Touchtype will potentially open up the Android market to this community, although it should be noted there are still other accessibility concerns with Android. touchscreen) keyboard due to its lack of accessibility. To date, people who are blind or vision impaired were advised not to purchase an Android device with an onscreen (i.e. These added features provide “a partial solution to many of Android’s current accessible input limitations,” Daerikek claims. The app is not only an onscreen keyboard, but also provides spoken feedback when arrowing through text fields and provides (optional) spoken feedback for shift and alt keys, along with common Android action keys. Despite this criticism, TalkBack has a large base of users who depend on the available customization options or who just enjoy the ability to adjust the software to exactly fit their unique use case.Touchtype is an iOS-inspired onscreen keyboard for Android devices developed by Nolan Daerilek, who also created the Android screen reader Spiel. Lastly, TalkBack allows deep customization of every keyboard shortcut and input gesture that can be used to control the screen reader, meaning users can set the screen reader up in exactly the way that works for them.Īs a result of how customizable TalkBack is for users, it is occasionally criticized as difficult to use or less stable or reliable than screen readers on other mobile platforms. Further, Android allows for third party text-to-speech software, meaning that TalkBack users are not restricted to using only the voices included on their device. This means the TalkBack screen reader can be updated via the Google Play store so users don’t need to wait for a whole operating system update to get changes and improvements to their screen reader. Unlike on iOS, the Android operating system allows for screen readers to be installed and updated separately from the overall operating system. Primarily used by those who are blind, it provides complete screen reader access to all built-in apps on Android and apps from the Google Play store that follow Google’s accessibility guidelines.

The TalkBack screen reader is an open-source application for the Android operating system, largely developed by Google.

Android accessibility screen reader