Google Introduces Voice Access To Make Android More Accommodating For People With Disabilities

An anonymous reader writes: Google has launched a new beta app called Voice Access, which lets people control their Android phone with voice commands. The company took the wraps off Voice Access as an accessibility tool to help people who have difficulties using the touch interface, such as those with tremors or paralysis. Once installed, items in Settings and apps on the Homepage are numbered. The user can tell the device, "Go Home", which is transcribed at the top of the page, and then say, "Open one", to launch the app numbered one. Twitter and Facebook also recently took some steps to make some of their services more accessible to people.

Star Trek IV

[Anonymous Coward]

The disability thing is just a cover. They want to make sure our computers are less annoying to any time travelers from the future.

Re:

[JackieBrown]

Agreed. It will be nice while driving.

"Computer, please open netflxix and play Star Trek IV"

Nope. Not yet, anyway.

[fyngyrz]

Doesn't appear to work that way. Homepage and settings only, numbered items only.

A shame, really. If it worked as you suggest, it would be considerably more useful. To everyone including the handicapped. And an inclusive, comprehensive solution is always a great deal better than an exclusive, restricted solution if both are practical -- as they are in this case.

But it's a start.

I'm from the future?

[Rob MacDonald]

I guess I'm a time traveler as all of my Galaxy devices have had a voice activation feature to use the phone with voice commands.

Re:

[rossdee]

"I guess I'm a time traveler"

Cool... Did Samsung ever go back to having microSD expansion in their Galaxy Note phones?

Re:

[amRadioHed]

Your Galaxy devices have had the ability to scroll the screen and push buttons using your voice? Every phone has had voice commands, but a fully voice operated interface I've never seen before.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

but there was no takers.

Dammit, people have no vision these day

Not nice for all people...

[Errol backfiring]

This is not nice for people who suffer from Tourette syndrome.

Re:

[jeffb (2.718)]

Just remember this: if there's no mandate for general accessibility, and accessible tools aren't widely available, it'll be a lot harder for you to kill yourself and get out of our way when you get old enough to develop tremors, lose your hearing, or lose your sight.

Re:

[layabout]

As a person with a disability acquired in adulthood, let me give you a little insight into my life. I lost my career as a programmer. I lost my ability to write. I lost my ability to communicate by email, instant messenger, IRC etc. I lost my ability to use Web services, commercial or governmental. I lost my ability to participate in the educational system. Yes I can read, I can turn the pages of a book but I can't fill in web forms, take online exams, or even write legibly enough for exams on paper. In ot

Re:

[Dutch Gun]

I want you to give me an API so I can write my own interface.

I wonder if something like Microsoft's AI Bot API [arstechnica.com] may eventually be able to do the sort of things you're perhaps thinking of. Granted, probably not on a mobile device yet, but I think this idea may have long-term potential for accessibility. Chat programs are becoming almost a platform unto themselves, so if this can leverage some of those capabilities with customized, programmable bots to help perform tasks by voice command, I could see it being quite handy for allowing very deep customization of voice c

Re:

[layabout]

I believe you are right about bots. Now I need to create one that understands code features, templates, and emacs.

Now if they could just

[The Cisco Kid]

... add support for audible feedback that did not require one to look at the screen, it would be useful for someone that was either blind, or that could not look at the screen for some other reason (perhaps someone driving?)

And to actually control functions in individual apps where it made sense, as well, such as music apps, maps/navigation, etc.. Some of that would require app developers to add hooks/definitions of the different functions.

"Ok google, open Pandora and select 'classic rock' station"

So many o

Re:

[layabout]

You've just hit on the main problem with accessibility interfaces. They need to be customizable to how the user works, not according to how the developer imagines that they work. For example, with programming using speech recognition I need an interface that feeds me questions based on what I'm doing so that I can answer them and generate code. The typical developer solution is to have me speak keyboard characters which runs the risk of damaging my vocal apparatus on top of my other disability. Talk about b

Re:

[amRadioHed]

Google has had a screen reader called TalkBack for blind users pretty much forever. I'm not sure how well it works with this new capability though.

Good for the Blind

[C0L0PH0N]

It came as a great surprise to me when a friend who had become totally blind was using an iPhone. The smooth featureless surface seemed the last thing that would be useful to a blind person. But there is a whole subculture of apps for the blind for the iPhone, which, "surprise", were voice activated. He could use the phone to navigate the streets in his neighborhood when going for walks. He could order books for the blind over the phone, delivered to the phone, and listened to over the phone (using Bluetooth headphones). An amazing app is called "taptapsee", to identify objects. He just pointed the phone's camera at an object, double tapped the phone, and it spoke the name of the object!! Another app lets the blind person leave "notes" for himself. There are apps that will tell him what color an object is, using the camera of course. With one amazing app, he can point the phone at paper money, and it will tell him the denomination! I don't know if Android has all these capabilities, but why not? (A funny thing happened with my friend. His iPhone went completely blank, ie, the surface display refused to come up. This didn't bother him, but his wife couldn't see what was what. Turned out that it is a "feature" of an iPhone that if you triple-tap the surface, it will turn the surface display off! Took two trips to the Apple store to discover that one.) Bottom line, there are ten times as many apps for the blind for the iPhone than for the Android. (I counted 125 apps for the blind for the iPhone on one site, and could only find a dozen or so listed for the Android - a quick and non-scientific search :)). I seriously hope this will be the beginning of a surge so that Android can catch up. I am a very happy Android user, myself.

Not just those apps

[SuperKendall]

Apple makes it really easy to support Guided Access in apps, basically by assigning a meaningful string to every UI element so someone can navigate an entire touch UI just by listening to what is on the screen as you list and move between active control elements.

Not every app is as good as it could be about supporting this, but even doing nothing at all the iPhone uses labels on buttons and text areas to describe what is going on with the UI. So really it's many more apps that are at least usable to the bl

Google doesn't give a shit about visual impairment

[blind biker]

Just see this thread. [google.com] People are asking for the font on Google Maps for Android to be scalable. That would go a long way to help people with poor vision to use one of Google's main Android apps.

Legitimate user

[manu0601]

How does the system prevent control from someone else that the legitimate user?