Google announces a braille keyboard called TalkBack integrated directly into Android.
Over 150 years ago, with the invention of braille, blind people were able to read and write. With the advent of the digital world, there are braille displays available on most phones, but a physical keyboard has to be connected each time one wants to type something quickly on the phone. To overcome this challenge, Google has announced a new braille keyboard called TalkBack that is integrated directly into Android.
It’s a fast, convenient way to type on your phone without any additional hardware, whether you’re posting on social media, responding to a text, or writing a brief email. In the words of Google - “As part of our mission to make the world’s information universally accessible, we hope this keyboard can broadly expand braille literacy and exposure among blind and low vision people.
The keyboard uses a standard 6-key layout and each key represents one of six Braille dots which, when tapped, makes any letter or symbol. "To type an ‘A' you would press dot 1 and to type a ‘B', dots 1 and 2 together, according to Google.
It works well on all Android text fields, and also offers a way to delete letters, words, add lines as well as submit the text.
The keyboard is being rolled out to devices that run Android 5.0 or later. It’s easy to enable it, just go to Settings > Accessibility and select TalkBack. One can see full instructions on the Android Accessibility Help website.
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