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Any Developer Can Now Integrate Fleksy's Accessible Keyboard Into Their iOS App

Posted by Unknown Saturday, March 8, 2014 0 comments

Fleksy is an alternative keyboard for mobile devices including smartphones, tablets, and even smart watches. Fleksy uses predictive software that will guess which word you meant to type even if you mistype every letter. As long as your close to the right letters Fleksy will be able to correctly guess which word you meant to type. This means you don't even have to look at the keyboard. If Fleksy does make a mistake you can easily swipe through alternative suggestions.

Currently, Apple does not officially support third party keyboards to replace the default keyboard on iOS, but developers can get around this limitation by building an alternative keyboard into their app. Today, Fleksy made it easy for developers to built the Fleksy keyboard into their app. The Fleksy keyboard is now available for any iOS developer who wants to include it in their app. This announcement is very exciting because if developers get on board it will give iOS users the choice of which keyboard to use.

Having Fleksy integrated in apps is also a positive for blind and visually users. Fleksy works well with VoiceOver and because Fleksy is so good at predicting which word you are trying to type being able to see the keyboard is not as important. The Fleksy keyboard is much quicker and easier to type on then the default iOS keyboard especially for VoiceOver users.

Unlike Android were you can download Fleksy and use it will all of you favorite apps, each iOS developer will have to build in support for the keyboard. Hopefully, now that Fleksy is available for all iOS developer Fleksy will become ubiquitous on iOS. If you would like to see Fleksy integrated into one of your favorite apps you could contact the developer and ask for Fleksy integration.

To try out Fleksy download the app for iOS or Android. Fleksy is currently available in select apps such as Launch Center Pro. Click read more below to view images and videos of Fleksy.

Launch Center Pro: Speed Up Common Actions on iOS Devices

Posted by Unknown Sunday, February 23, 2014 0 comments

blue icon with rocket ship in the middle

Launch Center Pro is an app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch that allows users to launch apps and simple tasks directly from the app. Instead of launching Safari, navigating to the search site, and typing in your search, for instance, Launch Center Pro lets you directly search Google or Wikipedia; Launch Center Pro also can be configured by users to set up group email, instead of having to type in the email address of each recipient.

Launch Center Pro uses a simple interface to make it easy to simplify some of your common actions and launch them quickly. I frequently text my sister "where are you?" Instead of launching the Messages app, finding my sister's contact, and then typing the message, I created a Launch Center Pro action that sends a text to my sister saying, "where are you?" Now, when I want to text my sister, I just touch the icon for this action and a text saying "where are you?" is on its way to my sister.
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Creating actions is easy with the built in action composer which gives users the ability to pick pre-made actions for apps they already have installed on their device. The action composer also allows users to customize the icon of the action to make it easier to find.

Launch Center Pro works with a number of apps, but support for more useful actions among third party apps is hit or miss. Some apps such as Prizmo integrate very well with the app allowing you to easily launch actions, but other apps such as Nike+ Running can be opened, but not further interacted with. It would be nice to be able to start a new run in Nike+ via Launch Center, but actions like that requires the developer to build special support for Launch Center Pro into their apps. Click here to view a list of the apps currently supporting Launch Center Pro.

I see Launch Center Pro as a great app for first time iOS users, and other individuals who struggle performing sequential functions. Launch Center Pro can make it easier for first time iOS users learn to use their devices. Instead of learning how to search Google, Wikipedia, Yelp, and Google Maps individually a simple search menu could be made with quick links to search all those services. In terms of accessibility for the blind and visually impaired, Launch Center Pro works well with VoiceOver and supports the Fleksy keyboard which is accessible.

Launch Center Pro costs $4.99 for the iPhone version and $7.99 for the iPad version. Click here to view the app for iPhone and click here to view the app for iPad. Click read more below to view screen shots of Launch Center Pro in action.

