press the selector, then scroll to and press the selector on Turn on Alarm.<br />
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To delete an alarm you no longer need – While on the list of alarms, scroll to the desired alarm, long-press the selector, then scroll to and press the selector on Delete Alarm. A confirmation screen appears asking if you're sure you want to delete the alarm. Press the selector on OK.<br />
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To edit an alarm (e.g., to pick the children up from school early) – While on the list of alarms, scroll to the desired alarm, long-press the selector, then scroll to and press the selector on Edit Alarm. Focus moves to the screen for setting a new alarm, described earlier in this post.Access Anahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08435803946541325126noreply@blogger.com235tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8211639064178117343.post-15551510837120926322011-05-26T21:23:00.000-07:002011-05-26T21:23:41.297-07:00How do I text with the stock messaging app on my Android phone?Text messaging is so easy to do with an Android phone that it is one of the first tasks new users learn on their own. <br />
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This post covers sending and receiving texts, managing conversations, and adjusting settings in the stock messenger app. Not all features are covered because most are self-explanitory, but the basics are here.<br />
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Users can have the entire text of all incoming text messages spoken through a setting in Accessibility Preferences, an app from the Android Market. To have entire messages spoken as they come in, Talkback users must go into Accessibility Preferences/Talkback/Screen Status and check Allow Speech When Screen Is Off, and Spiel users must go into Accessibility Preferences/Spiel/Notifications and check Speak Notifications Even When Screen Is Off.<br />
<h3>Sending a Text Message<br />
</h3>1. Launch Messaging, the text app that is preinstalled on your phone.<br />
a. From the stock home screen, scroll to and press the selector on All Applications or on Sliding drawer; then scroll to and press the selector on Messaging.<br />
b. From the Eyes-Free Shell, down-stroke to Applications; type the letter M and scroll down to Messaging, or use stroke dialing.<br />
c. From Mobile Accessibility, swipe down to Apps, double tap, swipe to Messaging, and double-tap again. The MA suite has it's own messaging app called SMS.<br />
2. Press the selector on the New Message button, which has focus when the app opens.<br />
3. Enter the recipient's number or name in the To edit field, which is what has focus. Two methods are available.<br />
a. Type the phone number; then down-arrow twice to the message field.<br />
b. Type the name of a contact; then arrow down through a list of results and press enter or the selector on the one you want. When you press the selector, the To field is filled in and focus jumps to the message field. The first result is always the numeric equivalent of the text string: 747 for Sis or 74783 for Sister.<br />
4. Type the message. If you are using the Talkback Keyboard or Mobile Accessibility, you can review the text. If you are using Spiel, you can review the text character by character and line by line, or you can arrow up or to the right to move focus away from the edit field, then back down or left to return and hear what you've written. <br />
5. Press the Menu button to add a subject line, attachment, or emoticon; then arrow to and press the selector on the appropriate option. Emoticons are presented in a vertical list when you press the selector on Insert Smiley. This is an optional step.<br />
6. Send or discard the message.<br />
a. Right-arrow once to the Send button and press the selector. The Send button is not available when the body of the message is empty.<br />
b. Press Menu, then arrow to and press the selector on Discard to cancel the message.<br />
<h3>Reading a Text Message<br />
</h3>1. Launch Messaging from the Applications section of the stock home screen, the Eyes-Free Shell, or Mobile Accessibility as described earlier in this post.<br />
2. Arrow to and press the selector on the conversation you want to read.<br />
3. Down/up-arrow to read the messages in the thread.<br />
<h3>Adding the Sender of a Text Message to Contacts<br />
</h3>1. Launch Messaging from the Applications section of the stock home screen, the Eyes-Free Shell, or Mobile Accessibility as described earlier in this post.<br />
2. Arrow to and press the selector on the conversation with the sender you want to add.<br />
3. Down/up-arrow through the messages in the thread, stopping when focus is on the sender's name.<br />
4. Press Menu, then arrow to and press the selector on Add to Contacts. The procedure is similar to adding a contact from the Call Log. the Contacts app opens, and you can either scroll through contacts to add information to an existing entry or press the create button at the top of the screen to start a new entry.<br />
<h3>Replying to a Text Message<br />
</h3>1. Launch Messaging from the Applications section of the stock home screen, the Eyes-Free Shell, or Mobile Accessibility as described earlier in this post.<br />
2. Arrow to the conversation you want to reply to.<br />
3. Start the reply in one of two ways:<br />
a. Press Menu on the closed conversation; then arrow to and press the selector on Reply. The Reply option usually has focus when Menu is pressed.<br />
b. Press the selector to open the conversation. Down/up-arrow through the messages in the thread as if to read them. Move focus to the Reply edit field, which is at the bottom.<br />
4. Type the message. You can review what you're writing by using your screen reader's review features or by arrowing up or to the right to move focus away from the edit field, then back down or left to return and hear what you've written. <br />
5. Press the Menu button to add a subject line, attachment, or emoticon; then arrow to and press the selector on the appropriate option. Emoticons are presented in a vertical list when you press the selector on Insert Smiley. This is an optional step.<br />
6. Send or discard the message.<br />
a. Right-arrow once to the Send button and press the selector. The Send button is not available when the body of the message is empty.<br />
b. Press Menu, then arrow to and press the selector on Discard to cancel the message.<br />
<h3>Deleting Individual Messages, Threads, and All Threads<br />
</h3>Some of these methods work better than others in different versions of Android.<br />
<br />
1. Launch Messaging from the Applications section of the stock home screen, the Eyes-Free Shell, or Mobile Accessibility as described earlier in this post.<br />
2. To delete a message within a thread, navigate to the conversation, press the selector to open it, and arrow to the specific message to be deleted. Then long-press the selector, navigate to Delete Message, and short-press the selector.<br />
3. To delete a thread, navigate to and press the selector on the conversation you want to delete, and do one of the following:<br />
a. Long-press the selector on the closed conversation. Navigate to Delete Thread, and short-press the selector.<br />
b. Open the conversation by pressing the selector. Press Menu; then arrow to and press the selector on Delete Thread.<br />
c. Open the conversation by pressing the selector. Move focus to anywhere in the conversation except the Reply edit field. Long-press the selector; then arrow to and press the selector on Delete Thread.<br />
4. To delete all threads, Navigate to any conversation, but do not open it with the selector. Instead, press Menu and scroll to and press the selector on Delete Threads.<br />
<br />
In all cases, a confirmation screen asks users if they're sure they want to delete. Focus is on the on-screen delete button. To delete, users simply press enter or the selector. To cancel, they press the back button or arrow to and press the selector on the on-screen cancel button.<br />
<h3>Changing Settings<br />
</h3>The Settings covered in this final section of the post are the ones most users are likely to ask about, the ones dealing with notifications and ringtones. Other settings enable users to determine how many messages with and without media should be in a conversation, whether messages are deleted automatically, which messages should have read receipts, what the messaging app should do when roaming, and more, but these are all self-explanitory checkboxes, so they are not covered here.<br />
<br />
1. To go to Settings in the stock messaging app, launch Messaging. Press Menu while on the main screen, where all the conversations are listed. Then navigate to and press the selector on Settings.<br />
2. To reach the three items discussed in this post, either scroll to the bottom of the list of settings or press alt+down-arrow to jump to the end of the list. The items are Notifications, Select Ringtones, and Vibrate Also.<br />
a. Notifications – Checking this item sends a message to the status bar to let you know that a new text has arrived. This is checked by default as this is the behavior most users want. If, however, you are using a different messaging app (like Go SMS by Go Dev Team) because of an accessibility issue with your Sense UI or Touchwiz 2.2 phone, unchecking this item stops the phone from sending duplicate notifications, one from each messaging app.<br />
b. Select Ringtones – this dropdown list lets you assign a distinctive ringtone to incoming text messages. To change the messaging ringtone, press the selector on this item, scroll to and press the selector on the desired ringtone, then scroll to the OK button at the bottom of the list, pressing the selector. Remember that, on most phones, you can jump to the last ringtone with alt+down-arrow and press down-arrow once more to reach OK.<br />
c. Vibrate Also – Checking this item causes the phone to vibrate when it notifies you of a new text message. Some users have definite preferences about vibrational feedback.Access Anahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08435803946541325126noreply@blogger.com97tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8211639064178117343.post-39814830380162526732011-03-29T10:50:00.000-07:002011-03-29T10:50:10.836-07:00How do I use an external GPS receiver with my phone?Contributed by John J. Herzog<br />
<br />
One of the Android apps that blind and visually impaired users especially enjoy is WalkyTalky by the Eyes-Free Project. When the app is on, users hear street addresses as they walk past buildings and houses. If the phone has a good internal GPS receiver, this app makes independent travel much easier, but if the device has a buggy internal receiver, as is the case with the Samsung Epic, feedback is nonexistent or obviously inaccurate. <br />
<br />
For users who are not hearing spoken feedback or reliable information from WalkyTalky and other navigation apps, I highly recommend the use of an external Bluetooth receiver with an app called Bluetooth GPS Provider by mobile-j.de. This combination of hardware and software greatly increases the accuracy of the GPS and even, as in my case, the amount of auditory feedback delivered. <br />
<br />
Bluetooth GPS receivers are available through eBay and electronics stores like Radio Shack and Best Buy. I have the Holux m 1000. Other members of the Eyes-Free users list recommend the i-Blue 737 and the Qstarz 818, which have a newer chip set and reportedly get you within 10 feet of a location. Whichever device you choose, be sure to read the manufacturer's documentation for instructions on operation and maintenance.<br />
<br />
To use the external receiver with your phone, do the following:<br />
<br />
1. Install Bluetooth GPS Provider by mobile-j.de from the Android Market. Note that the first time you run the app, you may not hear any speech. I had to press the back button to open the main screen. <br />
2. Pair your Bluetooth receiver with your phone through Settings/Wireless and Network. <br />
3. Start the Bluetooth GPS Provider application. The main screen presents three options: Start, Stop, and Choose Receiver.<br />
4. Click on Choose Receiver In Provider, then scroll to and click on the Bluetooth device you paired with your phone. <br />
5. Click the Start button in Provider. If you get a message about allowing mock locations, do that. The app opened the appropriate option in my phone's settings so I was able to check the item. If you have to allow mock locations manually, go into Settings/Applications/Development.<br />
6. Hit Home on the phone. Don't hit Back, or you quit Provider and turn off any feedback. <br />
7. Launch WalkyTalky from the home screen. I heard the address of the house I was near almost as soon as I turned it on.<br />
8. Enable internal GPS if prompted. WalkyTalky may nag you to turn on internal GPS. If you leave the Destination field blank, this does not happen, so you can just use WalkyTalky with your Bluetooth GPS and Provider; however, if you enter a destination, WalkyTalky prompts you to turn on your internal GPS for route information. Don't worry, the external receiver is the one that actually provides the data to your phone. The prompt for turning on internal GPS is a glitch in WalkyTalky. <br />
9. Quit WalkyTalky when you're done. <br />
10. Turn off Bluetooth GPS Provider. <br />
11. Go into the Bluetooth GPS application and hit the Stop button. This prevents Talkback from repeating that there is a bluetooth gps problem when you turn off your receiver.<br />
<br />
That's all there is to it. If you're having trouble using WalkyTalky and other GPS apps, it may be that the GPS receiver in your phone is the problem. That is the case for me, and though keeping and charging an external device is yet another thing to remember, using a Bluetooth receiver with a simple Market app is easy and preferable to inaccurate or missing voice guidance.Access Anahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08435803946541325126noreply@blogger.com128tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8211639064178117343.post-19347500637946956972011-03-29T10:38:00.000-07:002011-04-24T10:06:04.893-07:00How do I work around the accessibility issues in Touchwiz with Android 2.2?Contributed by John J. Herzog<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, the upgrade to Android 2.2 has broken many accessible applications and features of the Samsung Epic. This is largely due to the Touchwiz user interface (UI), which is responsible for modifying key apps. After using my phone for a couple of days, I have found issues with Messaging, Call Log, Contacts, Caller ID, music player, GPS, my user defined home screen, and the My Apps area of the Market. Other apps may be affected as well. In this post, I explain the accessibility drawbacks in each of these key apps and describe workarounds to help you get a useable phone. <br />
<h3>Messaging on the Epic with 2.2<br />
</h3>Problem:<br />
<br />
In the stock text messaging app, it is hard to send a message to a person when there is no pre-existing conversation. When you open the app, you are placed in an edit box, and Talkback says, "to," to indicate that this is where you enter a phone number or contact name. While you can still write in this box, you can no longer type the first few letters of a contact's name, then scroll down the list of available matches with the arrow keys. If you try, you get an error stating that you have entered an incorrect address, and that the recipients will not get your message. For me, a person with over fifty contacts in his phone, this bug is a showstopper. <br />
<br />
solution: <br />
<br />
Download an app called Go SMS by Go Dev Team. It is available from the Android Market and is free to use. <br />
<br />
Go SMS is almost identical to the stock messaging app. There is an unlabeled button at the top of the screen; clicking on it allows you to compose a new message. The typing boxes have labels and work normally. <br />
<br />
When you launch go sms, focus is in the box where you specify who the message will go to. In this case, you can type the first few letters and use your arrows to scroll through a list of matches. Just hit enter when you find the contact you want, and the text is filled into the message box. <br />
<br />
After you finish filling in the recipient, hit the down arrow to get into the message body and type your text. This behaves appropriately as well. Then to send the message, hit the right arrow from here to move to an unlabeled button, which sends the message as it does in the stock messaging app. <br />
<br />
Other areas of Go SMS also behave similarly to the stock messaging app. For instance, when you launch Go SMS and use your arrows, you can browse through your conversations with friends. Clicking on a conversation allows you to either send a message to that person or reread all of the prior messages in the thread. There are no unusual quirks here. <br />
<br />
Note: If you open the Go SMS from a status bar notification, the New Text Message alert does not clear automatically. To clear it, you must either go into the stock messenger or clear the notification manually from the status bar.<br />
<br />
<h3>Call log on the Epic with 2.2<br />
</h3>Problem:<br />
<br />
The stock call log is largely inaccessible. Whenever you click on the call log, you are presented with a list of items that does not speak to you. You can hear a click every time you move, but you do not get any information about who called you, what time the call took place, and so on. <br />
<br />
But if you hit enter on any of the items that do not speak, Talkback announces the number for that call log entry, and you are placed in a list of all calls made between you and the number in question. This is inconvenient for two reasons. First, you have to click on each item that does not speak to find out which call it refers to. Seconde, if you make many calls to a particular number, many of the items that do not speak take you back to the same list, so you have to move up and down the list of all calls ever made between you and that number, instead of having a quick overview of individual calls that you can read in sequence.<br />
<br />
Solution:<br />
<br />
Download an app called Go Contacts by Go Dev Team. It is available from the Android Market and is free to use. The application contains two components, which are both useful to have: Go Dialer and Go Contacts. <br />
<br />
When you launch go dialer, you are placed in a list of calls. As you move down the list, Talkback announces each phone number. By pressing the menu key, you get to determine what types of calls are shown to you. For instance, I can click on the option that shows Missed Calls only. There are three other options: Incoming Calls, Outgoing Calls, and All Calls. <br />
<br />
One drawback of this application is that it arranges your calls alphabetically. In other words, if you have a missed call from Bob Smith, it appears in the list before your missed call from Doug Jones. This is true even if Doug was the most recent missed call. This is really annoying but I cannot seem to find a way around it for the time being. <br />
<br />
When you find a call you want to work with, you can short-press or long-press on the entry in the list. If you short-press enter, the phone dials the number so you can return the call. If you long press enter, you get several options. One is to delete this call from the call log. I choose this often so as not to forget who I called back and who I didn't. Other options are to add this caller to contacts or to create a new contact for the caller. All of these options are accessible and present no problems for Talkback. <br />
<br />
While Go Dialer is helpful, you may run into a few accessibility snags. When first opening the app, be sure not to hit the up-arrow. This takes you out of your call log, and into a dialing area of the app. It contains the keys on the number pad, and you can move from button to button using the arrow keys. However, from this dialing screen, you cannot get back into your list of calls. To return to the call log, up-arrow to the top of the screen, and click on the Dial item, which is actually a tab, and should bring you back into your call log. If this fails, go back up to Dial, right-arrow once, then left-arrow again. If all else fails, just exit the app and restart it. <br />
<br />
Note: If you open the Go Dialer call log from a status bar notification, the Missed Call alert does not clear automatically. To clear it, you must either go into the stock messenger or clear the notification manually from the status bar.<br />
<h3>Contacts on the Epic with 2.2.<br />
</h3>Problem:<br />
<br />
It is not possible to add a new contact from the stock call log. The stock call log includes an option for adding an entry to contacts by hitting the menu key and choosing add to contacts. This places you in a list of your existing contacts. The next logical step is to arrow to a New Contact button, click it, and start an entry with the phone number from the call log. However, this is the step that is inaccessible as there is no New Contact button that can be reached with the arrow keys. Navigating above the contact list takes you to a search box, where you type the name of a contact you are looking for, and moving to the bottom of the list doesn't produce anything either. So your only real option is to add the number to an existing contact. <br />
<br />
Solution:<br />
<br />
Download an app called Go Contacts by Go Dev Team. It is available from the Android Market and is free to use. The application contains two components, which are both useful to have: Go Dialer and Go Contacts. <br />
<br />
I usually access Go Contacts through Go Dialer because these apps work together. In Go Dialer, I arrow through the items in the call log. Calls associated with contacts are listed alphabetically, with other calls at the top of the list. When I find the phone number I want to add to contacts, I long press the enter key on it. I get a menu of options, including one for adding a new contact. I click on this option, and then edit the contact info as I did in the stock Contact app of 2.1. All the fields are labeled and behave appropriately with Talkback. <br />
<h3>caller ID on the Epic in 2.2 <br />
</h3>Problem:<br />
<br />
The option to have caller ID spoken is no longer available. Samsung has removed it. I consider this one of the most annoying accessibility regressions of the Epic. Previously, I could have the Epic announce the name of the caller in place of the ring tone itself. <br />
<br />
Solution:<br />
<br />
Download an app called Call Announcer by Codean software. It's available from the Android Market in both free and licensed versions; I'm using the free version. <br />
<br />
After Call Announcer is installed, I simply go into the app, and check the setting Enable Callback Announcer. This lets the app speak the name of the caller over the ringtone. A quieter ringtone works better; otherwise, the voice may be drowned out by the tone itself. I use the system default which is called Luminescence. Note that, if you put the ringtone to silent, the free version of Call Announcer does not speak the caller ID information. <br />
<h3>Music Player on the Epic with 2.2<br />
</h3>Problem<br />
<br />
In the stock music player, you can scroll through a list of sound files and click on individual items, but you cannot control playback once the music starts. When playback begins, focus moves to a screen with unlabeled buttons. You can find out what some of them do by clicking on them, but this method of trial and error isn't completely helpful since some buttons take you out of the screen and none seems to stop the current song from playing. I was able to stop playback only by using the task manager to kill the app. Also, in the window that is shown while a song is played, the seek control does not respond to the left and right arrow keys, so you cannot rewind or fast-forward within a song. <br />
<br />
Solution<br />
<br />
Download an app called Android Music by JRTStudio. It is available from the Android Market and is free to use. According to the app description, it is identical to the stock Gingerbread music player. <br />
<br />
The app opens on a song list. Arrowing up and down moves focus through the items in that list. Arrowing left and right moves focus to the Artist, Album, Song, and Play List tabs, from which you can also arrow up and down. Clicking on a title plays the song, and all the buttons on the play screen are labeled.<br />
<h3>Internal GPS on the Epic with 2.2.<br />
</h3>Problem:<br />
<br />
The internal receiver continues to have problems getting a fix on satellites. For example, when using Walkytalky with the Epic's internal GPS, Walkytalky does not announce the addresses you are passing by, and it does not alert you to upcoming turns, as the GPS accuracy can be off by 3 to 4 meters and usually more. <br />
<br />
Solution:<br />
<br />
Use an external GPS receiver with an app called Bluetooth GPS Provider by mobile-j.de. It is yet another replacement app available from the Android Market and is free to use. <br />
<br />
By default, android phones do not let you connect with bluetooth gps receivers. Here is a brief overview of the steps needed to run bluetooth gps provider with the Epic. For more detailed information, refer to the post on <a href="http://accessibleandroid.blogspot.com/2011/03/how-do-i-use-external-gps-receiver-with.html">using GPS receivers with Android phones:</a><br />
