Short PSA to #WebDev do not, do not, enable #Accessibility overlays! I was just on a website where the AccessiBe toolbar actually made text completely disappear and turn plain text paragraphs into a DIV, somehow, and a hidden element. I'm telling you, seek out an accessibility ready theme instead. #Wordpress has hundreds, and Shopify has them now too. You. Are. Wasting. Your. Money. On these toolbars. #Internet
Re my last boost, looks like HID support for Braille displays via bluetooth is coming in Android 15. This should let devices like the Brailliant BI 20X, 40X, The Mantis, and the Humanware NLS EReaders connect to devices running Android 15 via bluetooth. Fantastic news.
Clarification: These devices can be connected to Android devices via USB cables right now. The new support is for HID over bluetooth, enabling us to use our displays wirelessly.
Hello, fellow #blind people. Somebody asked me about resources for learning how to use #talkback on #android. I am not an android user and I have no idea about any of that. I am looking for guides, tutorials, videos, anything like that. any resources that anybody can offer are appreciated.
So, there's a version of TalkBack 14 going around that works with Android 13. I thought I'd test out the NLS EReader support. So I plugged it into a USB C to USB C cable, from the phone to the Braille display. Nothing worked. I did hear the phone say "USB Connector connected," and "USB Connector disconnected" a few times though, so I thought maybe it's a short in the wire. So since I didn't have any more C to C cables, I plugged it into my little USB hub thing. It still didn't work. On a burst of inspiration, I tried plugging a power cable into one of the C connectors. And then it worked. It was slow, as expected from a beta, but it worked fairly well.
Now, to use this, I'll have to be connected to power, until I can find another C to C cable. Hopefully that'll work. Still, it's super sad that Google doesn't communicate enough internally to simply put Braille HID into a play system update and there we go. I am glad, though, that they now have a place in Braille settings where they describe what each element stands for. I don't think VoiceOver has that.
Audio of me showing that TalkBack speaks while I'm trying to talk to the Google Assistant, and I eventually ask it to play some music, and it plays a nice piano remix of Chrono Trigger's Corridor of Time track on Youtube Music. Description is here cause a Mastodon client for the blind can't add media descriptions, that I know of.
So one of the things for me about Android is the TTS engines. Apple has, basically, three speech engines built into every one of their operating systems. Vocalizer which is what VoiceOver starts off on using, Macintalk which is like Alex, and Fred and all that, and Eloquence. Three different ways of speaking, pronounciation sets, all that. Actual choice.
On Android though, a Pixel comes with Google TTS. And if you've ever been somewhere with no Internet and heard a low quality, robotic voice from Google Maps, you've heard what we have to deal with on a Pixel every single day unless we get something different. So on Android, there are a few more options. RH Voice which honestly doesn't sound so good to me in English, ESpeak which is as robotic as you can get and was last updated on Oct 23, 2022 (almost a year ago), Vocalizer which had its last update on Oct 30, 2021 (which is better than I thought but still feels unmaintained), and that's about all I know of. On Samsung phones, you can get Samsung TTS out of the box, and it's pretty good. Of course, then you get Samsung's TalkBack, Samsung's version of everything, but also all the goodies that come with Samsung phones. Oh and Samsung TTS has a longer pause between everything cause it was made to read stuff not for screen reading, so everything feels slower than it is.
So it's really sad. Eloquence is still a 32-bit app, so will not work on the newest Pixels. Google TTS' newer local models are sluggish with TalkBack, and cannot speak quickly, as many have found out when working around the fact that TalkBack doesn't use the newer model natively. And it's sluggish when reading long pieces of text, like this one. And there iOS is, with tons of voices to choose from. And I get it, I should be thankful that we have even ESpeak, but when you come home from a stressful day at work, what do you want to hear?
Google seems to be fixing the Send button not appearing for TalkBack users. It seems to be server-side as some TalkBack users do have the Send buttons and some don't.
So, I know I like to mrrrr at TalkBack a bit here and there, but one of the nicest things they added in TalkBack 14 is Braille Element descriptions. That full cell and dots 3-6 after it? That actually means something. An element you can tap and hold, using a Braille command, Space with Enter or something like that. And you don't have to go to the commands list to just figure out what commands you have, there's a categorized list of a good 50 commands now. No, it's not perfect, but the idea of documenting everything for the user, within the screen reader, is just... well it's nice. So nice not to have to scrub every corner of the screen reading experience just to find out what's new or what something means.
So I am loving #talkback 14.0 which rolled out yesterday and is almost entirely focused on #braille, #BrailleScreenInput , and #BrailleDisplay support including additional editing functions for displays and editing, granular control, and additional gestures within braille input.
Does anybody use Google docs? Since I'm cutting apple off, I am no longer going to have access to the program. I used to write everything, and I need a new one pronto
@evilcookies98 Ok so for both word and docs do not use the #android apps, they are both beyond inaccessible with #TalkBack, you can use the browser versions however, and for a lot of things I use this.
@changeling@mastoblind I mean the swipe actions were not on #TalkBack until last year, we had menu actions similar to rotor ones for ages and some of those worked in discord for a while now, mostly things like opening the server options from server list to mark as read and such. They have rebuilt the mobile apps 3x in 2 years so not surprised about the delay.
@spaciath Most work via USB, brands like HIMS, Focus, and Orbit work in general because they retain a backup bluetooth protocol, Humanware and Helptech do not offer any backup method for working with devices that cannot use HID wired or wireless which is actually not hard and could be done with an update. The bluetooth HID support for android is out of the #TalkBack teams hands but people could pester #google about this to try and get the people who should be on this to get on it. @mastoblind
@objectinspace@amir If this is the android 15 beta it's still developer phase and actual release of Accessibility Suite 15.0 won’t be for at least another 5 months or so, also what’s strange is that #TalkBack is not an app on Pixel side so when it crashes is not the message you would get, what type of device were you running this on?
@objectinspace@amir I was worried about that being it…, That one broke with #TalkBack in every browser I tried including chrome and firefox, the select your country drop down would never accept the entry and allow me to continue…
So fellow #blind#Android folks. I'm not as impressed with my Google Pixel Watch as I thought I would be, and am contemplating switching to a Samsung one. How #accessible are they with #Talkback? I have a #Pixel phone, in case that matters. Thanks in advance!
Ok so so far #talkback 14.2 is fine, nothing really major broken, except they somehow fucked proofreading up so it cannot find spelling/grammar errors in general a bunch of the time. @mastoblind