App was provided complimentary to reviewer for review

Google Smart Contacts May Help Monitor Blood Sugar in the Future

Posted by Unknown Tuesday, January 21, 2014 0 comments

Google is rapidly developing new wearable technologies. Google's first attempt at wearable technology, Google Glass, has attracted a lot of press attention, but is still not available on the mass market. They also cost $1,500. Google's next foray into wearable technology maybe less flashy and less expensive, but may have a greater assistive technology impact.

Google's smart contact will sit on the eye like conventional contacts, but do much more. Google's initial idea is to measure blood sugar in tears for diabetics with electronics integrated into the contact. Instead of drawing blood to monitor blood sugar Google's smart contact would analyze blood sugar within tears. This system would eliminate or reduce painful finger pricks and also allow for more frequent testing. A small LED light inside the contact would then illuminate different colors depending on the blood sugar reading.

While this technology is still in development the idea is very exciting. If smart contacts could benefit diabetics maybe Google can adapt them to benefit people with other disabilities or conditions. Could a contact detect sound and give a visual notification to a deaf user? Imagine this, a smart contact for the deaf senses volume of sound and direction and notifies the user. A loud sound off towards a user's right side would illuminate the right LED very brightly while a soft sound off towards a user's left would dimly illuminate the left LED. While Google has only confirmed smart contacts are in testing for blood sugar testing it is exciting to think about the possibilities five or ten years down the line. Hopefully smart contacts for blood sugar monitoring will reach the market sooner than later and will assist people with diabetes.

Click read more to view a short video about Google smart contacts.

Timely Time Teller App Keeps You Timely

Posted by Unknown Sunday, October 20, 2013 0 comments

The Timely Time Teller app is a simple app for iOS that gives you repeating alerts at set intervals. When alerts are turned on Timely verbally tells you the time at set intervals. For example, Timely could alert you of the time every 15 minutes. I found this helpful when rushing to get ready for school in the morning, with Timely giving me updates on the time I don't have to worry loosing track of time. When the app says, "seven o'clock" I know I have to be eating breakfast if I don't want to be late. Similarly, I found the app very helpful when bike riding instead of stopping and taking my iPhone out of my pocket Timely tells me the time every 15 minutes. When the iPhone is on silent Timely will vibrate at set times. Unfortunately the vibrate feature isn't very useful because you can distinguish a Timely alert from a text message or email notification. It would be more helpful if the vibration was different from other notifications. In all Timely is extremely simple, but can be a helpful tool. It could be especially beneficial for people with executive function difficulties.

Click read more below to view screenshots of Timely in action. Click here to view Timely in the App Store.

Google+ Hangouts Allow Homebound a New Window to the World

Posted by Unknown Tuesday, March 12, 2013 0 comments

Google's social networking site Google+ has made news again for its Hangout video chat feature. This time for providing a new window to the world for people with disabilities that make traveling difficult or impossible. A growing number of photographers are providing videos of different landmarks and attractions. These are not just stagnate videos, users can communicate with the photographer and ask them questions in real time. Also, multiple users can participate in a single session. This feature could also be used to allow people with disabilities to virtually attend a sports game, class, concert, or play. Watch the above video to learn more.

Google+ Hangouts Now Supports Sign Language Interpreters

Posted by Unknown Sunday, March 10, 2013 0 comments

While video chatting has helped deaf users communicate with each other, conventional video chatting runs into problem when an interpreter is involved. Google is attempting to solve this problem with its sign language interpreter app for Google+. Google+ is Google's social networking service. Google+ Hangouts now supports sign language interpreters for deaf users. With the app installed the deaf user sees the interpreter in the top right corner of the window. When the the interpreter speaks for the deaf users, the app recognizes who is speaking and then makes the speaker the focus of the Hangout.

It is encouraging to see Google vigorously improving the accessibility features in Google+.

Google Play Books Adds Read Aloud Feature

Posted by Unknown Thursday, December 27, 2012 0 comments

Google Play Books is the Google's ebookstore and companion reader apps. The Android reader app was recently updated to include a text-to-speech read aloud feature. Click here to download the free app for Android. The text-to-speech voice is a little above average but gets the job done. The read aloud feature works with most books in the Google Play store. If you have an Android device be sure to check this app out.