<br />
1. Install Bluetooth GPS Provider from the market.<br />
2. Do not start the app yet.<br />
3. Go into Settings, Applications, then Development. Check the Allow Mock Locations box, and press Back several times to exit Settings. <br />
4. Click on Bluetooth GPS Provider to start the app. Be sure that your receiver is on, and select it from within the app. In the future, you can just open Bluetooth GPS Provider, and click Start. Once the Start button has been pressed, do not click the Back button; if you do, you close the application. Instead, hit the home button to move to your home screen, then to Walkytalky, leaving Bluetooth GPS Provider running in the background. Walkytalky now gives you appropriate information as you use it.<br />
5. Turn off Bluetooth GPS Provider when finished. Go into the Bluetooth GPS application and hit the Stop button. This will prevent Talkback from repeating that there is a bluetooth gps problem when you turn off your receiver. <br />
<h3>User Defined Home Screen on the Epic with 2.2<br />
</h3>Problem:<br />
<br />
You can set the eyes-Free Shell as your default, but the phone keeps going back to TW Launcher, which is part of Touchwiz. This, however, doesn't happen with Mobile Accessibility. <a href="http://accessibleandroid.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-do-i-set-or-change-default-home.html">I follow the steps to set Eyes Free Shell as the default home screen,</a> but when I restart the phone or when I long-press Back, TW Launcher opens, and pressing the Home button doesn't open the Eyes Free Shell. I have to go through the process of setting the Eyes Free Shell as my default again.<br />
<br />
Solution:<br />
<br />
Download an app called HomeSmack by TeslaCoil Software. It is available from the Android Market and is free to use. <br />
<br />
Unfortunately, there is no fix beyond telling the phone you want the Eyes-Free Shell to be the default home screen. What HomeSmack does is offer an easy way to change the default home screen, letting me reestablish which one I want to use without my having to dig through the settings. Nevertheless, my Epic insists on defaulting to TW, and nothing I do changes that.<br />
<h3>My Apps Area of the Market on the Epic with 2.2<br />
</h3>Problem<br />
<br />
It's not possible to access the My Apps area in Market, using the keyboard. When you open the Market app and press Menu, My Apps is one of the available options. Pressing the physical enter key on this option returns focus to the list of apps on the Market main screen; it does not open the My Apps list. Since the Epic doesn't also have a selector, there is no alternative hardware key to activate My Apps, and the soft d-pad of the Talkback keyboard isn't available because My Apps appears on a menu screen.<br />
<br />
Solution<br />
<br />
There is no alternative app for this problem. The solution is to guess where the option is on the screen and tap it with your finger. <br />
<br />
The menu options (Search, My Apps, Settings, and Help) appear across the bottom of the screen. Whenever the physical keyboard is open, the phone is in landscape orientation, so these options are on the screen above the number row. <br />
<br />
To find My apps, touch the number 5 or 6 on the physical keyboard; then slide your finger directly on to the screen from there. I'm not at 100 percent, but I find it most of the time.<br />
<h3>conclusion: <br />
</h3>The Samsung Epic with 2.1 was a fine choice for a screen reader user. Since its upgrade to froyo (2.2), I no longer recommend it to a blind user. Many of the critical apps do not work well with Talkback or Spiel. Messaging, managing your call log, adding contacts, checking caller ID, listening to music, using GPS, maintaining the user defined home screen, and accessing My Apps in Android Market are all near impossible without replacement apps from the market. Furthermore, if you use alternative applications to read texts and respond to missed calls, the system notifications alerting you of these events do not clear automatically. If you really must have an Epic, be sure you are a user who is comfortable using the android market to find and install apps; otherwise, I recommend either Mobile Accessibility from Code Factory or a different phone altogether.Access Anahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08435803946541325126noreply@blogger.com40tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8211639064178117343.post-50602479507770158162011-03-17T19:08:00.000-07:002011-03-18T10:19:31.097-07:00How do I listen to Kindle books on my Android Phone?Contributed by Fenton Smith<br />
<br />
I explain here how blind people can remove the DRM from Kindle books for use on Android and other devices. These instructions are permitted only for personal use so that people with disabilities can have the same level of access to ebooks as is already available to the sighted. <br />
<br />
Certain legal ramifications should be kept in mind. While the Department of Justice has said that it will take no action against those who break DRM to make file content accessible to people with disabilities, the DOJ has also said that it will take legal action if people sell, give away or loan such files outside their immediate households. Also, carelessness with respect to the rights of authors and publishers may cause the DOJ to rethink its stand and Amazon to plug this hole in its DRM.<br />
<br />
Given all of this, I recommend against doing the work for other blind people, even if they buy the original source from Amazon. Instead, I suggest pointing them to tutorials like this one, which describe the tools and procedure for setting up an environment that allows them to make their purchases accessible for themselves.<br />
<h3>Gathering the Tools<br />
</h3>A number of tools are needed to support this process or help set up the environment. All are listed at the end of this article along with links to sources, and all are free.<br />
<br />
The first item is the <a href="http://www.demonoid.me/files/details/2483622/004261412868/">EBook DRM removal Kit.</a><br />
<br />
This is a Torrent file. I used <a href="http://www.bittorrent.com/btusers/download">BitTorrent for the download.</a> The file contains zip and rar files. Both can be unpacked by <a href="http://www.7-zip.org/">7zip.</a><br />
<br />
The file is a set of instructions, Python scripts and related executables for removing the DRM from Kindle and other file types. The basic DRM removal doesn't require a python interpreter, but the scripts for topaz file handling do require <a href="http://www.python.org/getit/">python 2.6 or 2.7.</a><br />
<br />
The second item is the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000632481">Kindle for PC with accessibility plugin</a> from Amazon. The K4PC gives you access to the files you purchase and brings them to your PC. The files will appear in your “My Kindle Content” directory, which is created during installation, and they will have an .azw (Amazon.com wrapper) extension. <br />
<br />
Note that this version of Kindle for PC requires that you have a screen reader installed. The Amazon page describing this version of K4PC includes a list of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_pcaccess_accessshortcuts?nodeId=200608290&pop-up=1">shortcuts for the accessible Kindle Application</a> and a list of screen readers known to work with it. If you are using a screen reader that is not listed, download the program, install it, and check to find out if it works anyway. If it doesn’t, contact Amazon to tell them which one you are using and request that they add it to the list of compatible screen readers.<br />
<br />
The third item is <a href="http://calibre-ebook.com/download">Calibre,</a> a set of tools for translating ebooks from one format to another.<br />
<br />
Note that the torrent does contain the installation executable for Kindle for PC, but that version is not accessible. Instead, use the special version directly from Amazon.<br />
<h3>Removing the DRM from the File<br />
</h3>The DRM remover package documents several methods for using the programs and scripts it contains. The one I chose is this:<br />
<br />
1. Create a special SKindle directory on the hard drive, where the My Kindle Content directory is also located. This is usually the system drive c:. I created the SKindle directory on my c:\ drive, but you can put it anywhere else on the drive.<br />
2. Create two sub directories in the SKindle directory. Their names are Input and Output. <br />
3. Into the SKindle directory, copy LZSkindle4PCv1_1.exe and skindle.exe, each of which is found in different subdirectories of the Torrent.<br />
4. copy the .azw file from your “My Kindle Content” directory into the input directory in SKindle and execute LZSkindle4PCv1_1.exe. This is the step that actually removes the DRM from the Kindle book. <br />
<br />
Three outcomes are possible: <br />
<br />
• No conversion is done since the file is an unencrypted mobi file. The file remains in the input directory.<br />
• The file is converted, the version without DRM appearing in the output subdirectory.<br />
• The file version without DRM appears in the output file with a changed extension. <br />
<br />
The goal is the first or second option. The third is a problem as it represents the case of a topaz ebook. The set of scripts do include python scripts for dealing with topaz books, but the results are said to be unsatisfactory. Since most Amazon books are mobi, I'll leave the handling of topaz books until I need to attempt to read one.<br />
<br />
Note: While the DRM removal tools were running, I noticed that K4PC uses both the user account name on the PC and the serial number of the disk drive as part of the encryption. That means these scripts will work only if you log onto your computer using the same user account (login name)that was used when the book was downloaded from Amazon and that the SKindle directory must be on the same physical drive as the “My Kindle Content” directory. <br />
<h3>Converting the Kindle File to Epub<br />
</h3>Now that you have a mobi book with no encryption in either the input or the output subdirectory, you need to convert it into an ePub for use on your Android or other reading device. Use Calibre to do this. The steps are as follows:<br />
<br />
1. Create a directory named Calibre in the root directory of the drive that contains the SKindle and “My Kindle Content” directories.<br />
2. Copy the .azw file with the DRM removed into the Calibre directory. <br />
3. Use the notepad or your favorite text editor to create the following batch file:<br />
<br />
Note that these are separate commands and should appear on different lines of the batch file. Also note that the assumption here is that the “My Kindle Content” directory will be on the C drive. This is the normal case, but advanced users can move it to another drive, in which case, the drive letter in the following needs to be changed.<br />
<br />
cd c:\calibre\ <br />
<br />
ebook-convert "[book name].azw" .epub<br />
<br />
Exit<br />
<br />
4. Save this file as Calibre.bat in the Calibre directory. <br />
5. If you need to edit the batch file, either open Notepad directly and use the file menu to open, or right click on the batch file name in Windows Explorer and select Edit from the context menu. <br />
6. Execute the file by left clicking on the batch file name in Windows Explorer. <br />
<br />
Notes: <br />
<br />
• In this tutorial, when a modified command line is specified, the idea is that you modify the line in the batch file. Running the command line outside its’ normal context does not produce the desired result.<br />
• The phrase “[book name]” and the brackets around it should be replaced with the base name (the file name without the extension)of the Kindle book you want to process. In other words, before running the batch file, you need to substitute "[book name]" with the actual name of the book so the line reads something like this:<br />
<br />
ebook-convert "Dracula.azw" .epub<br />
<h3>Dividing the Book into Chapters<br />
</h3>While Calibre normally correctly identifies chapter headings, there may be instances in which it fails to do so or in which the book has no identifiable chapter headings. If this is the case, you can do a little extra work to add them yourself, converting the file to .rtf and using Word to insert chapter breaks:<br />
<br />
1. Use the notepad to open the Calibre.bat file and change the output file type in the second line from epub to .rtf so that it reads:<br />
<br />
ebook-convert "[book name].azw" .rtf<br />
<br />
2. Save the modified batch file. <br />
3. Execute Calibre.bat by doing a left click on the file name in the Windows Explorer.<br />
4. Open the resulting document in word and either mark chapters or insert headings every 10 to 15 pages.<br />
a. To find existing chapters, use Find (ctrl+f) to locate the word "chapter" or some other word or character that seems unique to chapter headings in the book.<br />
b. To insert arbitrary chapter breaks, Use Edit/GoTo (or ctrl+g) and enter a page number about 10 to 15 pages ahead of your current position, do a skim of the area where you land to find a suitable point for a chapter break, and insert text like "Chapter ##."<br />
c. Once the existing chapter has been found or an arbitrary break has been inserted, highlight the title text and press alt+ctrl+1 to make it a heading at level 1 . Then repeat the process throughout the book. Note that pressing alt+ctrl+1 to alt+ctrl+6 turns highlighted text into a heading at levels 1 through 6.<br />
5. Use the caliber batch file to convert the modified rtf file back into an epub after all chapter breaks have been marked or inserted.<br />
a. Open the caliber.bat file with the notepad or right click the file name in the Windows Explorer and select “edit.” <br />
b. Alter the second line to read:<br />
<br />
ebook-convert "[book name].rtf" .epub<br />
<br />
c. Save the batch file and exit notepad. <br />
6. Left click on the caliber.bat file in Windows Explorer to run the batch file, resulting in a conversion of the file from rtf format to an epub book.<br />
<h3>Moving the Converted File to the Phone<br />
</h3>Now that the DRM has been removed and the book is an ordinary ePub file, the only step left is to copy it to the phone's SD card. The usual procedure is to connect the phone to the PC with the USB cable provided, mount the SD card/turn on USB Mass Storage Mode, and copy the files from the computer to the SD card. If a reader is already installed on the phone, a directory named Books is on the root of the SD card. That is the directory where ePub files are to be copied. Once the ebook is in that folder, you are ready to enjoy your book with an accessible reader like Moon Reader+ Pro.<br />
<h3>Trying an Alternate Method<br />
</h3>Notice that Calibre was used for three different processes, altering the associated batch file for each specific process. Another approach is to create three batch files, one for each purpose. That is, the batch files would have names like “Amazon-epub.bat,” “amazon-rtf.bat,” and “rtf-epub.bat.” <br />
<br />
Another simplification is to always use the same file name for every book processed. Thus, you would always use the file name “book” with the appropriate extension in each of the batch files. The following outlines such a process:<br />
<br />
• Copy the desired book from “My Kindle Content” to SKindle/input. <br />
• Run LZSkindle4PCv1 to remove the DRM.<br />
• Copy the file from either SKindle\output or SKindle\Input, depending on the case, into c:\calibre.<br />
• Change the file name to “book.azw” in the c:\calibre directory. You can edit file names in the Windows Explorer by hitting the F2 key while the file name is selected and then type a new name.<br />
• Use the base name “book” in all subsequent processing. <br />
• When the epub is finished, change its name from “book.epub” to reflect the content (e.g., “Margaret Mitchell, Gone With the Wind.epub”).<br />
<br />
This modified approach lets you perform the needed processing on many books without needing to modify the batch scripts for each book.<br />
<br />
To summarize, blind and visually impaired users can legally remove DRM from Kindle files to access the content as long as they do so for their own personal use. The actual file conversion process is easy and straight forward. The hard part is finding information on removing the DRM. It's available on the web for people without disabilities, but it's scarcer when the tool set to complete the process needs to be accessible too. It took me a good deal of research to find a tool set that works for blind people. I am sharing what I've found with other Android users to keep them from reinventing the wheel.<br />
<br />
Now that I can access them, I'm looking forward to Kindle books. My first choice for reading material is still Bookshare, but due to the time it takes me to download from BARD (an hour or more at my download speed), my second choice will probably be Amazon via my Android.<br />
<h3>Tool sources<br />
</h3>The following are referred to in this tutorial. Hyperlinks have been included in the text for your convenience, but URLs are listed here in case you wish to keep them in your records.<br />
BitTorrent<br />
Source: www.bittorrent.com/btusers/download<br />
<br />
7zip<br />
Source: www.7-zip.org/<br />
<br />
DRM remover<br />
Source: www.demonoid.me/files/details/2483622/004261412868/<br />
<br />
Python<br />
Source: www.python.org/getit/<br />
<br />
Calibre<br />
Source: calibre-ebook.com/download<br />
<br />
Kindle for PC with Accessibility Plugin<br />
Source: www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000632481<br />
<br />
Accessible Kindle for PC shortcuts list<br />
Source: www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_pcaccess_accessshortcuts?nodeId=200608290&pop-up=1Access Anahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08435803946541325126noreply@blogger.com122tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8211639064178117343.post-20367742748193919482011-03-11T17:27:00.000-08:002011-03-11T17:38:46.074-08:00Android Users Can Now Explore Their New Phones IndependentlyKeyboard Tutor is a new Android app from the eyes-free project that can help you locate and learn about the keys on your physical keyboard, and any other physical buttons on your phone. Just start the app, and press any button to hear a description of that button spoken.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://market.android.com/details?id=com.googlecode.eyesfree.keyboardtutor&feature=search_result">You can download Keyboard Tutor from the android market.</a>Access Anahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08435803946541325126noreply@blogger.com247tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8211639064178117343.post-32536881734584537912011-03-07T21:31:00.001-08:002011-03-24T16:18:47.621-07:00How do I Develop an Accessible App?If you are reading this blog for the first time, you are probably a developer wondering how to make your app more accessible to screen reader users. This post explains how you can test your app for accessibility, what you can do to make it more usable by blind and visually impaired people, and where you can find more information to help you develop accessibly.<br />
<h3>Understanding Android Accessibility<br />
</h3>When developing for Android, you must keep three things in mind:<br />
<br />
1. The touchscreen is not accessible, so blind and visually impaired users find and activate controls using the d-pad or trackball.<br />
2. Web views are not accessible, so blind and visually impaired users can not read information presented in this format, unless it is web content that can be accessed via the user default browser, in this case the <a href="http://market.android.com/details?id=com.ideal.webaccess&feature=search_result">Ideal Web Reader.</a><br />
3. End users have very basic control over the information that is spoken, so long explanatory screens aren't helpful because the information generally cannot be repeated or spoken in its entirety. <br />
<h3>Testing for Accessibility<br />
</h3>To find out how accessible your app is for eyes-free users, simply turn on accessibility, activate a free screen reader, and try to use your own app without looking at the screen. Odds are you'll be sailing a stormy sea.<br />
<br />
To turn on accessibility, do the following:<br />
<br />
1. From the Android Market, install a free screen reader. Current options are <a href="http://market.android.com/details?id=com.google.android.marvin.talkback&feature=search_result">Talkback</a> and <a href="http://market.android.com/details?id=info.spielproject.spiel&feature=search_result">Spiel.</a> Choose one.<br />
2. Go into Settings/Accessibility, and check Accessibility and your screen reader.<br />
<br />
The phone should start talking within a second or two. If it doesn't, you may need to install a free TTS library like <a href="http://market.android.com/details?id=com.svox.classic&feature=search_result">SVox Classic</a> or <a href="http://market.android.com/details?id=com.marvin.espeak&feature=search_result">ESpeak.</a><br />
<h3>Developing with a Screen Reader in Mind<br />
</h3><a href="http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/design/accessibility.html">Google has published a set of best practices for designing for accessibility.</a> These boil down to a few key concepts: <br />
• The UI should be navigable using a directional controller.<br />
• Widgets should provide content descriptions.<br />
• Custome views should deliver appropriate accessibility events during user interactions.<br />
• <br />
The list of suggestions below is based on issues end users encounter regularly:<br />
<br />
1. Image-based controls should have appropriate content-descriptions; otherwise, eyes-free users hear "image button," without getting information about what the button is for.<br />
2. All on-screen controls should be reachable via the trackball/d-pad or the Menu key; otherwise, eyes-free users cannot find or use them. This includes the Accept and Decline buttons of the initial screen.<br />
3. Controls without implicit text (e.g., text inputs, radio buttons with separate labels, etc.) should also have contentDescriptions set; otherwise, eyes-free users can not complete complex input scenarios, as they will hear only "edit" or "checkbox," without having any information about how to populate the edit field or what checking or unchecking the box does. There is currently no way of associating static labels with inputs<br />
. A workaround is to make the labels themselves focusable, but it's better to simply set the contentDescription of controls to the same value as the text that labels them.<br />
4. Text alternatives should be available for information presented as embedded web views; otherwise, eyes-free users hear, "web view," and nothing else. Embedded web views are not spoken by the screen reader.<br />
5. Apps that open the browser (to display a recipe, lyrics, shopping site, news article, etc) should open the user's default browser; otherwise, eyes-free users hear, "Web view," and nothing else. The stock browser is currently not accessible,, so blind and visually impaired users access the web via the Ideal Web Reader.<br />
6. Explanitory text, like help screens and tutorials, should be short, no longer than the text displayed in the app description of the Market application on the phone; otherwise, eyes-free users do not hear them in their entirety. Two notepad apps that display text accessibly are <a href="http://market.android.com/details?id=com.ohglaube.unote&feature=search_result">uNote</a> and <a href="http://market.android.com/search?q=oi+notepad&c=apps">OI Notepad.</a><br />
<h3>Finding More Information<br />
</h3>For more information, you can refer to a <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/gdevelopercodelabs/android/accessibility">code lab created by some engineers on the eyes-free team.</a> It goes over more advanced concepts. But this code lab is probably overkill for a developer who, like you, already has designed an app and just wants to make it accessible.<br />
<br />
For help with specific issues, you can post to a <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/eyes-free-dev">developer group for programmers with eyes-free accessibility in mind.</a><br />
<h3>Checking an App's Accessibility Rating<br />
</h3>To find out how accessible eyes-free users think your app is, <a href="http://www.AndroidAccess.net">visit the Android Access website</a> and look your app up. The site is a venue for blind and visually impaired Android users to rate apps for general accessibility and to share tips and workarounds for problems, like unlabeled buttons or inaccessible features.<br />
<br />
To let end users know about your most recent accessibility improvements, post to the <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/eyes-free">Eyes-Free users list</a> or tweet @AccessAna, who will be happy to let other users know.Access Anahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08435803946541325126noreply@blogger.com123tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8211639064178117343.post-15019784189055751932011-03-07T21:25:00.000-08:002011-03-07T21:25:30.110-08:00How do I tether my computer using PDAnet?Contributed by John Herzog<br />
