Mobile Accessibility for Android - App of the Month, March 2011

Mobile Accessibility for Android is a suite of 10 new accessible apps and a screen reader all in one. There are still some rough edges and issues to consider if you're a blind or partially sighted person who's thinking of becoming an Android user, but plenty of good reasons too.

It's a big step forward for the accessibility of Android phones, and the time we've spent with it so far has impressed us enough to make it March's App of the Month.

Where to get it:

Download Mobile Accessibility from the Android Market

Developed by:Code Factory

Platform: Android 2.1 and above

Why is Mobile Accessibility App of the Month?

The suite of 10 apps that make up Mobile Accessibility cover pretty much the bases when it comes to the daily uses of a smart phone.

Here's a few examples of the things we tried:

• Phone made and received calls efficiently, had a no-thrills but functional call log, and caller ID was spoken
• Contacts had no problem handling the 350-odd entries we imported, even power users shouldn't be disappointed with the management options
• SMS was a pleasure when we combined Android's voice recognition (more on that later) with texts being grouped by conversation
• Code Factory's web browser is a solid app, and one of the main selling points for Mobile Accessibility for sure.
• Calendar was quick and efficient to use, and integration with Google Calendar is likely to be handy for anyone with a Gmail account
• Email was perhaps a little disappointing in that it only accesses Gmail accounts, but what it does do, it does well. Luckily, there is an accesible third party email client.
• The included GPS app isn't something that will excite power users, nevertheless it was handy to be able to pull up our current location in seconds
• Mobile Accessibility gives you a handy way to browse and launch third party apps, the advantage of doing it this way being that you have full use of the touch screen and code factory's gestures up until the point where you launch third party apps.

While it's not free out of the box accessibility like the iPhone offers, this was the first time we've used Android, all be it a small corner of it, and not had a niggling worry in the back of our minds that the next thing we tried to do might not be accessible.

The most immediate stumbling block is that, unless you're comfortable with some serious experimentation, you'll likely need some sighted assistance to get Mobile Accessibility installed and running for the first time.

User comment:

Neil Graham says:

A few days after Mobile Accessibility was released, I was due an upgrade. I fancied trying something new and I'd had some hands-on experience of using a touch screen on my girlfriend's iPhone, so thought I'd give the demo of Mobile Accessibility a go. The manual recommends that you buy a phone with a qwerty keyboard and directional buttons for the best experience when you're using Android apps that aren't made by Code Factory, but I didn't have many choices available from my network, so I ended up with a directional pad that I swipe my thumb across instead. It took a bit of getting used to, but within a day or so I'd say I was pretty nifty with it. So far, I haven't missed having a qwerty keyboard, because the in-built voice recognition is one of the coolest things I've ever used. You have to be connected to the internet to use it, but the speed and accuracy is incredible. I just speak whatever I want to go into an email or SMS a couple of sentences at a time, and within seconds it's translated into text. As I said, my girlfriend is an iPhone user, some might say she's verging on being an iPhone fanatic, but Android's voice recognition has totally wowed her! There is an accessible touch screen keyboard available, but I haven't had a need to use it much. For what it's worth, it seemed just as usable as the touch screen keyboard on the iPhone when I had a quick play. My next task is to spend some time in the Market to see which third party apps are accessible.

Tips and tricks:

This month, instead of usage tips for the app itself, we're going to give you places you can go to read more about Mobile Accessibility and hear it in action.

1. Your first stop should be Code Factory's product page. There's plenty of info in the user guide which can be found there.
2. Next, you can listen to a short demo of Android's speech recognition to hear what Neil is so enthusiastic about.
3. If you're wondering which other apps found on the Android Market are accessible, you can visit Android Access to find out.
4. For an extremely thorough look at Android and Mobile Accessibility itself, you could check out Mike Arrigo's second podcast on Android.

Got a suggestion?

We want to hear from you, our users. Which apps should we be writing about on the TechKnowMore blog? Is there an app that's making a big difference to your life?

Drop us an email on DigitalAccess@rnib.org.uk to let us know, and your favourite app could be featured in the very near future!