<br />
PDAnet by June Fabrics Software is an application that enables you to tether your android phone to your computer. This is convenient when you need an internet connection as you are out and about. No rooting of the phone is required, and the app is both entirely accessible with Talkback and compatible with android 2.1 and 2.2. <br />
<br />
I discuss using PDAnet with Windows. The Mac version does not appear to be accessible and I explain why later in this article. <br />
<h3>Installing PDAnet<br />
</h3>PDAnet involves some setup both on your phone and on the laptop or netbook you will be using. <br />
<br />
First, install the app on your phone. To do this, use your handset to open the android market. In the search box, type "pdanet" without capitals or spaces. Scroll to PDAnet by June Fabrics software and install it as you would any other application. <br />
<br />
Next, on your computer, go to the <a href="http://www.junefabrics.com/android/download.php">June Fabrics Software website</a> and download PDAnet for your PC. There are two components to this program, and both are included in the installer. One of them enables your computer to surf the net, and the other is the PDAnet SMS agent. It is possible to send text messages from your computer when your phone is connected, but I cannot comment on whether the SMS agent is accessible or not because I have not used it. <br />
<br />
Once setup has finished downloading, run it as you would any other windows program. The various screens, such as the license agreement, are pretty straight forward. There are, however, a couple of things to keep in mind as PDAnet is being installed onto the Windows machine:<br />
<br />
1. Setup is going to ask you for your phone manufacturer. Make sure you choose the right one from the list, as all phones rely on different drivers. Installing the wrong one may leave you unable to use PDAnet, or may freeze the computer. If you have an older phone, you may have to find the USB drivers on the carrier or manufacturer website.<br />
2. Setup may hang on the installing-USB-driver screen. If this happens, hit alt tab to check for additional screens. In my case, there was a security warning from Windows 7, saying that the driver was unsigned and therefore untrusted. I had to click Install Anyway for the setup process to continue. I also had to click a similar screen later in the setup process. <br />
<br />
As installation progresses, the computer presents a screen with instructions for completing the USB driver setup. It tells you to unplug the phone from the computer if it is connected. It also instructs you to go into your phones settings and turn on USB Debugging mode. On the phone, this setting is found in Settings/Applications. Press the selector on USB Debugging and then again on ok when the phone warns that this option really shouldn't be turned on if you're not a developer. Plug the phone into your computer. After a while, the USB driver finishes installation, and PDAnet is ready to use. <br />
<br />
I use NVDA as my screen reader. I knew setup was finished when it placed me in a read only field. I wasn't able to read anything in it, but an alt+F4 got me past that screen. <br />
<h3>Using PDAnet: <br />
</h3>Now that PDAnet is installed, fire it up and test the internet out. This is simple to do.<br />
<br />
1. Connect the phone to the computer with the USB cable.<br />
2. Make sure PDAnet is running on the computer, but don't click the connect icon in the system tray yet.<br />
3. Launch the app on the phone. To do this, choose applications from the Eyes Free Shell, MA, or another home screen. hit p, and if necessary scroll to PDAnet. Open it by pressing the selector.<br />
4. Check the phone to know what to do next.<br />
a. The app may open on a screen with a few options. These include Start USB Tethering and Start Bluetooth DUN. You can connect either via bluetooth or USB to your computer for the tethering functionality. If this screen is the one that opens, select the option you want and hit enter to browse the web with firefox, internet explorer, or chrome.<br />
b. Alternatively, the app may open on a screen showing two buttons. One of them is Stop PDAnet, and the other is unlabeled. I cannot comment on what the unlabeled button does. If this screen opens, you don't need to do anything else on the phone side, but you do have to click connect on the PC. To do this, go into the system tray. Arrow to PDAnet, press the Applications/Context key to pull up a list of options, and press enter on Connect to the Internet. If you are using windows 7, the network wizard asks questions at this point (e.g., type of network--home or public). After you get through the wizard, you should be able to browse the web with firefox, internet explorer, or chrome. <br />
<br />
Note: I have not gotten the Bluetooth connection to work myself, so cannot comment on it.<br />
<h3>Disconnecting PDAnet: <br />
</h3>When you finish using the internet, disconnect your computer from it. I find that if I do not do so, my phone's battery goes down slightly, even though it is plugged into USB. <br />
<br />
1. Start with the PC. Go back to your system tray, and find the PDAnet icon. Hit the applications key, and arrow to the Disconnect option, pressing Enter.<br />
2. Next, on your phone, hit the Stop PDAnet button on the applications screen. If the phone has gone to sleep, you will have to unlock the screen first.<br />
3. Finally, use Safely Remove on the PC to properly disconnect the phone. <br />
<h3>Pointing out a Few Odds and Ends: <br />
</h3>1. USB Debugging may need to be turned on and off if you want to use other features of your phone. I like to watch movies from my storage card, but the option to move files to and from the phone is not available with debugging turned on. To change this, I simply go into Settings/Applications, and uncheck the box that says allow USB tethering. Then I remember to turn this back on before using PDAnet again.<br />
2. Sorry Mac users. PDAnet does not appear to be accessible. The program utilizes icons on the menu bar, similar to Sound Flower. Voiceover does not see the icons on the menu bar, and these must be clicked to connect to the internet. There does not appear to be a workaround, though I will admit that I have not played with the mac application thoroughly.<br />
3. PDAnet is free, but there are limitations. To remove them, you must pay for a license. The most noteworthy limitation is that in the free version, you do not have access to secure web sites. These are addresses that start with https and require a login. The good news is that you get a 14 day trial of the unlocked program. This will help you decide whether you really want it or not. The licensing skeme is pretty liberal. You get a license for your phone, so you can install PDAnet on as many computers as you wish. As long as they are used with the same phone, your unlock code should work on multiple laptops, netbooks, etc. <br />
<br />
I hope this information is helpful.Access Anahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08435803946541325126noreply@blogger.com31tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8211639064178117343.post-39563657284802850952011-03-06T20:10:00.000-08:002011-03-06T20:10:55.083-08:00Android Access Lets Users Review Apps for AccessibilityThe following was posted to the Eyes-Free list today by J.J. Meddaugh of <a href="http://www.atguys.com">A T Guys.</a><br />
<br />
A T Guys is pleased to announce a new website for the accessible Android community. Android Access offers information, ratings, and accessibility reviews for dozens of accessible Android applications. <br />
<br />
Users can <br />
• Post reviews of apps they've tried. <br />
• View tips and tricks submitted by others. <br />
• Learn more about how to get started with the Android operating system.<br />
• Stay up to date with the latest news and features.<br />
<br />
We are thrilled to bring this free service to the Android community, and look forward to your comments, suggestions, and submissions.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.androidaccess.net">Click here to visit Android Access.</a>Access Anahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08435803946541325126noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8211639064178117343.post-69691286576822791832011-03-02T15:24:00.000-08:002011-03-02T15:35:23.865-08:00Mobile Accessibility: Code Factory Goes AndroidMobile Accessibility: Code Factory Goes Android!<br />
<br />
Features <br />
• Touchscreen Navigation<br />
• Speech Recognition<br />
• Web and Email Access<br />
• Nuance’s Vocalizer® Text-to-Speech<br />
<br />
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<br />
Terrassa (Barcelona), Spain, March 2nd, 2011<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
“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.”<br />
<h3>Mobile Accessibility Is Two Products in One:<br />
</h3>• 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. <br />
• A screen reader that allows users to get out of the suite and navigate the standard interface of their phone. <br />
<br />
“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.<br />
<h3>The Major Features of Mobile Accessibility Are the Following:<br />
</h3>• 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. <br />
• 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. <br />
• 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. <br />
<br />
“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.”<br />
<h3>Inside the Mobile Accessibility Suite of Accessible Applications You Can Do the Following:<br />
</h3>• Phone: Make calls, answer calls, hear the caller ID and manage your call log. <br />
• Contacts: Manage your contacts, even those from social networks such as Facebook. <br />
• SMS: Compose and read short messages. Manage conversations. <br />
• Alarms: Set your alarms. <br />
• 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. <br />
• Calendar: Create, edit and delete a calendar entry. View all events per day, week or month. <br />
• Email: Full access to your Gmail account <br />
• Where am I? : GPS application that gives you updates on your current location. <br />
• Settings: Change ringtone. Configure feedback and notifications (vibration or audio). Configure keyboard echo, punctuation verbosity, speech pitch and rate, etc. <br />
• Quick access to date and time, phone status information such as battery level and network coverage, number of missed calls and unread messages, etc.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.codefactory.es/en/products.asp?id=415#video">To hear Mobile Accessibility in action listen to videos and audio demos.</a><br />
<br />
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. <a href="http://www.google.com/phone/#manufacturer=all&category=all&carrier=all&country=all&reset_filters=1">Click here to find more information about Android phones.</a><br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
You can now get a Mobile Accessibility Demo from the Android Market and try the product for free for 30 days:<br />
<br />
<a href="https://market.android.com/details?id=es.codefactory.android.app.ma.vocalizerenudemo&feature=search_result">Click here for Mobile Accessibility Demo US.</a> <br />
<br />
<a href="https://market.android.com/details?id=es.codefactory.android.app.ma.vocalizerengdemo&feature=search_result">Click here for Mobile Accessibility Demo UK</a> <br />
<br />
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 <a href="https://market.android.com">the Market web page.</a> Before buying the app make sure to <a href="http://www.codefactory.es/en/products.asp?id=415">check out our website to see what carriers offer the product for free to their customers.</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.codefactory.es/MA/en/ma_1_0_manual.html">To learn how to use Mobile Accessibility for Android, please consult the user guide.</a><br />
For technical assistance, please submit a ticket through <a href="http://www.codefactory.cat/helpdesk/">Code Factory’s Help Desk.</a><br />
<br />
For more information about Mobile Accessibility and Code Factory <a href="http://www.codefactory.es/en/list.asp?id=88">subscribe to the Mobile Accessibility mailing list.,</a> <br />
<a href="http://www.codefactory.es">visit our website,</a> <br />
<a href="http://twitter.com/codefactory">or follow the company on Twitter</a> and use the hashtag #MA to talk about Mobile Accessibility.<br />
<h3>About Code Factory<br />
</h3>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. <br />
<h3>About Nuance Communications, Inc.<br />
</h3>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 <a href="http://www.nuance.com/">Nuance.com.</a>Access Anahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08435803946541325126noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8211639064178117343.post-9365278656600426602011-03-01T11:18:00.000-08:002011-03-01T11:18:33.340-08:00TouchType Is Now AvailableNolan Darilek, the developer of the Spiel screen reader, posted the following to the Eyes-Free Android list. His new app is a free download from the Android Market:<br />
<br />
Touchtype is an accessible on-screen keyboard for Android devices, inspired heavily by that found in Apple's IOS. Open source released under the Apache 2.0 license, Touchtype is useful even without the on-screen keyboard, as it also solves several accessibility flaws in Android's input-handling. Find it in the Android Market, or at <br />
http://dev.thewordnerd.info/touchtype <br />
where you'll also find installation and usage instructions.<br />
<br />
Note: please read the *entire main page* before asking questions or offering feedback, as the FAQ addresses many of the most common questions I've received.<br />
<br />
Enjoy. <br />
<br />
I'll try popping into <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/eyes-free">the eyes-free list</a> from time to time, but for a quicker response, please ask any questions on <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/spielproject">the Spiel group.</a>Access Anahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08435803946541325126noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8211639064178117343.post-82442431274453616512011-02-20T22:01:00.001-08:002011-03-29T11:36:59.161-07:00How do I work with the call log in Touchwiz on my Samsung phone running Android 2.1?Contributed by John J. Herzog<br />
<br />
I am a Samsung epic user. My phone has the Touchwiz UI, and in my opinion, it's pretty accessible with Android 2.1, the only noticeable exception being the call log. This is not the case for <a href="http://accessibleandroid.blogspot.com/2011/03/how-do-i-work-around-accessibility.html">the Epic running Android 2.2,</a> which has a number of accessibility issues and which I discuss in another post. Here I describe how to work with the call log in Touchwiz devices running Android 2.1. <br />
<br />
In the epic running 2.1, the initial screen of the call log does not speak with either Talkback or Spiel. As you navigate up and down the list of calls, you hear a click each time you move the arrow keys, but nothing is spoken. This is not a show stopper, though, because you can press enter on the keypad to get a list of details that you can navigate through accessibly. <br />
<br />
So if I go into the call log and hit the down arrow a couple of times, I don't hear anything. But when I hit enter on a random spot, I find out that I called my dad. Talkback speaks his number, and the phone shows me a list of all the times I have previously called him. <br />
<br />
At the top of this Details screen is a set of buttons, which the phone also reads correctly. They are Call, Add to Contacts, Delete, and so on, and I can use the left and right arrows to move from one button to the other. <br />
<br />
Below the buttons is the first entry/call--the most recent. The line below that is the call I made several days ago, etc., all the way down the screen from newest at the top to oldest at the bottom. <br />
<br />
To get back to the main screen of the Call Log, I press the back button. Once there, I can continue scrolling down the list to other calls, pressing enter every time I want to know whom I called or who called me. I know this is not the most convenient way of doing things, but every other screen on the Epic with 2.1 works better than this one. <br />
<br />
You can use the Details screen to delete one or more calls from the same person. Deleting all but the most recent call makes navigating your call log easier. If you don't delete things, you may find yourself returning to the same list of calls over and over as you arrow through the main Call Log screen and press enter on another call to or from the same person. So to save yourself aggravation, review all the times you called a certain number, and delete all calls or any repetitions in one fell swoop. <br />
<br />
To delete call entries, open the Details screen, where the calls for a specific person are listed. from here, press Menu. Right-arrow to the Delete button, and press enter. Focus moves to a list of check boxes. Select all the calls you want to delete by arrowing to each check box and pressing enter. At the bottom of the list is a delete button. Press enter on it to get rid of the entries you selected.<br />
<br />
Note that, for some strange reason, the select all check box is spoken by Talkback, but it is not clickable. It would be great to just click that and arrow to delete, but that does not appear to be possible.<br />
<br />
The information in this post covers working with the call log of the Samsung Epic, a phone running the Touchwiz UI with Android 2.1. This is the only aspect of the phone that is negatively affected by the UI; however, before considering a Touchwiz phone, please read my post on <a href="http://accessibleandroid.blogspot.com/2011/03/how-do-i-work-around-accessibility.html">the Epic with Android 2.2.</a>Access Anahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08435803946541325126noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8211639064178117343.post-3814069503593552032011-02-20T21:59:00.001-08:002011-02-20T23:03:25.954-08:00How do I add and edit contacts in Motoblur on my Motorola phone?Contributed by Chris Gilland<br />
cgilland1@carolina.rr.com<br />
<br />
If you are a Motoblur user, one of the things you notice is that the Contacts manager isn't as accessible for you as it is for vanilla android users. Where accessibility is especially broken is in the new contact screen. This post gives you information about how to add or edit a contact in Motoblur as well as how to do some basic contact management.<br />
<br />
I don't know how much variation there is in Motoblur, so I don't know how much your mileage will vary. But we tested this information on two Moto blur phones, one running Android 2.1 and another running 2.2, and we found that Both brought up the same screens and responded in the same way. The only differences were minor changes of terminology (e.g., the "add new contact" option in 2.1 is simply called "new" in 2.2, and the given/family name fields of 2.1 are the first/last name fields of 2.2). <br />
<h3>Getting Familiar with the Contacts Manager in Motoblur<br />
</h3>When you open the contacts manager on a phone running Moto Blur, you land in a list of all your contacts. Here, you can hit the selector to filter your contacts by Groups, Favorites, or All Contacts. By default, you're set to All Contacts.<br />
<br />
If you down-arrow you highlight each contact individually as you go, so think of this screen as a vertical list like Settings or any other group of options.<br />
<h3>Managing Contacts in Motoblur<br />
</h3>To find someone, You don't have to just down-arrow contact by contact. If you start typing part of the first or last name, the phone finds the contact, if no results are found, you get an option that says, "New contact using," followed by whatever you typed. So this makes it really easy to jump to a contact quickly.<br />
<br />
To read a contact's details, Arrow to or search for the person and press the selector. That opens up the details for that contact. This is information like Home Phone, Mobile Phone, Work Phone, Other Phone, Email, Street Address, and IM Address. So if you've added a home number and want to find it, down-arrow here to read items like, "Home: 555-1212.<br />
<br />
To contact the person, you can move to an item in the Details screen and press the selector. For example, Short-pressing the selector on the phone number calls the person, or long-pressing on the phone number brings up options you can arrow through like Call Contact and Send Text Message.<br />
<br />
To make changes in Contacts, start by viewing a contact's details as described in the previous paragraphs; then press the Menu key on the bottom left of the screen to bring up things like Edit and Delete. Edit let's you make changes to a contact's details and works like the screen for a new contact. Delete removes the contact.<br />
<br />
To completely delete a contact, you don't have to go into the contact detail's page. There's a shorter way. Out on the main contacts screen, highlight the contact, and long-press The selector. That gets you a somewhat lengthy context menu. Down-arrowing through that list of options gets you to Delete. <br />
<br />
Whatever way you delete a contact, you get to exactly the same confirmation screen. You're asked to confirm your decision. At this point you have two buttons. Yes is on the left, and no is on the right. Arrow left or right to the button of your choice, just like you would for any other screen, then hit the selector. Whichever you do, you are then taken back to your contact list.<br />
<h3>Adding a Contact in Motoblur: Explained<br />
</h3>Some of the instructions in this section seem counterintuitive, but they work, so put on your seatbelt: it's going to be a rough ride.<br />
<br />
As I said before, when you open the contacts manager, you land in a list of all your contacts. You can down-arrow through the list of contacts or press the Menu button to access other options. <br />
<br />
A word of warning, If you down-arrow to a contact after opening the app, your menu on the bottom left of the screen gets disabled, So don't down-arrow after opening the app. Just go straight to the menu. If it's too late and you already started arrowing, then hit the Back key or touch the bottom right of the screen like you'd do normally to return to a previous screen. In this context, pressing the Back button unselects everything.<br />
<br />
So when you're on the main contacts page, before you highlight anything, touch the menu button at the bottom left of the screen. The first option on the top row of your menu here is new contact. Press the selector there.<br />
<br />
When you do that, the first thing that happens is that you land in a text box where you can now write the contact's given name. Type the contact's first name, for example, John.<br />
<br />
Now, hit your down-arrow one time. That puts you in an edit box. Visually, this is located directly below the given name box. This is for the family name. Type Doe, and by the way, if you need to put Sr. or JR. here, that's fine, do it. <br />
<br />
Here is where the road starts getting rocky. So follow along carefully. <br />
<br />
After you type the last letter of the last name, down-arrow one time. Now, be aware, Talkback doesn't say anything, Nada, Absolutely nothing. That's okay. What just happened is that you've landed on a green plus sign, which is an Add icon. It's not labeled. That's why Talkback isn't saying anything. <br />
<br />
But go ahead and hit the selector. When you do, a box that wasn't on the screen suddenly appears. That's where you can type the phone number. You're not in the box itself yet. you're on a drop down button that says, "Home, dropdown button." <br />
<br />
Push the selector on this button, and a context menu comes up. here, you can simply up and down-arrow through labels like Home, Mobile, and Work. <br />
<br />
Arrow up or down to go to the label you need, and hit the selector. If you don't like any of the labels in the list, you can make up your own. <br />
<br />
To make up your own label, down-arrow to Custom, which is an edit box. Type Skype. Down-arrow to OK, and hit the selector. Boom, we made a custom Skype label. <br />
<br />
Now, whether you picked a label or made one up, you're back again at the Label dropdown button, Only instead of Home, you hear whatever label you picked for that number. <br />
<br />
the box for the phone number is next to this Label button. Right-arrow one time to get into it; then type the phone number associated with that label for your contact. Type 5555555555 for the area code and phone number, no hyphens needed. You also don't need to press the alt twice before typing. The phone knows it's a number edit field and expects to type numbers.<br />
<br />
When you finish adding contact details, press alt+down-arrow to get to the bottom of the screen, where you find two buttons. On the left is Save, and on the right is Discard. arrow to Save and press the selector.<br />
<h3>Adding Another Phone Number/Email for a Contact in Motoblur: Explained<br />
</h3>Now, if you want to create a contact with two or more phone numbers, the ride gets all-terrain in a big way. You have to follow me exactly for this to work. <br />
<br />
Do what I discussed in the previous section only don't save the contact yet, so you're on the New Contact screen, and you have a first and last name and a phone number for this person.<br />
<br />
It helps if I explain what the screen looks like at this point. If you were to down-arrow, you'd get another icon which Talkback doesn't read. This is to add a field for an email address. It works on the same principle. You press the selector to open a dropdown box for your email label; then after finding the one you want and selecting it, you right-arrow to get to where you type the actual email address. <br />
<br />
However, we're not going to do that quite yet. You just typed the last digit of the first phone number, and you want to add a second phone number. To the right of this phone number field, you have two buttons: The first is a green plus sign for adding another number, and the second is a red minus sign for clearing the phone number edit field. It works this way on all the other fields on this screen, so keep that in mind as you read this post. <br />
<br />
Because accessibility is broken, you can't just arrow once to the right to get to that green plus sign, after you type the last digit of the first phone number. You're going to have to do something different. It's tricky but not that tricky. The important thing is to ignore Talkback as you do the next part to keep from getting thrown.<br />
<br />
after typing the last digit of the phone number 5555555555, up-arrow one time. this lands you to the right of the letter e in Doe. In other words, you're right after the last character in the family name/last name field. <br />
<br />
Then right-arrow once. This puts you on a button where if you hit the selector, you get more fields like middle name, phonetic name, etc. don't hit enter on that.<br />
<br />
Instead, down-arrow once. I know, you're thinking that'll land you in the phone number box. No, it won't. It puts you on an unlabeled image button.<br />
<br />
Hit the selector. Boom! You did it! Now you're on the dropdown label for your next phone number. Set it, move to your right, and type the next number. <br />
<br />
Need a 3rd number? okay, cool. up-arrow to the family name box, then right-arrow, then down-arrow, then hit the selector.<br />
<br />
It's important to understand that the first phone number you enter is at the bottom. In other words, every field you add, regardless of the detail type, gets pushed down and the new one goes on top. So if the first number I added is a home number and the second is a mobile, the mobile number shows up above the home phone. <br />
<br />
When you finish adding phone numbers, down-arrow to move to another icon that Talkback doesn't read. This is to add a field for an email address. It works on the same principle: press the selector to open a dropdown box for your email label; after finding the one you want and selecting it, right-arrow to get to where you type the actual email address; finally, if you want to type additional addresses, up-arrow, right-arrow, and down-arrow, pressing the selector on the unlabeled image button with the green plus sign to bring up a new Label option, and so on. <br />
<br />
In other words, to get to the plus symbol that adds another of the same contact detail for any given item, like phone, email, etc. you have to up-arrow to the previous field, then right-arrow once from the previous field, then down-arrow. Last, you hit the selector to open the Label dropdown list.<br />
<br />
I know it's totally cock-eyed, but That method works. <br />
<br />
Finally, when you finish adding contact details, press alt+down-arrow to get to the bottom of the screen, where you find Save (on the left) and Discard (on the right). arrow to Save and press the selector.<br />
<h3>Adding a Contact in Motoblur: Step by Step<br />
</h3>Let's repeat what we did to add a new contact only this time I'm giving you a step-by-step description of the process.<br />
<br />
1. Open contacts, and press menu at bottom left of screen.<br />
2. Arrow to and press the selector on new contact. <br />
3. In the given name field, type John, and down-arrow once. <br />
4. In Family name, type Doe, and down-arrow once. <br />
5. There is absolutely no spoken feedback where you land. Press the selector anyway to get to the Label button, and press it again to open the dropdown list of labels.<br />
6. Down-arrow to the label you want and hit the selector to choose it.<br />
7. Right-arrow once to an edit box, and type the number with area code, 5555555555 (no hyphens).<br />
8. Down-arrow once from the phone number to add an email address.<br />
9. There is absolutely no spoken feedback where you land. Press the selector anyway to get to the Label button, and press it again to open the dropdown list of labels.<br />
10. Down-arrow to the label you want and hit the selector to choose it.<br />
11. Right-arrow once to an edit box, and type the email address, john.doe@gmail.com.<br />
12. Save your changes by pressing alt+down-arrow to get to the bottom of the screen. Arrow to Save and press the selector. <br />
<h3>Adding Another Phone Number/Email for a Contact in Motoblur: Step-by-Step<br />
</h3>Let's repeat what we did to add a second or third contact only this time I'm giving you a step-by-step description of the process. We'll add some hone numbers first, then some email addresses.<br />
<br />
1. Follow steps 1-7 of the previous section to start a new contact and to type in his or her name and phone number.<br />
2. After the last digit of the number, add another phone number by up-arrowing to the family/last name, right-arrowing once, then immediately down-arrowing once, and pressing the selector, not enter, on an unlabeled image button.<br />
3. You're now on the Label button. Press the selector to go in, arrow to the phone label for the next number, and hit the selector again to pick it.<br />
4. Right-arrow to the Phone edit box, and type the number.<br />
5. Repeat Steps 2-4 for each additional phone number.<br />
6. After finishing Step 4, add the first email address by down-arrowing once to a silent item, hitting the selector twice to bring up and open the Label dropdown list for email, navigating to the label you want, choosing it with the selector, right-arrowing to the Email edit field, and typing the first address (Steps 8-11 of the previous section).<br />
7. Add a second email address by doing the following: <br />
a. Up-arrow once to the edit field of the last phone number you find. If it's not the last one you typed, don't panic. Remember that, when you're adding fields to a contact detail, the new field is going to pop up above, not below, the last one.<br />
b. Right-arrow, then down-arrow, once. This is just like adding more phone numbers.<br />
c. Hit the selector, NOT Enter, on an unlabeled image button, and boom, now you're on the Label dropdown for the 2nd email address. Arrow to your label, and press the selector on it. <br />
d. Right-arrow once, and type the second email address.<br />
8. Save your changes by pressing alt+down-arrow to get to the bottom of the screen. Arrow to Save and press the selector. <br />
<br />
Mission accomplished. The process isn't as convoluted as it sounds.Access Anahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08435803946541325126noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8211639064178117343.post-30357667414183544102011-02-20T21:55:00.000-08:002011-02-20T21:55:35.893-08:00How do I move contacts from my Nokia to my Android Phone?Contributed by J.J. Meddaugh<br />
http://www.ATGuys.com<br />
<br />
<br />
Many of you, like me, were using Nokia phones previous to experimenting with Android. One of the tasks I wished to accomplish early was to import my contacts, as I certainly did not want to reenter these. If you're in this situation, here is some information on how I accomplished this.<br />
<h3>Exporting Contacts from the Nokia<br />
</h3>First, I exported my contacts from my Nokia phone. On my N82, I did the following:<br />
<br />
1. Opened my list of contacts on the phone.<br />
2. Pressed button 1 for the Options menu, arrowed down to Mark/Unmark, and pressed OK.<br />
3. Selected Mark All and pressed OK.<br />
4. Returned to my list of contacts, pressed button 1, selected Copy, and pressed OK.<br />
5. Selected To Memory Card and pressed OK. The contacts are copied to the memory card on the phone. Note that if your phone has internal memory, you may need to adjust this step slightly.<br />
<h3>Copying contacts to the Computer and Preparing them for Android<br />
</h3>Next, I connected my phone to my computer. On the memory card or mass storage is a folder called Other. under the Other folder is a subfolder called Contacts. The Contacts subfolder contains a VCard or .vcf file for each individual contact. These files are in plain text, so you can open one with Notepad to make sure it's fine or to find out how these types of files are formatted.<br />
<br />
In order to import my contacts, I needed to combine all of these separate .vcf files into one Large file. Here's how I accomplished this:<br />
<br />
1. On the computer, opened the command-line shell by pressing Windows-R, then typing "cmd" and pressing enter.<br />
2. Switched to the directory where my contacts were located. For instance, if your contacts are on a memory card on drive E, you might type the following line followed by enter: <br />
cd e:\other\contacts<br />
3. Used the copy command to combine the separate files into a single.vcf file with all of the contacts by typing the following command and pressing enter: <br />
copy *.vcf all.vcf <br />
Now the directory should contain a new file called All.vcf. You can again open this file with Notepad or another text editor to verify it is right. When you do, you should find an entry for each of your contacts.<br />
4. Typed exit and pressed enter to close the command-line shell.<br />
<h3>Uploading Contacts to the Google Cloud<br />
</h3>Finally, I needed to import these contact files to a Google account that is linked to my Android phone. You can use a Gmail account or another Email account connected to Google Apps. Here's what I did:<br />
<br />
The following steps involve going to the <a href=http://mail.google.com>Gmail page.</a> If you are using the Basic HTML view, you will need to switch to the standard view to accomplish these steps. The link to do this is near the bottom of the page. If your screen reader does not support standard view, you may need to download NVDA or another alternative to complete these steps. Note: I had better luck with NVDA in Firefox than in Internet Explorer.<br />
<br />
1. Logged in to my Gmail or Google Apps Email account.<br />
2. From my Inbox screen, Selected the Contacts link. You may need to refresh your webpage buffer to find the contacts in your account. <br />
3. Selected the Import Contacts link.<br />
4. Pressed the Browse button, and selected the All.vcf file I created earlier.<br />
5. Selected import to upload my contacts.<br />
<br />
Be aware that if other contacts were already on your Gmail page, these will also be synced to your Android. You can delete them ahead of time or just decide to copy all of them.<br />
<h3>Importing Contacts to Android<br />
</h3>If your Google account is linked to your phone, which it probably is, your contacts sync within a couple of minutes. If you need to link an account, you can do that from the phone. On your Android device, open contacts, press the menu button, arrow to accounts, and follow the prompts to add a new Google account. You can also choose if you want to sync your contacts between your computer and phone.Access Anahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08435803946541325126noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8211639064178117343.post-19914208836530166412011-02-20T21:52:00.000-08:002011-02-20T22:59:04.778-08:00How do I import vCards and groups of contacts?As users begin to feel comfortable with their phones, one of their first major tasks is to add contacts, a list of names, phone numbers, and email addresses to their devices. Contacts can be added from electronic business cards via email attachments, brought in from VCF files stored on the phone's SD card, or imported from the computer via the Google cloud, which refers to the online address book associated with a Gmail account. At this time, adding the sender of an email to contacts is not accessible in K-9 Mail.<br />
<br />
The information in this post covers working with electronic business cards (VCards), using VCF files stored on the phone's SD card, and importing contacts from the Google cloud.<br />
<br />
For information on adding individual contacts from the Call Log, the text messenger, and the contacts app or on managing and using contacts in general, refer to the previous post.<br />
<br />
Users coming to Android from Nokia may be interested in J.J. Meddaugh's post on <a href="http://accessibleandroid.blogspot.com/2011/02/how-do-i-move-contacts-from-my-nokia-to.html">transferring contacts from Nokia to Android.</a><br />
<br />
Users working with the Motorola Motoblur UI may find more helpful information about <a href="http://accessibleandroid.blogspot.com/2011/02/how-do-i-add-and-edit-contacts-in.html">adding and managing individual contacts in Motoblur</a> in the post by Chris Gilland.<br />
<br />
Users working with the Samsung Touchwiz UI may find more helpful information about navigating <a href="http://accessibleandroid.blogspot.com/2011/02/how-do-i-work-with-call-log-in-touchwiz.html">the Touchwiz Call Log</a> in the post by John J. Herzog.<br />
<h3>Adding Contacts from an Email Attachment in K-9 Mail<br />
</h3>Users who receive electronic business cards can quickly and easily copy the information from the vCard to Contacts, using K-9 Mail. The steps are as follows:<br />
<br />
1. In K-9 Mail, open the message with the vCard attachment.<br />
2. In the open message, navigate to and press the selector on the Open button on screen. The button can also be accessed by pressing the Menu button on the device.<br />
3. If the Android system screen opens, navigate to and press the selector on Contacts, or navigate to and press the selector first on Use by Default for this Action, then on Contacts.<br />
<br />
The Contacts app opens, and focus moves to the View Details screen for the newly imported contact. Users can edit or simply close with the Back key.<br />
<h3>Adding Contacts from the SD Card<br />
</h3>Contacts can be added from VCF files stored on the SD card. VCF is the file format used for electronic business cards or vCards, and it is also commonly used for sharing contact information among applications. Files of this type may contain single contacts or groups of VCF files. To import information from VCF files to the phone, do the following:<br />
<br />
1. Open Contacts.<br />
2. Press the Menu button.<br />
3. Navigate to and press the selector on Import/Export.<br />
4. Navigate to and press the selector on Import from SD card.<br />
5. Wait a few seconds for the phone to search the SD card and import the files.<br />
<br />
Focus returns to the main Contacts screen, so users may search for the new contact to make sure it has been properly added to the list.<br />
<h3>Adding contacts from the Computer<br />
</h3>Moving Contacts from the computer to the Android phone is a 3-step process. First, Contacts are collected into a file from the email reader on the computer. Second, the Contacts file is uploaded to Google. Third, the Contacts are downloaded from Google to the phone. In some cases, there's a fourth step, which is to ensure that new contacts added to the phone are uploaded to Google. While the process may seem complicated, it’s actually just a matter of following these steps:<br />
<br />
1. Turn the Contacts on your computer into a CSV or VCF File. CSV and VCF files are simple text files that contain address book information. The acronyms stand for comma separated values and vCard files. For specific instructions on how to make these types of files, run an internet search by typing the name of your email reader and the term “CSV file” for Windows or the name of the app and "VCF" for Mac. Most likely, the procedure for individual contacts will include going into Files, then Save As, and for groups of files, it will probably involve going into Files, then Export.<br />
2. Upload the CSV or VCF file to Google.<br />
a. Go to your Gmail page on the computer.<br />
b. Make sure you are in Standard View by using your screen reader or browser to locate the word "standard." You should find a line of text that says, "Gmail view: standard." If what you find is a Standard View link, pres enter on it and check the screen again.<br />
c. Find the Contacts link, and press enter to open a new page.<br />
d. Find the More Actions button, and press enter to access additional options.<br />
e. Find the Import Contacts link, and Press enter to reach the upload screen.<br />
f. Find a combo box that asks where you want your contacts imported. Open it with alt+down-arrow and select the My Contacts option. Tab once to get out of that combo box.<br />
g. Find the Browse button, press it, and navigate through your hard drive to the CSV file you made in Step 1, pressing open/choose when you locate it. Your computer takes a moment to upload the file.<br />
h. Tab to the Import button and press enter to move the contacts into Google.<br />
i. After a few seconds, find the word "CSV" or "VCF." If the upload process is successful, a notification that X number of contacts has been imported from the CSV/VCF file appears on the screen.<br />
3. Most likely, your contacts sync to the phone automatically. If they do not appear on the phone within a few minutes, adjust the sync settings on the device by going into Settings, then Accounts and Sync and doing the following:<br />
a. Navigate to Background Data and check it.<br />
b. Navigate to Autosync and check it. <br />
c. Navigate to the item with your Gmail account and press the selector; then check Sync contacts.<br />
4. Make sure the new contacts you add to the phone are synced to the Google Cloud. In most cases, contacts added to the phone are also uploaded to the cloud, but if they are not, try the following procedure, which you should only have to do once: <br />
a. Go to your Gmail page on the computer.<br />
b. Make sure you are in Standard View by using your screen reader or browser to locate the word "standard." You should find a message that says, "Gmail view: standard." If what you find is a Standard View link, pres enter on it and check the screen again.<br />
c. Find the Contacts link, and press enter to open a new page.<br />
d. Find the More Actions button, and press enter to access additional options.<br />
e. Find the Import Contacts link, and Press enter to reach the upload screen.<br />
f. Find a combo box that asks where you want your contacts imported. Open it with alt+down-arrow and select the Start with Android option. Tab once to get out of that combo box.<br />
g. Tab to the Import button and press enter.Access Anahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08435803946541325126noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8211639064178117343.post-38130187126677029562011-02-20T21:49:00.000-08:002011-02-20T22:45:15.624-08:00How do I add individual contacts?As users begin to feel comfortable with their phones, one of their first major tasks is to add contacts, a list of names, phone numbers, and email addresses to their devices. Contacts can be added from the Call Log, the text messenger, or the contacts app. At this time, adding the sender of an email to contacts is not accessible in K-9 Mail.<br />
<br />
The information in this post covers adding individual contacts from the Call Log, the text messenger, and the contacts app; it also covers a few basic management tasks. <br />
<br />
For information on working with electronic business cards (VCards), on using VCF files stored on the phone's SD card, or on importing contacts from the Google cloud, refer to the next post.<br />
<br />
Users coming to Android from Nokia may be interested in J.J. Meddaugh's post on <a href="http://accessibleandroid.blogspot.com/2011/02/how-do-i-move-contacts-from-my-nokia-to.html">transferring contacts from Nokia to Android.</a><br />
<br />
Users working with the Motorola Motoblur UI may find more helpful information about <a href="http://accessibleandroid.blogspot.com/2011/02/how-do-i-add-and-edit-contacts-in.html">adding and managing individual contacts in Motoblur</a> in the post by Chris Gilland.<br />
<br />
Users working with the Samsung Touchwiz UI may find more helpful information about navigating <a href="http://accessibleandroid.blogspot.com/2011/02/how-do-i-work-with-call-log-in-touchwiz.html">the Touchwiz Call Log</a> in the post by John J. Herzog.<br />
<h3>Adding Contacts from the Call Log<br />
</h3>The simplest way to add a contact is by using the Call Log. This is a list of recent incoming and outgoing calls. It opens automatically after each call, including calls to voicemail, and it can be accessed from the Contacts and phone apps.<br />
<br />
1. Access the Call Log using one of the following methods:<br />
a. Make or receive a call; then hang up. <br />
b. Go to contacts from the Home screen and open the app; then left/-right arrow to Call Log. You must be at the very top of the screen for this to work.<br />
c. Go to the Phone app from the Home screen and open it. Up-arrow from the number edit field to Phone; then left/right-arrow to the Call Log.<br />
2. Arrow up and down through the list of calls, stopping at the one you wish to add to Contacts; then press the selector.<br />
3. Navigate to and press the selector on Add to Contacts. Available options vary, depending on how the Call Log is entered, but they include Call/return call, Edit number before call, Send Text Message, Add to Contacts, and Remove from Call Log.<br />
4. Create or edit the Contact.<br />
a. If the contact is not in your address book, press the selector on Create New Contact.<br />
b. If the contact is in your address book, but you do not have a phone number for him or her, arrow to the name and press the selector.<br />
5. Fill out the contact details, typing in as many or as few of the following fields as desired. Notice that the phone number has been added automatically.<br />
a. Contact photo image—press the selector to take a picture of the contact or select an image from a gallery.<br />
b. First name—type in the provided edit field.<br />
c. Last name—Type in the provided edit field.<br />
d. Phone (include area code with or without hyphens)—The phone actually announces, "Home," which is the label of the first available edit field for a telephone number. Press the selector on that icon and arrow down to select a different label for the number. Label options include Home, Mobile, Work, Work Fax, Home Fax, Pager, Other, and Custom. Press the selector on the option you want. Once the label has been selected, focus moves to the edit field where you type a number. If you simply press the selector repeatedly on the Phone icon, a new edit field appears for each label, Home being at the top, Mobile being second from the top, Work being third from the top, and so on. To change the label of a phone number, arrow left to the Label dropdown list from the Phone edit field, press the selector, arrow to the correct label, and press the selector again. To clear the edit field for a new number, arrow once to the right from the Phone edit field and press the selector on a minus image button.<br />
e. Email—The phone actually announces, "Home," again, which is the label of the first available edit field for an email address. Press the selector on that icon and arrow down to select a different label for the number. Label options include Home, Work, Other, and Custom. Press the selector on the option you want. Once the label has been selected, focus moves to the edit field where you type an email address. If you simply press the selector repeatedly on the Email icon, a new edit field appears for each label, Home being at the top, work being second from the top, Other being third from the top, and so on. To change the label of an email address, arrow left to the Label dropdown list from the Email edit field, press the selector, arrow to the correct label, and press the selector again. To clear the edit field for a new email, arrow once to the right from the Email edit field and press the selector on a minus image button.<br />
f. Postal Address—press the selector to enter details.<br />
g. Organization —press the selector to enter details.<br />
h. More—press the selector to provide additional information: IM, notes, nickname, and website, . If an edit field isn't available for an item, press the selector on the icon to bring one up.<br />
6. Press Menu, then Done, or simply press Back when finished.<br />
<h3>Adding contacts from Messaging <br />
</h3>Contacts can also be added from the stock text messenger.<br />
<br />
1. Go to Messaging from the Home screen and open the app. <br />
a. From the Eyes-Free Shell, down-stroke to Applications, type the letter M, arrow down to Messaging, and press enter.<br />
b. From the stock Home screen, arrow to and press the selector on Applications, then on Messaging.<br />
2. When the app opens, focus moves to “New message: Compose New Message.” Arrow down to a message that comes from someone whose phone number is not in your address book. Do not open the message.<br />
3. Long press (2 to 3 seconds) the selector on the message; then arrow to Add to Contacts or View Contact if the former is not available. Options may be View Thread, Add to Contact, View Contact, and Delete Thread.<br />
4. Create or edit the Contact.<br />
a. If the contact is not in your address book, press the selector on Create New Contact.<br />
b. If the contact is in your address book, but you do not have a phone number for him or her, navigate to the person's name and press the selector.<br />
5. Fill out the contact details, typing in as many or as few of the following fields as desired. Notice that the phone number has been added automatically.<br />
a. Contact photo image—press the selector to take a picture of the contact or select an image from a gallery.<br />
b. First name—type in the provided edit field.<br />
c. Last name—Type in the provided edit field.<br />
d. Phone (include area code with or without hyphens)—The phone actually announces, "Home," which is the label of the first available edit field for a telephone number. Press the selector on that icon and arrow down to select a different label for the number. Label options include Home, Mobile, Work, Work Fax, Home Fax, Pager, Other, and Custom. Press the selector on the option you want. Once the label has been selected, focus moves to the edit field where you type a number. If you simply press the selector repeatedly on the Phone icon, a new edit field appears for each label, Home being at the top, Mobile being second from the top, Work being third from the top, and so on. To change the label of a phone number, arrow left to the Label dropdown list from the Phone edit field, press the selector, arrow to the correct label, and press the selector again. To clear the edit field for a new number, arrow once to the right from the Phone edit field and press the selector on a minus image button.<br />
e. Email—The phone actually announces, "Home," again, which is the label of the first available edit field for an email address. Press the selector on that icon and arrow down to select a different label for the number. Label options include Home, Work, Other, and Custom. Press the selector on the option you want. Once the label has been selected, focus moves to the edit field where you type an email address. If you simply press the selector repeatedly on the Email icon, a new edit field appears for each label, Home being at the top, work being second from the top, Other being third from the top, and so on. To change the label of an email address, arrow left to the Label dropdown list from the Email edit field, press the selector, arrow to the correct label, and press the selector again. To clear the edit field for a new email, arrow once to the right from the Email edit field and press the selector on a minus image button.<br />
f. Postal Address—press the selector to enter details.<br />
g. Organization —press the selector to enter details.<br />
h. More—press the selector to provide additional information: IM, notes, nickname, website, . If edit fields aren’t available for an item, press the selector on it to bring one up.<br />
6. Press Menu, then Done, or simply press Back when finished.<br />
<h3>Adding Contacts from the Contacts App<br />
</h3>The most obvious way to add contacts to an Android phone is by going into the Contacts app and typing the new contact’s details manually. The steps are as follows:<br />
<br />
1. From the Home screen, go to Contacts and open the app.<br />
a. From the Eyes-Free Shell, down-stroke to Applications, type the letter C, arrow down to Contacts, and press enter.<br />
b. From the stock Home screen, arrow to and press the selector on Contacts.<br />
2. Press Menu.<br />
3. Arrow to and press the selector on New Contact.<br />
4. Fill out the contact details, typing in as many or as few fields as desired.<br />
a. Contact photo image—press the selector to take a picture of the contact or select an image from a gallery.<br />
b. First name—type in the provided edit field.<br />
c. Last name—Type in the provided edit field.<br />
d. Phone (include area code with or without hyphens)—The phone actually announces, "Home," which is the label of the first available edit field for a telephone number. Press the selector on that icon and arrow down to select a different label for the number. Label options include Home, Mobile, Work, Work Fax, Home Fax, Pager, Other, and Custom. Press the selector on the option you want. Once the label has been selected, focus moves to the edit field where you type a number. If you simply press the selector repeatedly on the Phone icon, a new edit field appears for each label, Home being at the top, Mobile being second from the top, Work being third from the top, and so on. To change the label of a phone number, arrow left to the Label dropdown list from the Phone edit field, press the selector, arrow to the correct label, and press the selector again. To clear the edit field for a new number, arrow once to the right from the Phone edit field and press the selector on a minus image button.<br />
e. Email—The phone actually announces, "Home," again, which is the label of the first available edit field for an email address. Press the selector on that icon and arrow down to select a different label for the number. Label options include Home, Work, Other, and Custom. Press the selector on the option you want. Once the label has been selected, focus moves to the edit field where you type an email address. If you simply press the selector repeatedly on the Email icon, a new edit field appears for each label, Home being at the top, work being second from the top, Other being third from the top, and so on. To change the label of an email address, arrow left to the Label dropdown list from the Email edit field, press the selector, arrow to the correct label, and press the selector again. To clear the edit field for a new email, arrow once to the right from the Email edit field and press the selector on a minus image button.<br />
f. Postal Address—press the selector to enter details.<br />
g. Organization —press the selector to enter details.<br />
h. More—press the selector to provide additional information: IM, notes, nickname, website, . If edit fields aren’t available for an item, press the selector on it to bring one up.<br />
5. Press Menu, then Done, or simply press Back when finished.<br />
<h3>Doing More with contacts: Contacting, Viewing, Editing, and Deleting<br />
</h3>Once contact details are on the phone, they can be used to communicate with someone, and the contacts themselves may be reviewed, modified, added to a list of frequently used contacts, or removed altogether. <br />
<br />
1. To call or email a contact while in the Contacts app, do one of the following:<br />
a. Find the contact's name.<br />
b. Short press (1 second) the selector on the contact name. <br />
c. On the new screen that opens, which has options like Call Home, Call Mobile, or Email, arrow to and press the selector on the desired item.<br />
1. If you short-press on either of the calling options, the call is sent.<br />
2. If you short-press on email, an email message opens up. Focus is in the To field, which is already filled in. Down-arrow to move to the Subject field, and continue with your message.<br />
2. To text a contact from the Contacts app or Call Log, do one of the following:<br />
a. While in the Contacts app, arrow to and short-press the selector on the person's name. A new set of options appears, which includes Call Mobile if a cell number is listed with the name. Arrow to and long-press (2to 3 seconds) the selector on Call Mobile. The new screen lists options for calling the contact, texting him or her, and making the number the default. Arrow to and press the selector on Text Contact. . A text message opens, and focus is in the message body. Continue with your message.<br />
b. While in the Call Log, arrow to and press the selector on the name of the person you wish to text. A new set of options appears: Call Contact, Send Text Message, and View Contact. Arrow to and press the selector on Send Text Message. A text message opens, and focus is in the message body. Continue with your message.<br />
3. To view the contact details, do one of the following: <br />
a. While in the Contacts app, long press (2 to 3 seconds) the selector on the contact name. A new list of options appears: View, Add to Favorites, Edit, and Delete. Arrow to and press the selector on View. Then arrow through the details for that contact. Press Back when finished.<br />
b. While in the Call Log, arrow to the person's name and short- or long-press the selector. A new set of options appears. For a short-press, they are Call, Send Text Message, and View Contact. For a long-press, they are Call, View contact, Edit Number before Call, Send Text Message, Remove from call Log. Arrow to and press the selector on View. Then arrow through the details for that contact. Press Back when finished.<br />
c. While in Messaging, arrow to the text from the person whose details you're interested in. Then do one of the following:<br />
1. Short-press (1 second) the selector to open the message, and press Menu for additional options. They are View Contact, Add Subject, Attach, Insert Smiley, Delete Thread, and All Threads. Arrow to and press the selector on View. Then arrow through the details for that contact. Press Back when finished.<br />
2. Long-press (2-3 seconds) the selector on the closed thread for additional options. They are View Thread, View contact, and Delete Thread. Arrow to and press the selector on View. Then arrow through the details for that contact. Press Back when finished.<br />
4. To make changes or add information to the contact details, do one of the following:<br />
a. While in the Contacts app, arrow to the person's name and <br />
1. Either short-press (1 second) the selector on the contact name, press Menu, then press the selector on Edit, arrowing through the following fields to provide new or revised details as described in previous sections of this post: the contact's photo, first name, last name, phone numbers, email, postal address, organization , IM, notes, nickname, and website. To clear an edit field that already contains text, right-arrow from the edit box to a minus image button and press the selector.<br />
2. Or long press (2 to 3 seconds) the selector on the contact name. A new set of options appears: View, Add to Favorites, Edit, and Delete. Arrow to and press the selector on Edit. Then arrow through the following fields to provide new or revised details as described in previous sections of this post: the contact's photo, first name, last name, phone numbers, email, postal address, organization , IM, notes, nickname, and website. To clear an edit field that already contains text, right-arrow from the edit box to a minus image button and press the selector. Press Back when finished.<br />
b. While in the Call Log, arrow to the person's name. Then either short- (1 second) or long-press (2 to 3 seconds) the selector. A new set of options appears. For short-press, they are Call, Send Text Message, and View Contact. For Long-press, they are Call, View contact, Edit Number before Call, Send Text Message, Remove from call Log. Arrow to and press the selector on View Contact, as if you were simply going to review the person's details. Then press the Menu button, arrow to and press the selector on Edit, and down-arrow to provide new or revised details for the following fields as described in previous sections of this post: the contact's photo, first name, last name, phone numbers, email, postal address, organization , IM, notes, nickname, and website. To clear an edit field that already contains text, right-arrow from the edit box to a minus image button and press the selector. Press Back when finished.<br />
c. While in Messaging, arrow to the thread from the contact. Then either press Menu on the open message or long-press on the closed thread, navigating to and pressing the selector on View, as if you were simply going to review the person's details. Then press the Menu button, arrow to and press the selector on Edit, and down-arrow to provide new or revised details for the following fields as described in previous sections of this post: the contact's photo, first name, last name, phone numbers, email, postal address, organization , IM, notes, nickname, and website. To clear an edit field that already contains text, right-arrow from the edit box to a minus image button and press the selector. Press Back when finished. <br />
5. To delete a contact, do one of the following:<br />
a. Go into the Call Log. Arrow to and press the selector first on the person's name, then on View Contact. Press the Menu button, and arrow to and press the selector on Delete. A confirmation screen appears, asking if you're sure you want to delete the contact. Press the selector on OK.<br />
b. Open the contacts app, arrow to the person's name, then do one of the following:<br />
1. Press the backspace button on the physical keyboard. A confirmation screen appears, asking if you're sure you want to delete the contact. Press the selector on OK.<br />
2. Short-press as if to call or email the contact. Then press Menu and arrow to and press the selector on Delete. Options are Edit Contact, Share, Options, and Delete Contact. A confirmation screen appears, asking if you're sure you want to delete the contact. Press the selector on OK.<br />
3. Long-press (2 to 3 seconds); then arrow to and press the selector on Delete. Options are View Contact, Add to Favorites, Edit, and Delete. A confirmation screen appears, asking if you're sure you want to delete the contact. Press the selector on OK.<br />
c. Open Messaging, and arrow to the thread from the contact. Then either press Menu on the open message or long-press on the closed thread, navigating to and pressing the selector on View, as if you were simply going to review the person's details. Then press the Menu button. Options are Edit Contact, Share, Options, and Delete Contact. Arrow to and press the selector on Delete Contact. A confirmation screen appears, asking if you're sure you want to delete the contact. Press the selector on OK.<br />
<h3>Working with Favorites: Finding Favorites, Adding to Favorites, and Removing from Favorites<br />
</h3>Since contact lists can get very long very fast, users find it convenient to separate frequently used contacts into a shorter list they can scroll through quickly. This list behaves exactly like contacts, and the items found in it remain in Contacts, even after they are removed from favorites.<br />
<br />
To find Favorites, do the following:<br />
<br />
1. Open the contacts app, navigate to the top of the list, and up-arrow one more time. This moves focus to a set of four tabs--Call Log, Contacts, Favorites, and Phone—though the order varies from handset to handset. <br />
2. Navigate to Favorites; then down-arrow or press the selector.<br />
<br />
Note: Some handsets do not allow users to reach these tabs with the navigational control. If this is the case, touch the top of the screen to move focus to any one of the tabs; then arrow left or right.<br />
<br />
To include a contact in Favorites, do the following:<br />
<br />
1. While in the Contacts app, arrow to the person's name. Then either short- (1 second) or long-press (2-3 seconds) the selector. A new list of options appears. For short-pres, they are Favorite and options to call or email if those details are part of the contact. For long-press, they are View Contact, Add to Favorites, Edit Contact, and Delete Contact. Arrow to and press the selector on Favorite or Add to Favorites to check the item. Press Back when finished.<br />
2. While in the Call Log, arrow to and press the selector on the person's name, then on View Contact, and finally on Add to Favorites to find and check that item. Press Back when finished.<br />
3. While in Messaging, arrow to the thread from the person whose details you're interested in. Then either press Menu on the open message or long-press on the closed thread, navigating to and pressing the selector on View, as if you were simply going to review the person's details. Arrow up and down through the list of information for the contact. At the top of the list is a Favorites checkbox. Arrow to and press the selector on it to check the item.<br />
<br />
To Remove someone from Favorites, but not from the general Contacts list, do either of the following:<br />
<br />
1. While in the Call log, arrow to and press the selector on the person's name, on View contact, then on Favorite. Press the selector to clear the Favorite checkbox. Press Back when finished. <br />
2. While in the Contacts app, go into Favorites. Use the arrow keys to find the person you want to remove from the Favorites list, short- or long-press the selector to open additional options, and uncheck the Favorites item by navigating to it and pressing the selector. Press Back when finished. <br />
3. While in Messaging, arrow to the thread from the contact. Then either press Menu on the open message or long-press on the closed thread, navigating to and pressing the selector on View, as if you were simply going to review the person's details. Arrow up and down through the list of information for the contact. At the top of the list is a Favorites checkbox. Arrow to and press the selector on it to uncheck the item.Access Anahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08435803946541325126noreply@blogger.com128tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8211639064178117343.post-29817444595419657892011-02-08T20:16:00.000-08:002011-02-08T20:16:31.138-08:00Apps4Android Releases 6 Accessibility App Installers (AAIs) and 37 Voices in 25 LanguagesOn February 6, Apps4Android announced the release of two new products. One is a set of carrier specific accessibility app installers (AAIs) for Android users living in and out of the United States. The other is a set of new voices in a wide range of languages.<br />
<br />
The following has been excerpted from the announcement. <a href="http://tinyurl.com/apps4android-020611">To read the complete press release in html, click here.</a> <a href="http://tinyurl.com/apps4android-020611-doc">To read a Word version of the release, click here.</a><br />
<br />
The apps can be found on the Android Market by searching for Apps4Android.<br />
<h3>Apps4Android’s AAIs:<br />
</h3>Apps4Android’s AAIs are carrier-specific applications designed to make it easy and intuitive for wireless carrier retail store personnel, help desk professionals, and subscribers to identify, download, and install "no-cost-to-the-subscriber" suites of third-party applications designed to enhance the accessibility of Android smart devices. Apps4Android’s AAIs identify the accessibility applications not currently installed on an Android smart device. They then walk the user through installing the missing accessibility applications.<br />
<br />
Apps4Android’s AAIs manage the detection and installation of the following Android accessibility applications:<br />
<br />
1. Accessibility Preferences (Developer: Google Eyes-Free Team) Enables users to easily modify settings for accessibility applications such as TalkBack. <br />
2. Eyes Free Shell (Developer: Google Eyes-Free Team) Permits the use of an Android smart device as an eyes-free communicator.<br />
3. IDEAL Item Identifier® (Apps4Android) Takes pictures of standard UPC and QR codes and voices the description of the item using Google’s TTS voices. It also enables users to create talking barcodes.<br />
4. IDEAL Magnifier® (Apps4Android) Turns most Android smart devices into handheld video magnifiers.<br />
5. IDEAL Web Access Pack® (Apps4Android) Enables individuals with print disabilities to easily surf the Web.<br />
6. K-9 Mail® (Apps4Android and K-9 Dog Walkers) Fully accessible Android e-mail client that includes the ability to create, send, receive, and read e-mail messages. Other features include search, push e-mail, multi-folder sync, flagging, filing, signatures, bcc-self, mail on SD and more! K-9 Mail supports IMAP, POP3, and Exchange (with WebDAV). <br />
7. KickBack (Developer: Google Eyes-Free Team) provides haptic (vibratory) feedback in response to various events taking place on Android smart devices<br />
8. Rock Lock (Developer: Google Eyes-Free Team) A fully accessible music player.<br />
9. SoundBack (Developer: Google Eyes-Free Team) Provides non-spoken, auditory feedback in response to various events taking place on Android smart devices.<br />
10. TalkBack (Developer: Google Eyes-Free Team) Provides screenreading functionality to native Android applications on Android devices.<br />
11. Talking Dialer (Developer: Google Eyes-Free Team) Enables users to dial phone numbers in an eyes-free environment.<br />
12. Walky Talky (Developer: Google Eyes-Free Team) Accessible GPS navigation aids.<br />
13. Intersection Explorer (Developer: Google Eyes-Free Team) Accessible GPS navigation aids. <br />
<br />
Apps4Android AAIs have been released for:<br />
<br />
1. AT&T® Android smart device users in the United States.<br />
2. Sprint® Android smart device users in the United States.<br />
3. T-Mobile® Android smart device users in the United States, Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, United Kingdom, Netherlands, and Poland.<br />
4. Verizon® Android smart device users in the United States.<br />
5. Vodafone® Android smart device users in Australia, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, France, United Kingdom, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, and Romania.<br />
6. Optus® in Australia, Orange® in France, DOCOMO®, SoftBank®, and au by KDDI® in Japan, Singtel® in Singapore, nTelos® in the United States, and all other carrier’s Android smart device users in all other countries including Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Norway, Philippines, Russia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Taiwan, and Thailand. <br />
<h3>Best Voices for Android®:<br />
</h3>All of Apps4Android's accessibility applications incorporate the use of text-to-speech voices. Because of this, and because many text-to- speech users prefer high-quality human-sounding voices, Apps4Android is pleased to release "Best Voices for Android." Voices are available in 25 languages including a total of 37 voices.<br />
<br />
"Best Voices for Android" languages include Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese, Canadian French, Cantonese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, European Spanish, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Mexican Spanish, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, Turkish, UK English, and U.S. English. <br />
<br />
Best Voices for Android® not only provides the ability to purchase the best voices on the market, it permits users to sample the voices before purchasing them! Even better, Best Voices for Android® are only $2.99 each! <br />
<br />
Important note: "Best Voices for Android" will only run on smart devices running Android version 2.2 (Froyo) and above.Access Anahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08435803946541325126noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8211639064178117343.post-30435277681758238622010-12-22T16:50:00.000-08:002011-01-27T11:12:32.898-08:00What Accessibility Improvements does Gingerbread include?Svetoslav Ganov from Google posted the following to the Eyes-Free Users Group today:<br />
<br />
Dear users, <br />
<br />
The Gingerbread release of the Android platform has introduced the following accessibility related features:<br />
<br />
1. The Calendar application has been instrumented to fire the appropriate accessibility events. which consumed by a screen reader such as Spiel or TalkBack turn the application into a fully accessible Calendar solution.<br />
2. Accessibility tests have been added to the Compatibility Test Suite (CTS) to ensure that every Android compatible device does support the latest version of the platform accessibility APIs. This means that Android compatible devices will have the same accessibility features as the current version of the platform. Among other things, the tests ensure that the user settings to enable accessibility are present. Note that this test suite is not responsible for assessing the accessibility level of the applications running on Android devices.<br />
3. A much more recent version of TalkBack is included out-of-the-box.<br />
<br />
Thanks!<br />
<br />
Svetoslav GanovAccess Anahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08435803946541325126noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8211639064178117343.post-87536652998530639042010-10-16T17:32:00.000-07:002011-01-27T11:10:05.447-08:00How do I keep my screen still during a call?Some Android phones, like the Motorola Droid and Droid 2, have especially sensitive touch screens or faulty proximity sensors, which keep the screen active during <a href="http://accessibleandroid.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-do-i-make-phone-call-using-dialer.html">phone calls.</a> This can be a problem as the nearness and movement of the user’s face inadvertently activates soft buttons, unintentionally launching other apps or putting the call on mute or speaker. <br />
<br />
Two free Android apps, Quick Lock and Lock Now Free, enable users to manually freeze the screen immediately after placing or answering calls. Both are fairly accessible and easy to use.<br />
<h3>Quick Lock<br />
</h3>Quick Lock by Sakura Soft is best for phones with physical End Call buttons because the accessibility option that allows users to end calls with the power button needs to be turned off. The app is free and available from Android Market. The first step is to find the app and install it to the phone. Then the setup begins:<br />
<h3>Setting up Quick Lock <br />
</h3>1. Use Settings to uncheck Power Button Ends Calls by doing the following:<br />
a. From the Home screen, open Settings.<br />
b. Arrow to and press d-pad OK on Accessibility.<br />
c. Arrow to Power Button Ends Calls. If it is checked, press d-pad OK to uncheck it.<br />
d. Return to the Home screen by pressing Back several times or Home once.<br />
2. Open Quick Lock from the Home screen. When the app opens, Talkback announces, "Select lock mode," offering 3 options: Sleep, No Sleep, and Cancel.<br />
3. Arrow to and press d-pad OK on Sleep. Talkback does not announce that the item is checked.<br />
4. Return to the Home screen by pressing Back several times or Home once.<br />
<h3>Using Quick Lock<br />
</h3>1. Make or receive a call by doing one of the following:<br />
a. Dial and press send, listening for the phone to ring. <br />
b. Answer the phone with the unlock gesture, listening for the line to open. <br />
2. Lock the screen immediately by pressing the power button twice.<br />
3. If desired, access the screen again during a call by pressing the power button twice, then swiping in the usual place to unlock.<br />
<h3>Lock Now Free<br />
</h3>Lock Now Free by Azrael is best for phones that lack physical End Call buttons. It enables users to lock the screen with something other than the power button. Options are the Search and Call keys and the Status bar. The application appears to do more, but documentation is sketchy . The app is free and available from Android Market though there is a paid version as well. The first step is to find the app and install it to the phone. Then the setup begins: <br />
<h3>Setting up Lock Now Free<br />
</h3>1. Open Lock Now Free from the Home screen. When the app opens, Talkback announces all 7 options: Enable force lock, create shortcut, Search Key Long Press, Call Key Long Press, Status Bar, Disconnect Power, Other app ….<br />
2. Pres d-pad OK on Enable Force Lock. The phone asks if you want to activate the device administrator. <br />
3. Down-arrow to and press d-pad OK on the Activate button. If <br />
4. Press Back once to return to the list of 7 options. <br />
5. Arrow to and press d-pad OK on Search Key Long Press. Talkback does not announce whether the button is checked.<br />
6. Return to the Home screen by pressing Back several times or Home once.<br />
7. Make a practice call. When the phone starts ringing, long press the Search button. Since this is the first time the app is being used, the Android System screen appears, offering3 choices: Lock Now Free, Search, and Use by Default for this Action. <br />
8. Arrow to and press d-pad OK on Use by Default for This Action; then arrow to and press d-pad OK on Lock Now Free. <br />
a. It may be easier to access these screens after hanging up.<br />
b. Lock Now Free does not appear to interfere with the behavior of the Search button when not in a call.<br />
9. Once Lock Now Free is set as the default action, hang up if necessary, and return to the Home screen with the Back or Home keys.<br />
<h3>Using Lock Now Free<br />
</h3>1. Make or receive a call by doing one of the following:<br />
a. Dial and press send, listening for the phone to ring. <br />
b. Answer the phone with the unlock gesture, listening for the line to open. <br />
2. Lock the screen by long-pressing the Search button (2 to 3 seconds). The phone vibrates briefly. <br />
a. The screen becomes inactive after another 3 to 4 seconds.<br />
b. The 4 Android buttons (Back, Home, Menu and Search) appear to remain active, and touching them appears to wake up the screen.<br />
3. If desired, access the screen again during a call by long-pressing the Search key (2 to 3 seconds). The phone does not vibrate to indicate the screen is active, so keep fingers away from the bottom of the screen to avoid touching any of the soft buttons.<br />
4. Hang up when the call is over and use the already active screen, or tap the Power button to lock it.Access Anahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08435803946541325126noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8211639064178117343.post-15157803449973676202010-09-30T11:35:00.000-07:002011-01-27T11:10:05.447-08:00How do I make a call from contacts?Smart phones are such sophisticated devices that it isn’t unusual for users to need help learning to make calls. <a href="http://accessibleandroid.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-do-i-make-phone-call-using-dialer.html">Calls can be made by entering a phone number into a dialing screen</a> or by selecting a name in a contact manager. This post is about placing calls from a contact manager.<br />
<br />
Users can access their contacts to initiate calls in one of 4 ways. They can use Android Search, Voice Dialer, the stock Contacts app, or the Talking dialer Phone Book. All of these methods are accessible, except for Voice Dialer, which depends on the user’s ability to silence the screen reader.<br />
<h3>Calling a Contact with Android Search<br />
</h3>The easiest way to find anything on an Android phone, including Contacts, is by using the device’s Search feature from the stock Home or Recent Applications screen.<br />
<br />
1. Go to the stock Home screen by long pressing the Back button.<br />
2. Type the first two or three letters of the contact’s first or last name. It is not necessary to press the Search button before typing or d-pad OK afterward. The phone vibrates to signal that the search is complete. <br />
3. Down-arrow repeatedly to scroll through the options, and press d-pad OK when you hear the Contact’s name followed by his or her phone number.<br />
4. The Contacts app opens and focus is on the name selected or on a checkbox for adding the name to Favorites. Arrow to the name if necessary, and press d-pad OK.<br />
5. Wait for the phone to ring.<br />
<h3>Calling a Contact with the Contacts App<br />
</h3>The most obvious way to call a contact is by using the stock Contacts app.<br />
<br />
1. Go to the stock Contacts app by doing one of the following:<br />
a. On the stock Home/Launch screen, arrow to and press d-pad OK on All Applications; then arrow to Contacts and activate it by pressing OK on the d-pad. <br />
b. From the Eyes-Free shell, down-stroke to Applications on the touch screen; then using the typing keyboard, type the letter C, arrow down to Contacts if necessary, and press enter.<br />
2. Find your contact. When contacts opens, focus is either on the primary Contacts list or on the shorter list of Favorites. Which of the two or where in either list depends on how long ago the app was used and where focus was at the end of the previous session. At this point, you can arrow either side to side or up and down. Arrowing side to side moves focus through a list of apps: Phone (the stock phone app), Call Log (a list of recent calls), Contacts (a list of names with phone numbers and/or email addresses), and Favorites (the Contacts used most often). To enter any of these apps, scroll down from the name. Arrowing up and down, rather than side to side, moves focus through the list of Contacts or Favorites. Once you move down, you can not move side to side without first pressing alt+up-arrow, then pressing up-arrow alone. To actually find your Contact, do one of the following:<br />
a. Arrow left or right once or press d-pad OK on the current list to enter either Contacts or Favorites; then arrow down or up to find the specific Contact.<br />
b. Type the first 1 to 3 letters of the Contact’s first or last name; then arrow down through the results list. . It is not necessary to press Search before typing or d-pad OK afterward. If you do not find your Contact, press Back once, and try another search string. Note: typing "co" as a search string produces results like Connie Hales, Mike Cole, and Bookworm@comcast.net.<br />
3. Press d-pad OK on your Contact.<br />
4. Arrow through the list of available calling options and press d-pad OK on the correct item. Options are Mobile, Home, work, and Email, or as many of these as are available.<br />
5. Wait for the phone to ring.<br />
<h3>Calling a Contact with Voice Dialer <br />
</h3>Android phones include a built-in voice-dialer. It can not be used as is because the phone picks up the screen reader before it picks up the user’s voice, so the dialer consistently misinterprets the first few syllables of the number being spoken. Some users report success when they cover the phone’s speaker or interrupt speech with the proximity sensor immediately after opening the app; others report no success.<br />
<br />
1. Go to Voice Dialer. <br />
a. From the stock Home screen, arrow to and press d-pad OK on All Applications, then Voice Dialer.<br />
b. From the Eyes-Free Shell, down-stroke to Applications; then type the letter V, arrow down to Voice Dialer, and press enter, or use stroke dialing, which is described in a future post.<br />
2. The phone vibrates as the app opens. Then it beeps as Talkback announces, "Voice Dialer." Your goal is to prevent the screen reader from saying the name of the app, so after the phone vibrates, but before Talkback speaks, cover the device speaker, or wave a finger over the proximity sensor, which is located near the lower left-hand corner of the screen (landscape orientation). Remember that, for the proximity sensor to silence speech, the appropriate setting must be made in Accessibility Preferences.<br />
3. After the beep, say the name of the contact you wish to call, speaking at a moderate conversational rate, without pauses. The phone emits 2 sharp beeps and announces a result.<br />
4. Send the call.<br />
a. If the result is correct, press enter.<br />
b. If the result is incorrect, arrow through the available options, and press enter on the appropriate item or Cancel and start the process over. The phone appears to go through a training period. The first 10 to 20 attempts produce especially inaccurate results. Over time, the results of contact voice searches improve, but they’re never as accurate as voice dialing. A search for "Brother" yielded "open browser," on first attempt and "call Brother on second." Multiple searches for a contact with an unusual name never produced a match.<br />
5. Wait for the phone to ring.<br />
<h3>Changing the Input Language for Voice Dialer<br />
</h3>For best results, make sure your voice input setting is correct. To check and adjust the input language in Android 2.2, do the following:<br />
<br />
1. Go to Settings.<br />
a. From the stock Launcher, press Menu, then arrow to and press d-pad OK on Settings.<br />
b. From the Eyes-Free Shell, down-stroke to Applications, type the letter S, arrow down to Settings if necessary, and press enter.<br />
2. Arrow to and press d-pad OK on Voice Input and Output.<br />
3. Arrow to and press d-pad OK on Voice Recognizer Settings.<br />
4. Arrow to and press d-pad OK on "Language, Choose an Input Language."<br />
5. Arrow through the list of options and press d-pad OK on your preferred language. Choices include American, Australian, British, Canadian, generic, Indian, and New Zeeland English as well as other languages.<br />
6. Return to the Home screen by pressing the Back button several times or pressing Home once.<br />
<h3>Calling a Contact with Talking Dialer<br />
</h3>Talking Dialer is a free self-voicing app developed by the Eyes-Free Project and available through Android Market. It is normally accessed through the Eyes-Free Shell and enables users to dial phone numbers and contacts from the touch screen. The next few sections in this post cover use of its Phonebook feature.<br />
<h3>Opening the Talking Dialer<br />
</h3>Users can access the Talking dialer either from the Eyes-Free Shell or from the All Applications screen of the stock Launcher.<br />
<br />
To enter the Talking dialer, do one of the following:<br />
<br />
1. Press the Home button to go to the eyes-Free Shell; then press the Search button to open the Talking Dialer. Home and Search may be a soft button on the touch screen or a physical control.<br />
2. Press the Home button to go to the stock Launcher; then arrow to and press d-pad OK on All Applications first and Talking Dialer second.<br />
3. Press Search if necessary to enter Phonebook mode.<br />
<h3>Noting Screen Orientation and Keyboard Behavior While in the Talking Dialer<br />
</h3>1. When the phone is closed (i.e., the keyboard is tucked under the touch screen), the soft keypad is used with the phone in portrait orientation. When the phone is open (i.e., the physical keyboard is available to the user), the keypad is oriented to landscape.<br />
2. While the <a href="http://accessibleandroid.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-do-i-use-eyes-free-shell.html">eyes-Free shell,</a> the <a href="http://accessibleandroid.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-do-i-use-shortcut-screen-that-comes.html">Eyes-Free shortcuts,</a> and the <a href="http://accessibleandroid.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-do-i-make-phone-call-using-dialer.html">Talking Dialer</a> screens are up, the physical controls on the keyboard do not behave in the usual way. Most physical controls are unresponsive while in the Shell and Shortcuts, and in Dialer, arrow keys are unresponsive and different characters are assigned to the typing keys.<br />
a. Back works as expected. A short press moves focus to the previous screen. A long press moves focus to the stock Home screen.<br />
b. Home works as expected. A short press moves focus to the Eyes-Free shell. A long press moves focus to the Recent Applications screen.<br />
c. Both Menu and Search toggle between Dialing Mode and Phonebook in the Talking Dialer.<br />
d. Search+double letter works as expected, opening the app assigned to the Android shortcut. <br />
<h3>Finding a Contact with Talking Dialer Phonebook<br />
</h3>The Talking Dialer Phonebook offers 2 methods for finding contacts from the touch screen. In this blog they’re referred to as the line method and the circle method. The former is best for scrolling through short lists or parts of longer lists. The latter is best for searching through long lists. Both of these methods are also available for searching through the Applications list of the Eyes-Free Shell. <br />
<h3>Using the Stroke dialer: Line Method<br />
</h3>This method allows users to scroll through individual items. It’s best for short lists or parts of long lists.<br />
<br />
1. Place a finger on the touch screen. The phone emits a short vibrational burst. Keep this finger on the screen at all time.<br />
2. Using a different finger, draw an imaginary vertical line. For best results, draw a long line (2 inches or 5 cm), and lift the drawing finger after each stroke. The phone emits two vibrational bursts, one as each line begins, another as the finger is lifted. The contact name and contact option is announced after the finger is lifted (e.g., Brother, cell).<br />
3. Repeat Step 2 until you find the desired Contact; then remove the other finger from the screen<br />
4. Send the call by doing one of the following:<br />
a. Press Send if your phone has a Send button.<br />
b. Press the Search button if your phone does not have a Send button.<br />
5. Talking dialer Announces: "You are about to dial," followed by the name of the Contact and the contact option. Do one of the following:<br />
a. Press Send or Search a second time to confirm.<br />
b. Shake the phone to return to the contact list without dialing.<br />
6. Wait for the phone to ring.<br />
<h3>Using the Stroke Dialer: circle Method <br />
</h3>This method allows users to jump to specific parts of long lists from the touch screen. To narrow the search, the line method is used.<br />
<br />
The circle method of stroke dialing involves a lengthy explanation and some practice, but once users "get it," it’s fluid and efficient. It uses the same relative positioning of the Eyes-Free Shell and of the Talking dialer, but not the same grid organization. <br />
<br />
Following are two explanations. The first is in general terms. The second is more specific.<br />
<h3>Explaining the Circle Method in General<br />
</h3>1. Imagine a wheel with 8 spokes or a round cake cut into 8 slices. The image is a circle that is divided into 8 parts by a vertical line, a horizontal line, a diagonal line that slopes down to the right, and a diagonal line that slopes down to the left. All of the lines cross in the exact center of the circle, and all of the pieces of the cake are the same size.<br />
2. Place your finger in the general center of the touch screen. This is the center of the circle, where all of the spokes meet. <br />
3. Slide your finger along one of the spokes. Pause the movement of your finger. The phone announces a letter. <br />
4. Draw the circle. As you move around the circle, the phone vibrates periodically and announces more letters.<br />
5. Lift your finger when you reach the desired letter.<br />
<br />
It’s important to keep the image of the circle in mind because <br />
• each spoke provides a different starting letter and <br />
• visualizing the way each spoke stretches all the way across the circle helps make sense of the arrangement of the starting letters.<br />
<h3>Explaining the Circle Method with specifics<br />
</h3>1. Place your finger in the general center of the touch screen. This is the spot where all the spokes of the circle meet. <br />
2. Draw a spoke and enough of the circle to find the desired letter<br />
a. For letters A through H, slide your finger up and to the left (the 1 position on a number pad). Pause. The phone announces, "A." Then move your finger clockwise in a circle. As you do, the phone announces, "B, C, D," and so on to the letter H.<br />
i. To move backward through the letters, draw the circle counterclockwise.<br />
ii. To start halfway through the circle (at the letter E), draw the part of the spoke that is down and to the right (the 9 position on a number pad), and move clockwise or counterclockwise from there. <br />
b. For letters I through P, slide your finger up (the 2 position on a number pad). Pause. The phone announces, "I." Then move your finger clockwise in a circle. As you do, the phone announces, "J, K, L," and so on to the letter P.<br />
i. To move backward through the letters, draw the circle counterclockwise.<br />
ii. To start halfway through the circle (at the letter M), draw the part of the spoke that is down (the 8 position on a number pad), and move clockwise or counterclockwise from there. <br />
c. For letters Q through X, slide your finger up and to the right (the 3 position on a number pad). Pause. The phone announces, "Q." Then move your finger clockwise in a circle. As you do, the phone announces, "R, S, T," and so on to the letter X.<br />
i. To move backward through the letters, draw the circle counterclockwise.<br />
ii. To start halfway through the circle (at the letter U), draw the part of the spoke that is down and to the left (the 7 position on a number pad), and move clockwise or counterclockwise from there. <br />
d. For letters Y and Z and 6 additional characters (question mark, period, backspace, comma, exclamation point, space), slide your finger to the right (the 6 position on a number pad). Pause. The phone announces, "y." Then move your finger clockwise in a circle. As you do, the phone announces, "Z, question mark, period," and so on to the space character.<br />
i. To move backward through the letters, draw the circle counterclockwise.<br />
ii. To start halfway through the circle (at the backspace character), draw the part of the spoke that is to the left (the 4 position on a number pad), and move clockwise or counterclockwise from there. <br />
e. <br />
3. Lift your finger to select that letter.<br />
4. Repeats Steps 2 and 3 one or two more times to write more of the word (optional).<br />
5. Press the Search button to call up a list of Contacts whose first or last names begin with the letter(s).<br />
a. If only one result matches the search string, Phonebook announces, "You are about to dial," followed by the name of the contact. Press Search again to call, or shake the phone once or twice to cancel.<br />
b. If two or more items match your search string, use the line method to select from the results list, touching the screen with one finger, using another to swipe vertically, and tapping the Search button twice when the correct name and contact method is announced. <br />
6. Wait for the phone to ring.<br />
<br />
To help learn the circle method of stroke dialing:<br />
• Make the spokes short (1 inch or 2.5 cm or less); otherwise, the circle doesn’t fit on the touch screen.<br />
• Return to the outline of the circle by moving your finger in a scrubbing motion as you draw. While the circle doesn’t have to be perfectly round, it does have to be more or less circular. Many users’ first attempts are more egg or pear shaped. The scrubbing motion helps users find the next letter.<br />
<h3>Making a call <br />
</h3>Making Calls<br />
<br />
Speaking on an Android phone can be more adventurous than speaking on any other. First, the touch screen is a contrary companion. On the one hand, it’s so sensitive that users often inadvertently press soft buttons while speaking on the phone. On the other, it locks unexpectedly when users want access to other apps. Then for users running Android 2.1 and earlier without a dedicated end key, hanging up can be inconvenient.<br />
<br />
1. Once the number has been dialed, send the call, as described above. To summarize:<br />
a. If your phone has a dedicated Send button, press Send.<br />
b. If your phone does not have a dedicated Send button, do the following:<br />
i. Press enter if you make the call with Android Search or the Phone app.<br />
ii. Press d-pad OK if you make the call with Voice Search.<br />
iii. Press Search if you make the call with Talking dialer.<br />
2. While on the phone, keep in mind that the touch screen is very sensitive. The best way to avoid mishaps is to use apps like <a href="http://accessibleandroid.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-do-i-keep-my-screen-still-during.html">Quick Lock and Lock Now Free to freeze the screen during calls.</a> Other alternatives are to do the following:<br />
3. <br />
a. Avoid touching even the edges of the screen; otherwise, you may activate buttons accidentally. Some users have had great success using earphones.<br />
b. Hold both the phone and your head still. Moving either from side to side keeps the screen on and makes it responsive to touch.<br />
c. Keep the proximity sensor (upper left-hand corner while in portrait orientation) close to your face; otherwise, you press buttons with your chin or cheek. This means that it’s not a good idea to hold the phone with your shoulder while rummaging for something to write with. Touching the proximity sensor to put the phone down or pick it up doesn’t always freeze the screen either. <br />
d. Unlock the screen, if you need to, by first sliding the keyboard out or scrolling the trackball, then swiping in the unlock gesture. Interestingly, freezing the screen with the proximity sensor seems to pause the lock delay. In other words, if the lock delay is 1 minute and the proximity sensor is tripped after 10 seconds, the screen locks 50 seconds after the proximity sensor has been "released." The delay is also interrupted when the phone is shaken.<br />
e. Use the typing keyboard to respond to menu prompts during calls to automated customer service lines (as when calling the bank to check the account balance).<br />
4. End the call when you are done, using one of the following:<br />
a. Press End if you have a dedicated End button.<br />
b. Press Power if you are running Android 2.2 or later and have no dedicated End Button. Remember to set this option in Accessibility Preferences.<br />
c. Press End Call on the In-Call screen if you are running Android 2.1 or earlier and have no dedicated end button, using one of these methods:<br />
i. Using the physical keyboard, move focus to the in-call screen, arrow to End Call, and press d-pad OK. This process can be challenging because of an unfortunate series of events. The phone is moved away from the face to access the arrow keys. The proximity sensor stops preventing the screen from responding to movement or touch, but the face can not be moved out of range of the screen’s sensors because Talkback volume is low. The result is that soft buttons are activated and focus moves away from the desired screen, often requiring more than one attempt.<br />
ii. On the touch screen, tap the End call soft button, which is about halfway across the imaginary horizontal line that unlocks the screen. Practice locating this button by calling your landline or a friend and hanging up before the call goes to voicemail.<br />
<h3>Exiting the Call Log<br />
</h3>At the end of each call, focus moves to the call log, a list of incoming and outgoing calls. Three options are available to users.<br />
<br />
1. Return to the Home screen by pressing Back or Home, or move directly into another application with an Android shortcut.<br />
2. Review the Call Log by arrowing up and down through the list of incoming and outgoing calls; then return to the Home screen by pressing Back or Home.<br />
3. Perform other actions by arrowing to and pressing d-pad OK on any of the entries in the Call Log. Doing so moves focus to a Details screen, which offers the 3 following choices:<br />
a. Call again.<br />
b. Send a text message.<br />
c. Add to Contacts.<br />
<h3>Using the In-Call Screen<br />
</h3>While a call is in progress, certain options are available to users through the in-call screen, which can be accessed via the arrow keys. Its contents are described here since Eyes-Free users aren’t always aware of this screen early in their Android experience, but knowing what’s available and how to find it can be very handy. <br />
<h3>Getting to Know the In-Call Screen<br />
</h3>During a call, the In-Call screen can be reviewed by sliding out the keyboard and arrowing over the 6 options, which are arranged in 2 columns and 3 rows. Volume level is very low, consistent with the sound level set for the phone call, so the handset must be held close to the user’s face, which is likely to open another app, shifting focus to another screen. The available items on the In-Call screen are as follows:<br />
<br />
1. Dial pad—pressing d-pad OK here moves focus to the standard dialing pad, which is not accessible.<br />
2. End call—pressing d-pad OK here hangs up. If no other option has been selected during the current call, focus tends to move to this option. <br />
3. Add call—pressing d-pad OK here lets users dial a second number on the typing keyboard for conference calling.<br />
4. Speaker—pressing d-pad OK here puts the device in speaker phone or hands-free mode.<br />
5. Mute—pressing d-pad OK here blocks sound from reaching the person being spoken to.<br />
6. Blue Tooth—pressing d-pad OK here connects the Blue Tooth headset that has already been paired with the device.<br />
<h3>Returning to the In-Call Screen<br />
</h3>If another app has focus, users can return to the in-call screen in one of two ways:<br />
<br />
1. Use the Arrow keys.<br />
a. Go to the Phone screen by doing one of the following or by setting up an Android shortcut to Phone, a topic covered in a future post.<br />
i. Long-press the Back button to return to the stock Home screen, arrow to and press d-pad OK on All Applications, then on Phone. <br />
ii. Press Home to return to the Eyes-Free Shell; then down-stroke to Applications, type P, arrow to Phone if necessary, and press enter.<br />
b. When the app opens, Talkback announces, "Phone." Arrow to and press d-pad OK on Return to Call in Progress.<br />
2. Use the Status bar on the touch screen.<br />
a. Slide the keyboard out.<br />
b. Place a finger on the upper edge of the screen and slide it all the way down to the bottom, stopping when you hear, "Status Bar." <br />
c. Down arrow to and press d-pad OK on "Current call" followed by the number.Access Anahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08435803946541325126noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8211639064178117343.post-53200495329199171872010-09-23T13:49:00.001-07:002011-04-16T18:39:04.760-07:00How Do I Make a Phone Call, Using a Dialer?Smart phones are such sophisticated devices that it isn’t unusual for users to need help learning to make calls. <a href="http://accessibleandroid.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-do-i-make-call-from-contacts.html">Calls can be made by selecting a name in a contact manager</a> or by entering a phone number into a dialing screen. This post is about using a phone number to place calls.<br />
<br />
Users can "dial a number" in one of four ways. Three are accessible to Eyes-Free users. A fourth depends on the users’ ability to silence speech. A fifth, using Google Voice Search, does not appear to be accessible, though one user reports having success with the method.<br />
<h3>Dialing with Android Search <br />
</h3>The simplest way to make a call is to use the Search button from the stock Home or Recent Applications screen.<br />
<br />
1. Go to the stock Home screen by long pressing (6 seconds) the Back button, or go to the Recent Applications screen by long pressing the Home button.<br />
2. Press the Search button.<br />
3. Type the phone number, using the top row of the physical keyboard. If your phone does not have a dedicated number row, press the alt or function key twice quickly before you begin typing.<br />
4. Send the call.<br />
a. Press Send if your phone has a dedicated Send key.<br />
b. Down-arrow once to "Dial Using" followed by the phone number, and press enter if your phone does not have a dedicated Send key. <br />
5. Wait for the phone to ring.<br />
<h3>Dialing with the Phone App <br />
</h3>The most obvious way to make a call is to use the phone app.<br />
<br />
1. Go to the Phone app.<br />
a. From the stock Home screen, long press (6 seconds) the Back button. Arrow to and press the selector on All Applications, then on Phone. It’s possible that Phone is one of the items on your launch screen. If so, simply arrow to and press the selector on Phone. <br />
b. From the Eyes-Free Shell, down-stroke to Applications, type P, arrow down to Phone if necessary, and press enter.<br />
2. Type the phone number, using the top row of the physical keyboard. If you do not have a dedicated number row, there is no need to press the alt or function key twice before typing.<br />
3. Press enter.<br />
4. Wait for the phone to ring.<br />
<h3>Dialing with Voice Dialer <br />
</h3>Android phones include a built-in voice-dialer. It can not be used as is because the phone picks up the screen reader before it picks up the user’s voice, so the dialer consistently misinterprets the first few digits of the number being spoken. Some users report success when they cover the phone’s speaker or interrupt speech with the proximity sensor immediately after opening the app; others report no success.<br />
<br />
1. Go to Voice Dialer. <br />
a. From the stock Home screen, arrow to and press the selector on All Applications, then Voice Dialer.<br />
b. From the Eyes-Free Shell, down-stroke to Applications; then type the letter V, arrow down to Voice Dialer, and press enter, or use stroke dialing, which is described in a future post.<br />
2. The phone vibrates as the app opens. Then it beeps as Talkback announces, "Voice Dialer." Your goal is to prevent the screen reader from saying the name of the app, so after the phone vibrates, but before Talkback says, "Voice Dialer," cover the speaker of your phone, or wave a finger over the proximity sensor, which is located near the lower left-hand corner of the screen (landscape orientation). Remember that, for the proximity sensor to silence speech, the appropriate setting must be made in Accessibility Preferences.<br />
3. After the beep, say the phone number you wish to call, speaking at a moderate conversational rate, without pauses. The phone emits 2 sharp beeps and announces a result.<br />
4. Send the call.<br />
a. If the result is correct, press enter.<br />
b. If the result is incorrect, arrow through the available options, and press enter on the appropriate item, or press Cancel and start the process over. The phone appears to go through a training period. The first 10 to 20 attempts produce inaccurate results. Over time, the results of voice dialing improve, but they definitely vary. <br />
5. Wait for the phone to ring.<br />
<h3>Changing the Input Language for Voice Dialer<br />
</h3>For best results, make sure your voice input setting is correct. To check and adjust the input language in Android 2.2, do the following:<br />
<br />
1. Go to Settings.<br />
a. From the stock Launcher, press Menu, then arrow to and press the selector on Settings.<br />
b. From the Eyes-Free Shell, down-stroke to Applications, type the letter S, arrow down to Settings if necessary, and press enter.<br />
2. Arrow to and press the selector on Voice Input and Output.<br />
3. Arrow to and press the selector on Voice Recognizer Settings.<br />
4. Arrow to and press the selector on "Language, Choose an Input Language."<br />
5. Arrow through the list of options and press the selector on your preferred language. Choices include American, Australian, British, Canadian, generic, Indian, and New Zeeland English as well as other languages.<br />
6. Return to the Home screen by pressing the Back button several times or pressing Home once.<br />
<h3>Dialing with Talking Dialer <br />
</h3>Talking Dialer is a free self-voicing app developed by the Eyes-Free Project and available through Android Market. It is accessed through the Eyes-Free Shell and enables users to dial phone numbers and contacts from the touch screen. The next few sections in this post cover its dialing feature.<br />
<h3>Opening the Talking Dialer<br />
</h3>Users can access the Talking dialer either from the Eyes-Free Shell or from the All Applications screen of the stock Launcher.<br />
<br />
To enter the Talking dialer, do one of the following:<br />
<br />
1. Press the Home button to go to the eyes-Free Shell; then press the Search button to open the Talking Dialer. Home and Search may be soft buttons on the touch screen or physical controls.<br />
2. Press the Home button to go to the stock Launcher; then arrow to and press the selector on All Applications first and Talking Dialer second.<br />
3. Press the Menu button if necessary to enter Dialing mode.<br />
<h3>Keying a Number with Talking Dialer<br />
</h3>The Talking dialer is designed on the same principle as the eyes-Free Shell. Users touch the screen at any point, ideally in the general center. That point is the 5 on an imaginary telephone keypad. Then users slide their fingers diagonally, horizontally, or vertically to the relative location of each of the other keys on the phone, stopping when they hear the digit they wish to dial. Like the Shell and its Shortcuts menus, selection is made by breaking contact with the touch screen. Unlike the Shell and its menus, Talking Dialer has 12 keys, not 9, so users must also down-stroke to the star, zero, and number sign positions. Once users finish dialing the number, Send or Search is pressed to put the call through.<br />
<br />
1. Place a finger in the general center of the touch screen.<br />
2. Dial each number.<br />
a. To Dial the 1, touch the screen; then up-stroke diagonally to the left; lift your finger when the phone announces, "1." The phone vibrates once when you touch the screen and a second time as you reach the 1 position. <br />
b. To Dial the 2, touch the screen; then up-stroke vertically; lift your finger when the phone announces, "2." The phone vibrates once when you touch the screen and a second time as you reach the 2 position. <br />
c. To Dial the 3, touch the screen; then up-stroke diagonally to the right; lift your finger when the phone announces, "3." The phone vibrates once when you touch the screen and a second time as you reach the 3 position. <br />
d. To Dial the 4, touch the screen; then side-stroke horizontally to the left; lift your finger when the phone announces, "4." The phone vibrates once when you touch the screen and a second time as you reach the 4 position. <br />
e. To Dial the 5, touch the screen; lift your finger when the phone announces, "5." The phone vibrates once when you touch the screen to signal you are in the 5 position. <br />
f. To Dial the 6, touch the screen; then side-stroke horizontally to the right; lift your finger when the phone announces, "6." The phone vibrates once when you touch the screen and a second time as you reach the 6 position. <br />
g. To Dial the 7, touch the screen; then down-stroke diagonally to the left; lift your finger when the phone announces, "7." The phone vibrates once when you touch the screen and a second time as you reach the 7 position. <br />
h. To Dial the 8, touch the screen; then down-stroke vertically; lift your finger when the phone announces, "8." The phone vibrates once when you touch the screen and a second time as you reach the 8 position. <br />
i. To Dial the 9, touch the screen; then down-stroke diagonally to the right; lift your finger when the phone announces, "9." The phone vibrates once when you touch the screen and a second time as you reach the 9 position. <br />
j. To Dial the star, touch the screen; then down-stroke in a long diagonal to the left; lift your finger when the phone announces, "star." The phone vibrates once when you touch the screen and two more times as you go through the 7 and star positions. The diagonal is steeper than for the 7. <br />
k. To Dial the 0, touch the screen; then down-stroke in a long vertical; lift your finger when the phone announces, "0." The phone vibrates once when you touch the screen and two more times as you go through the 8 and 0 positions. <br />
l. To Dial the number sign, touch the screen; then down-stroke in a long diagonal to the right; lift your finger when the phone announces, "pound." The phone vibrates once when you touch the screen and two more times as you go through the 9 and number sign positions. The diagonal is steeper than for the 9. <br />
3. When you finish dialing, do one of the following:<br />
a. Press Send if your phone has a Send button.<br />
b. Press the Search button if your phone does not have a Send button.<br />
4. Talking dialer Announces: "You are about to dial," followed by the number. Press Send or Search a second time to confirm.<br />
<h3>Deleting Misdialed Digits in Talking Dialer<br />
</h3>It’s easy to misdial. Deleting numbers is even easier, and there are two ways to do it.<br />
<br />
To delete misdialed digits, do one of the following:<br />
<br />
1. Shake the phone.<br />
a. To delete one digit, shake the phone twice from side to side.<br />
b. To delete several digits, shake the phone from side to side 3 or 4 times.<br />
2. Left-stroke to the backspace key.<br />
a. Place your finger in the general center of the screen. Slide your finger horizontally to the left of the 1 or 4 until the phone announces, "Backspace." Lift your finger.<br />
b. Repeat this process for each digit. Do not touch the edge of the screen, expecting to find the backspace key in the same position. Instead, start in the center (the 5 position) and long-stroke to the left.<br />
<h3>Noting Keypad Orientation and Keyboard Behavior While in the Talking Dialer<br />
</h3>1. When the phone is closed (i.e., the keyboard is tucked under the touch screen), the dialing keypad is used with the phone in portrait orientation. When the phone is open (i.e., the physical keyboard is available to the user), the dialing keypad is oriented to landscape.<br />
2. While the eyes-Free shell, the Eyes-Free shortcuts, and the Talking Dialer screens are up, the physical controls on the keyboard do not behave in the usual way. Most physical controls are unresponsive while in the Shell and Shortcuts, and in Dialer, arrow keys are unresponsive and different characters are assigned to the typing keys.<br />
a. Back moves focus to the Eyes-Free Shell, whether pressed for a short or long period of time. <br />
b. Home works as expected. A short-press moves focus to the default home screen. A long press moves focus to the Recent Applications screen.<br />
c. Both Menu and Search toggle between Dialing Mode and Phonebook in the Talking Dialer.<br />
d. Search+letter works as expected, opening the app assigned to the Android shortcut. <br />
<h3>Making Calls<br />
</h3>Speaking on an Android phone can be more adventurous than speaking on any other. First, the touch screen is a contrary companion. On the one hand, it’s so sensitive that users often inadvertently press soft buttons while speaking on the phone. On the other, it locks unexpectedly when users want access to other apps. Then for users running Android 2.1 and earlier without a dedicated end key, hanging up can be inconvenient.<br />
<br />
1. Once the number has been dialed, send the call, as described above. To summarize:<br />
a. If your phone has a dedicated Send button, press Send.<br />
b. If your phone does not have a dedicated Send button, do the following:<br />
i. Press enter if you make the call with Android Search or the Phone app.<br />
ii. Press the selector if you make the call with Voice Search.<br />
iii. Press Search if you make the call with Talking dialer.<br />
2. While on the phone, keep in mind that the touch screen is very sensitive. The best way to avoid mishaps is to use apps like <a href="http://accessibleandroid.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-do-i-keep-my-screen-still-during.html">Quick Lock and Lock Now Free to freeze the screen during calls.</a> Other alternatives are to do the following:<br />
a. Avoid touching even the edges of the screen; otherwise, you may activate buttons accidentally. Some users have had great success using earphones.<br />
b. Hold both the phone and your head still. Moving one or the other from side to side keeps the screen on and makes it responsive to touch.<br />
c. Keep the proximity sensor (upper left-hand corner while in portrait orientation) close to your face; otherwise, you press buttons with your chin or cheek. This means that it’s not a good idea to hold the phone with your shoulder while rummaging for something to write with. Touching the proximity sensor to put the phone down or pick it up doesn’t always freeze the screen either. <br />
d. Unlock the screen, if you need to, by first sliding the keyboard out or scrolling the trackball, then swiping in the unlock gesture. Interestingly, freezing the screen with the proximity sensor seems to pause the lock delay. In other words, if the lock delay is 1 minute and the proximity sensor is tripped after 10 seconds, the screen locks 50 seconds after the proximity sensor has been "released." The delay is also interrupted when the phone is shaken.<br />
e. Use the typing keyboard to respond to menu prompts during calls to automated customer service lines (as when calling the bank to check the account balance).<br />
3. End the call when you are done, using one of the following:<br />
a. Press End if you have a dedicated End button.<br />
b. Press Power if you are running Android 2.2 or later and have no dedicated End Button. Remember to set this option in Accessibility Preferences.<br />
c. Press End Call on the In-Call screen if you are running Android 2.1 or earlier and have no dedicated end button, using one of these methods:<br />
i. Using the physical keyboard, move focus to the in-call screen, arrow to End Call, and press the selector. This process can be challenging because of an unfortunate series of events. The phone is moved away from the face to access the arrow keys. The proximity sensor stops preventing the screen from responding to movement or touch, but the face can not be moved out of range of the screen’s sensors because Talkback volume is low. The result is that soft buttons are activated and focus moves away from the desired screen, often requiring more than one attempt.<br />
ii. On the touch screen, tap the End call soft button, which is about halfway across the imaginary horizontal line that unlocks the screen. Practice locating this button by calling your landline or a friend and hanging up before the call goes to voicemail.<br />
<h3>Exiting the Call Log<br />
</h3>At the end of each call, focus moves to the call log, a list of incoming and outgoing calls. Three options are available to users.<br />
<br />
1. Return to the Home screen by pressing Back or Home, or move directly into another application with an Android shortcut.<br />
2. Review the Call Log by arrowing up and down through the list of incoming and outgoing calls; then return to the Home screen by pressing Back or Home.<br />
3. Perform other actions by arrowing to and pressing the selector on any of the entries in the Call Log. Doing so moves focus to a Details screen, which offers the 3 following choices:<br />
a. Call again.<br />
b. Send a text message.<br />
c. Add to Contacts.<br />
<h3>Using the In-Call Screen<br />
</h3>While a call is in progress, certain options are available to users through the in-call screen, which can be accessed via the arrow keys. Its contents are described here since Eyes-Free users aren’t always aware of this screen early in their Android experience, but knowing what’s available and how to find it can be very handy. <br />
<h3>Getting to Know the In-Call Screen<br />
</h3>During a call, the In-Call screen can be reviewed by sliding out the keyboard and arrowing over the 6 options, which are arranged in 2 columns and 3 rows. Volume level is very low, consistent with the sound level set for the phone call, so the handset must be held close to the user’s face, which is likely to open another app, shifting focus to another screen. The available items on the In-Call screen are as follows:<br />
<br />
1. Dial pad—pressing the selector here moves focus to the standard dialing pad, which is not accessible.<br />
2. End call—pressing the selector here hangs up. If no other option has been selected during the current call, focus tends to move to this option. <br />
3. Add call—pressing the selector here lets users dial a second number on the typing keyboard for conference calling.<br />
4. Speaker—pressing the selector here puts the device in speaker phone or hands-free mode.<br />
5. Mute—pressing the selector here blocks sound from reaching the person being spoken to.<br />
6. Blue Tooth—pressing the selector here connects the Blue Tooth headset that has already been paired with the device.<br />
<h3>Returning to the In-Call Screen<br />
</h3>If another app has focus, users can return to the in-call screen in one of two ways:<br />
<br />
1. Use the Arrow keys.<br />
a. Go to the Phone screen by doing one of the following or by setting up an Android shortcut to Phone, a topic covered in a future post.<br />
i. Long-press the Back button to return to the stock Home screen, arrow to and press the selector on All Applications, then on Phone. <br />
ii. Press Home to return to the Eyes-Free Shell; then down-stroke to Applications, type P, arrow to Phone if necessary, and press enter.<br />
b. When the app opens, Talkback announces, "Phone." Arrow to and press the selector on Return to Call in Progress.<br />
2. Use the Status bar on the touch screen.<br />
a. Slide the keyboard out.<br />
b. Place a finger on the upper edge of the screen and slide it all the way down to the bottom, stopping when you hear, "Status Bar." <br />
c. Down arrow to and press the selector on "Current call" followed by the number.Access Anahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08435803946541325126noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8211639064178117343.post-89981306587688084832010-09-18T17:37:00.000-07:002011-05-08T15:53:13.895-07:00How Do I Use the Shortcuts Pages of the Eyes-Free Shell?In addition to the 7 helpful apps on the Eyes-Free shell main screen, users can access a series of home pages, called Menus, with frequently used apps, URLs, contacts, Eyes-Free widgets, and Settings items through the Shell. Each additional Menu contains up to nine shortcuts, also laid out in a 3x3 grid, and users simply touch the left and right edges of the screen to access them. <br />
<br />
This post is about how to access, set up, and use the shortcuts screens or menus on the Eyes-Free Shell. <a href="http://accessibleandroid.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-do-i-use-eyes-free-shell.html">for information on the Eyes-Free Shell main screen, refer to the previous post.</a> <br />
<h3>Finding Shortcut Menus/Pages on the Eyes-Free Shell<br />
</h3>Users can move to various shortcut menus or pages by touching the left and right edges of the screen. Here's how it's done:<br />
<br />
1. Touch the left or right edge of the screen.<br />
a. If the phone is in portrait orientation, touch the literal left and right edges of the screen, the glass surface near the plastic or metal casing that holds it in place.<br />
b. If the phone is in landscape orientation, touch the screen along imaginary lines that are about 1 inch or 2.5 cm from the literal left and right edges of the glass surface. When auto rotate is turned off, the phone is in landscape orientation only when the hardware keyboard is pulled out. The literal left edge of the screen is the space ordinarily occupied by the status bar (which does not behave like a status bar in this situation), and the very right edge of the screen is occupied by the Back, Home, Menu, and Search soft keys. <br />
2. Touch the same edge again repeatedly to cycle through available pages, stopping when you hear the name of the page you want. By default, the pages are Home, Shortcuts Left, and Shortcuts Right. Names can be changed to reflect their content, and more pages can be added.<br />
<br />
Note: from home (the main screen), touching the left edge of the screen moves directly to Shortcuts Left, and touching the right edge of the screen moves directly to Shortcuts right. Additional left or right menus/pages can be added. <br />
<h3>Setting a New Shortcut on an Eyes-Free Shell Menu/Page<br />
</h3>The shortcuts can launch any app on the phone, open a bookmarked URL, bring up the details screen for any contact, direct dial or direct message any contact, access the information available on the default Eyes-Free Shell main screen, and get to any item within Settings. The process can seem fiddly and overly complicated the first time or two, but it's actually very predictable.<br />
<br />
To cancel the process, press the Back button twice to exit editing mode without making changes at any point.<br />
<br />
1. Touch the edge of the screen repeatedly to find the page you want to add shortcuts to. by default, options are Home, Shortcuts Left, and Shortcuts Right, and two more screens can be added.<br />
2. Press the Menu button. The phone announces, "Edit menus."<br />
3. Scroll to and press the selector on Edit Menus, the only option. Simply pressing the selector may not work. Once the selector has been pressed on Edit Menus, the phone announces, "Eyes-Free Shell" or "Edit Shortcuts."<br />
4. If you discover you are not on the correct shortcuts page or that you skipped Step 1, you can tap the right or left edge of the screen one or more times at this point to get to the right page.<br />
5. Select your shortcut position.<br />
a. Touch the general center of the screen (the 5 position).<br />
b. Stroke vertically, horizontally, or diagonally in any direction to the spot where you want the new shortcut to appear. The phone announces, "none," if no shortcut is there already, or it announces the existing shortcut (e.g., "Time," "Pizza Delivery Number," or "Wikipedia") if one is already assigned. <br />
c. Lift your finger to indicate that you want to set the shortcut in this position. The phone announces, "Add to Shell," and displays 8 options.<br />
d. If you stroke to the wrong position, press Back to exit edit mode. An alternative is to try touching the screen again and stroking to another position, but this doesn't work consistently.<br />
6. Scroll through the shortcut options and press the selector on the one you wish to add. Options are Applications, Bookmarks, Contacts, Direct Dial, direct Message, Eyes-Free Widgets, Settings, and None.<br />
7. Scroll to and press the selector on the specific app, bookmark, contact, or Settings item you wish to add. <br />
a. In most cases, you can type the first letter to get results beginning with that letter. <br />
b. In the case of Direct Dial and Direct Message, you can also use <a href="http://accessibleandroid.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-do-i-make-call-from-contacts.html">stroke dialing</a> to find the contact, and you must press enter a second time on the contact to confirm your selection.<br />
8. Repeat Steps 4-8 to add more shortcuts to the Shell.<br />
9. Press Back twice or until the phone announces, "Exiting Edit Mode." Currently, the phone mispronounces this as "Exciting edit mode."<br />
<h3>Deleting Shortcuts, Replacing shortcuts, Renaming Menus, Adding New Menus, and Restoring Default Menus in the Eyes-Free Shell<br />
</h3>The Eyes-Free Shell has some useful flexibility. Existing shortcuts can be deleted or replaced with new ones; pages can be named to reflect their content; additional pages can be added; and all pages can be cleared and restored to installation defaults. <br />
<br />
1. To delete an existing shortcut, follow the steps for adding a shortcut only in Step 5 select the shortcut you want to remove, and in Step 6, scroll to and select None on the Add to Shell screen. <br />
2. To replace an existing shortcut with a new one, follow the steps for adding a shortcut only, in Step 5, select a position that already has a shortcut. The new shortcut takes the place of the old one. <br />
3. To name a shortcuts page, do the following, assuming that you are not in Edit Mode. If you are in edit mode, start with Step d below.<br />
a. Touch the edge of the screen repeatedly to find the page you want to add shortcuts to. by default, options are Home, Shortcuts Left, and Shortcuts Right.<br />
b. Press the Menu button. The phone announces, "Edit menus."<br />
c. Scroll to and press the selector on Edit Menus, the only option. Simply pressing the selector may not work. Once the selector has been pressed, the phone announces, "Eyes-Free Shell" or "Edit Shortcuts."<br />
d. If you discover you are not on the correct page or that you skipped Step a, you can tap the right or left edge of the screen at this point to get there.<br />
e. Press Menu again.<br />
f. Scroll to and press the selector on Rename Menu. Options are Insert Menu Left, Insert Menu Right, Restore Default Menus, and Rename Menus.<br />
g. Type the name of the menu/page in the edit field (e.g., contacts, work Websites, GPS).<br />
h. Scroll to and press the selector on OK.<br />
i. Press Back twice or until the phone announces, "Exiting Edit Mode." Currently, the phone mispronounces this as "Exciting edit mode."<br />
4. To add new pages, do the following, assuming that you are not in Edit Mode. If you are in edit mode, start with Step d below.<br />
a. Touch the edge of the screen repeatedly to find the page you want to add shortcuts to. by default, options are Home, Shortcuts Left, and Shortcuts Right.<br />
b. Press the Menu button. The phone announces, "Edit menus."<br />
c. Scroll to and press the selector on Edit Menus, the only option. Simply pressing the selector may not work. Once the selector has been pressed, the phone announces, "Eyes-Free Shell" or "Edit Shortcuts."<br />
d. If you discover you are not on the correct page or that you skipped Step a, you can tap the right or left edge of the screen at this point to get there.<br />
e. Press Menu again.<br />
f. Scroll to and press the selector on Insert Menu Left or Insert Menu Right. Options are Insert Menu Left, Insert Menu Right, Restore Default Menus, and Rename Menus.<br />
g. Touch the edge of the screen repeatedly until the phone announces, "New Menu."<br />
h. Add shortcuts to this page or rename it as described above.<br />
i. When you are done, press Back twice or until the phone announces, "Exiting Edit Mode." Currently, the phone mispronounces this as "Exciting edit mode."<br />
5. To clear all pages and recover the items on the default main screen (in case of utter shortcut calamity), Do the following, assuming that you are not in Edit Mode. If you are in edit mode, start with Step c below.<br />
a. Press the Menu button. The phone announces, "Edit menus."<br />
b. Scroll to and press the selector on Edit Menus, the only option. Simply pressing the selector may not work. Once the selector has been pressed, the phone announces, "Eyes-Free Shell" or "Edit Shortcuts."<br />
c. Press Menu again.<br />
d. Scroll to and press the selector on Restore Default Menus. Options are Insert Menu Left, Insert Menu Right, Restore Default Menus, and Rename Menus.<br />
e. Add shortcuts to this page or rename it as described above.<br />
f. When you are done, press Back twice or until the phone announces, "Exiting Edit Mode." Currently, the phone mispronounces this as "Exciting edit mode."<br />
<br />
Note: Some users have reported frequent crashes with previous versions of the Eyes-Free Shell. Many report resolving the issue by restoring Default Menus once.<br />
<h3>Using the Eyes-Free Shell Shortcuts<br />
</h3>Users can set up 7 different types of shortcuts. They can be accessed by touching the edge of the screen to get to the menu/page, then stroking to the assigned position. Following is the behavior to be expected from each type of shortcut.<br />
<br />
1. An Application shortcut opens the application,, so touching the screen, stroking to the Market shortcut, and lifting a finger opens the Market.<br />
2. A Bookmark shortcut opens a webpage in the default browser, so touching the screen, stroking to a Wikipedia shortcut, and lifting a finger opens Wikipedia in Ideal Web Reader.<br />
3. A Contact shortcut opens the details screen for the individual, so touching the screen, stroking to the Boss shortcut, and lifting a finger opens the screen that prompts users to call or email their boss at work.<br />
4. A direct Dial shortcut sends a call immediately, so touching the screen, stroking to the Mom shortcut, and lifting a finger starts the call without a confirmation step. Users who stroke to the wrong name can cancel by sliding their finger to a blank spot before breaking contact with the screen.<br />
5. A direct Message shortcut opens the default messaging app and puts the contact in the To field, so touching the screen, stroking to the Best Friend shortcut, and lifting a finger starts a text message and moves focus to the message body edit field. Users who stroke to the wrong name can cancel by sliding their finger to a blank spot before breaking contact with the screen.<br />
6. An Eyes-Free Shell Widget shortcut gives users the kind of information found on the main screen (e.g., signal strength, time, battery status), so touching the screen, stroking to the battery shortcut, and lifting a finger causes the phone to announce the battery level. Users can put important widgets on all shortcut menus or move less important widgets to menus that are used infrequently.<br />
7. A Settings shortcut opens System Settings options, like Accessibility, Accounts and Sync, or Language and Keyboard, so touching the screen, stroking to the Accessibility shortcut, and lifting a finger opens the item where the Accessibility, screen reader, and Kickback checkboxes are located.<br />
<h3>Grid Orientation and Keyboard Behavior While in the Eyes-Free Shell<br />
</h3>1. When the phone is closed (i.e., the keyboard is tucked under the touch screen), the grid is used with the phone in portrait orientation. When the phone is open (i.e., the physical keyboard is available to the user), the grid is oriented to landscape.<br />
2. While the eyes-Free shell, the Eyes-Free shortcuts, and the Talking Dialer screens are up, the physical controls on the keyboard do not behave in the usual way. Most physical controls are unresponsive while in the Shell and Shortcuts, and in Dialer, arrow keys are unresponsive and different characters are assigned to the typing keys.<br />
a. Back works as expected. A short press moves focus to the previous screen. A long press moves focus to the stock Home screen.<br />
b. Home works as expected. A short press moves focus to the Eyes-Free shell. A long press moves focus to the Recent Applications screen.<br />
c. Menu opens the page editor for the Eyes-Free Shell shortcut screen.<br />
d. Search moves focus to the Talking Dialer. If the Talking Dialer is not installed, Talkback announces, "Application is not installed."<br />
e. Search+letter works as expected, opening the app assigned to the Android shortcut.Access Anahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08435803946541325126noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8211639064178117343.post-30911196439746217102010-09-16T20:33:00.000-07:002011-05-08T15:49:50.212-07:00How Do I Use the Eyes-Free Shell?The eyes-Free Shell is an alternative home screen or launcher for drivers and other people who don’t or can’t look at the screen. It gives blind and visually impaired users a way of interacting with the touch screen to check status information, launch other applications, and direct dial or message a contact.<br />
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This post is about the Shell's main screen. <a href="http://accessibleandroid.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-do-i-use-shortcut-screen-that-comes.html">For information about the Shell's various shortcuts screens, which can be set up to launch other apps, visit bookmarked URLs, open the Details screen for individual contacts, access Eyes-Free Shell widgets, direct dial or message contacts, and quickly move to items within the phone's settings menu, refer to the next post.</a><br />
<h3>Finding the Eyes-Free Shell Main Screen<br />
</h3>The Eyes-Free Shell has several parts. The main screen has 7 widgets or mini-apps that offer users quick access to information like time and battery status. It is the screen that opens when the Shell is launched. <a href="http://accessibleandroid.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-do-i-set-or-change-default-home.html">For information on setting the eyes-Free Shell as the default home screen, refer to the previous post.</a><br />
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In addition to the main screen, the Shell has at least 2 other pages (called menus), where users can place shortcuts to things they use frequently. In fact, if the Shell appears to be blank as users attempt to interact with it, the likely reason is that they are on one of the shortcuts pages, not the main screen.<br />
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To return to the main screen of the Eyes-Free Shell, do the following:<br />
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1. Touch the left or right edge of the screen.<br />
a. If the phone is in portrait orientation, touch the literal left and right edges of the screen, the glass surface near the plastic or metal casing that holds it in place.<br />
b. If the phone is in landscape orientation, touch the screen along imaginary lines that are about 1 inch or 2.5 cm from the literal left and right edges of the glass surface. When auto rotate is turned off, the phone is in landscape orientation only when the hardware keyboard is pulled out. The literal left edge of the screen is the space ordinarily occupied by the status bar (which does not behave like a status bar in this situation), and the literal right edge of the screen is occupied by the Back, Home, Menu, and Search soft keys. <br />
2. Touch the same edge of the screen repeatedly to cycle through the shortcuts pages, stopping when you hear, "Home."<br />
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By default, the pages are Home, Shortcuts Left, and Shortcuts Right. Names can be changed to reflect their content, and more pages can be added.<br />
<h3>Interacting with the Eyes-Free Shell<br />
</h3>On the Eyes-Free shell, the 7 mini-apps or widgets are arranged in 3 rows of 3, as in a tick-tack-toe game, a 3 by 3 grid, or the top 9 keys of a standard telephone dialing keypad. When the phone is closed (i.e., the keyboard is tucked under the touch screen), the grid is used with the phone in portrait orientation. When the phone is open (i.e., the physical keyboard is available to the user), the grid is oriented to landscape.<br />
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This grid isn’t at a fixed location; rather, its center is wherever the screen is touched first. Using the telephone keypad analogy, that center point is the 5 key, and users must stroke vertically up or down, horizontally left or right, or diagonally in any direction to reach another one of the keys on the phone. <br />
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When another "key" is reached, the phone vibrates and speaks the name of the widget being touched. To access the widget, users simply break contact with the screen.<br />
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For best results with the Eyes-Free shell:<br />
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1. Touch the screen in the general center, not close to the edges. Some users touch the phone with the index finger; others use the middle finger, as when they touch a telephone keypad.<br />
2. Move your finger at a moderate rate, neither slow nor fast.<br />
3. Use the vibrations to confirm that you have moved to a new key position. The phone vibrates when you touch the screen, thus identifying the 5 position. It vibrates again as you move to a new key. If you continue to hold your finger in that position, the name of the function is spoken (e.g., time in the 2 position or Battery in the 3 position).<br />
4. Avoid touching the right and left edges of the screen as doing so moves you to a shortcut page. If you touch the edge of the screen by accident, touch the edge again repeatedly until you cycle back to the main screen.<br />
5. Set the Talkback keyboard to Hidden with a long-press of the volume buttons if the Shell is behaving strangely.<br />
<h3>Noting Keyboard Behavior While in the Eyes-Free Shell<br />
</h3>While the eyes-Free shell, the Eyes-Free shortcuts, and the Talking Dialer screens are open, the physical controls on the keyboard do not behave in the usual way. Most physical controls are unresponsive while in the Shell and Shortcuts, and in Dialer, arrow keys are unresponsive and different characters are assigned to the typing keys.<br />
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The following set of keys can be used with the following results:<br />
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1. Back works as expected. A short press moves focus to the previous screen. A long press moves focus to the stock Home screen.<br />
2. Home works as expected. A short press moves focus to the Eyes-Free shell. A long press moves focus to the Recent Applications screen.<br />
3. Menu enables editing of the Eyes-Free Shell main screen and of its shortcut screens.<br />
4. Search moves focus to the Talking Dialer. If the Talking Dialer is not installed, The phone announces, "Application is not installed."<br />
5. The quick launch Search+letter works as expected, opening the app assigned to the Android shortcut. <br />
6. The Talkback keyboard should be set to Hidden when working with the Eyes-Free Shell and its shortcut screens.<br />
<h3>Using the Widgets on the Eyes-Free Shell<br />
</h3>These are instructions for using the widgets available through the Eyes-Free shell:<br />
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1. For signal strength and network information, use Steps a and b below. This information is also available by going to Settings/About Phone/ Status, Phone Number, Signal, etc. <br />
a. Up-stroke diagonally to the left to reach the 1 position. The phone announces, "Signal."<br />
b. Lift your finger.<br />
2. For the time, use Steps a and b below. This information is also available by going to Settings/Date and time.<br />
a. Up-stroke vertically to reach the 2 position. The phone announces, "Time."<br />
b. Lift your finger.<br />
3. For battery status information, use Steps a and b below. This information is also available by going to Settings/About Phone/ Status, Phone Number, Signal, etc. <br />
a. Up-stroke diagonally to the right to reach the 3 position. The phone announces, "Battery."<br />
b. Lift your finger.<br />
4. No widget is assigned to the 4 position. This is a useful spot for a frequently used app that requires minimal keyboarding, like Talking compass (by Bill Ray), Intersection Explorer (by Eyes-Free Project), or Checkmark Calendar (by Greenbean Soft).<br />
5. No widget is assigned to the 5 position since it is what determines the relative placement of the other keys. To avoid activating any widget , stroke back to this key and lift your finger. The phone announces, "Home.<br />
6. For information about your current location, use the steps listed below. Repeating the steps produces varying results, alternating between a GPS and a network location. This type of information is also available from Google Maps and other GPS apps, like WalkyTalky by Eyes-Free Project and Location Blind by Bill Ray, available through the Android Market. <br />
a. Side-stroke to the right to reach the 6 position. The phone announces, "Location."<br />
b. Lift your finger.<br />
c. Wait a few seconds for the phone to announce location details.<br />
7. For voicemail, use the steps listed below. This is also available by dialing your carrier's voicemail code (e.g., *86 for Verizon customers), using any of the calling methods described in other posts. <br />
a. Down -stroke diagonally to the left to reach the 7 position. The phone announces, "Voicemail."<br />
b. Lift your finger.<br />
c. Use the physical keyboard to enter your password, and continue with voicemail, using the physical keyboard to enter menu choices. If the number row doesn't behave as expected, try pressing the alt or shift key before typing each number.<br />
8. For a vertical list of All Apps, use the steps listed below. The stock Home screen also includes an All Applications or Sliding Drawer icon, which provides access to all the apps on the phone, presented alphabetically in a grid, so users must remember to arrow left and right as well as up and down. <br />
a. Down-stroke vertically to reach the 8 position. The phone announces, "Applications."<br />
b. Lift your finger.<br />
c. An alphabetical list of all of the apps appears on the screen. Find and enter the application by doing one of the following:<br />
i. Type the first letter of the app you want to use. If the names of several apps begin with that letter, arrow down to find the second, third, and so on. If you meant to type a different letter, arrow up or down once, then type another letter. When the app is located, press Enter, the selector, or the Search button to open it.<br />
ii. <a href="http://accessibleandroid.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-do-i-make-call-from-contacts.html">Use Stroke dialing.</a><br />
9. For simple voice searches, use One Vox. Voice searches can also be made from the stock Home screen by long pressing the Search button; however, this feature appears to be mostly inaccessible at this time. <br />
a. down-stroke diagonally to the right to reach the 9 position. The phone announces, "Search."<br />
b. Lift your finger. A soft click is played.<br />
c. Say a search term. Speak at a moderate conversational rate, without pausing between serch terms. Examples of search terms are detailed in another section of this post.<br />
d. Wait for the phone to announce the results. Results are returned quickly. If no results are returned in 10 seconds, press Back briefly and try again, or use the physical navigational controller to scroll to the Speak Again or Cancel button, press the selector, and speak or move on to another activity.<br />
<h3>Adjusting screen reader volume with the Eyes-Free Shell<br />
</h3>One of the perks of the eyes-Free Shell is that users can adjust screen reader volume while the phone is silent. To do this:<br />
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1. Place your finger on the Eyes-Free Shell. A thumb works well for this, with the middle, ring, and pinky fingers under the handset.<br />
2. Press the volume-up/down key repeatedly while your finger is on the screen. The phone beeps more loudly or more softly with each press of the volume control.<br />
<h3>Accessing an App's Details Screen from the Eyes-Free Shell<br />
</h3>Another perk of the Eyes-Free Shell is that users can quickly launch the details screen for an app. This screen is where users uninstall apps and perform other maintenance tasks, like force closing a troublesome app or clearing defaults so a different app can be launched automatically in certain situations. Normally, getting to that screen involves going into Settings/Applications/Manage Applications, but with the Shell, the process is much shorter.<br />
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1. Down-stroke to the 8 position to launch the Applications widget.<br />
2. Scroll to the app, or use first-letter navigation to find it in the list.<br />
3. Press the Menu button.<br />
4. Do one of the following:<br />
a. Scroll to and press the selector on Details to open the details screen. The options on this screen are not arranged in a list; to find your option scroll left and right as well as up and down. Options are Clear Cache, Clear Data, Clear Defaults, Force Stop, Move to SD card, Uninstall.<br />
b. Scroll to and press the selector on Uninstall to uninstall the app.<br />
5. Press Back if necessary when you're done.<br />
<h3>Finding Quick Answers with Eyes-Free Voice Search<br />
</h3>Users can take advantage of some of Google’s search features to find quick answers in OneVox, the simple voice search app of the Eyes-Free shell. Examples of search terms are listed below. The order of the items in the search string doesn’t seem to matter: users can say, "weather. Mountain View" or "Mountain View weather," to get the same result.<br />
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• Calculations – To hear the results of an addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, or percentage problem, say the calculation you'd like done. Examples: 3 plus 4, 20 minus 6, 5 times 8, 39 divided by 13, 20 percent of 3,495.<br />
• Currency Conversion – To hear money equivalents between countries, say, the source currency, the word "in," and the target currency. Example: 100 U.S. dollars in Mexican pesos.<br />
• Dictionary Definitions – To hear a definition for a word or phrase, say, "define" or "definition," and word(s): Example: define, dog.<br />
• Sunrise & Sunset – To hear the precise times of sunrises and sunsets for many U.S. and world cities, say, "sunrise" or "sunset," and the city name. Example: Sunset, San Jose, Costa Rica.<br />
• Time – To hear the time in many cities around the world, say, "time," and the name of the city. Example: time, Madrid.<br />
• Unit Conversion – To hear the equivalents between many different units of measure for distance, height, volume, weight, and more, say the source unit, the word "in," and the target unit. Examples: 40 miles in kilometers, 3 ounces in grams, 1 gallon in liters.<br />
• Weather – to hear the weather for many U.S. and world cities, say, "weather," and the city and state, the U.S. zip code, or the city and country. Example: weather, London, England.Access Anahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08435803946541325126noreply@blogger.com12