Click read more below to view screenshots of Google Play Books.

Ask Google Voice Search How To Spell Unfamiliar Words

Posted by Unknown Tuesday, November 6, 2012 0 comments

Google's recently update Google Voice Search is very useful and extremely fast. There are also a few tricks that can make the app even more useful. One trick is to ask Google Voice Search "how do you spell..." Google will quickly return the correct spelling of the word and speak the spelling aloud. Unlike Siri, Google Voice Search speaks the spelling back to you so you do not need to look at the screen. This trick is especially useful for people with dyslexia and people who are struggling spellers.

PDF Expert Review

Posted by Unknown Sunday, November 4, 2012 0 comments

PDF Expert is an elegant PDF manager, viewer and annotator. The app is available for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch but the iPhone version and iPad version must be purchased separately. You can easily add PDF to the app by using the "open in" feature. Once you have PDFs in the app you can organize them into folders and sub-folders. The highlight of PDF Expert is its annotation features. PDF Expert allows you to quickly and easily add note, text, signatures, watermark stamps, images from the camera roll or audio notes to any PDF. You can search for a PDF by title or by the contents. PDF Expert also includes a passkey lock feature that allows you to protect your sensitive PDFs.

Unfortunately, PDF Expert does not include text-to-speech for PDFs. Even PDFs created on the computer cannot be read allowed. Also there is no optical character recognition feature for scanned PDFs. If these features are not important to you than PDF Expert is a great choice because of all the other great features. If text-to-speech is important to you than you may need to look elsewhere.

PDF Expert sells for $9.99 in the App Store. Click here for the iPad version and here for the iPhone and iPod Touch version. Click read more to view screenshots of PDF Expert.

App was provided free to reviewer for purpose of review

Google Search App Updated With Advanced Voice Search Similar to Siri

Posted by Unknown Tuesday, October 30, 2012 0 comments

Google just updated its iOS search app to include advanced voice search. The new feature is similar to Apple's Siri. Click here to download the free app. With the Google Search app you can ask questions by voice and get spoken feedback. The Google app is very quick and the voice recognition is accurate. It is almost indential to the voice search included in Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. It is able to answer a broad range of questions and always has Google search results to fall back on. The Google app cannot read text messages, call people, set reminders, dictate notes, set alarms or be used from the lock screen like Apple's Siri. The Google app is still great for asking questions and getting good answers. Also for people without Siri the Google app is a great alternative.

Watch the video above to see Google voice search in action. Click read more below to view screenshots of the Google Search app in action.

Instapaper Updated To Include Dyslexia Friendly Font

Posted by Unknown Monday, October 22, 2012 0 comments

Recently, the popular app Instapaper was updated to include a dyslexia friendly font. Instapaper allows users to save content from the web to read later. The font called Open-Dyslexic has increased weighted bottoms to help reduce letter swapping. It is great to see app developers starting to include dyslexia friendly features. Maybe Apple will include a dyslexics friendly font in the rumored iBooks 3 app at tomorrow's special event. Instapaper costs $3.99 in the App Store. Click read more below to view screenshots of Instapaper.

Assistive Touch Improvements in iOS 6

Posted by Unknown Sunday, October 7, 2012 0 comments

Apple's iOS 6 improves on the Assistive Touch feature that was originally introduced in iOS 5. Assistive Touch allows people with physical disabilities to use an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. People with physical disabilities may not be able to use two fingers to pinch or to zoom, or may not be able to double tap a button, but Assistive Touch makes these tasks easier. Among the improvements are quick access to Siri, multitasking and screenshots. Assistive Touch still gives users the ability to make custom gesture. Assistive Touch now is compatible with VoiceOver so you can use both features at the same time. To activate Assistive Touch go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Assistive Touch. Click here to learn more about Assistive Touch. Watch the above video to learn more. Click read more below to view screen shots.

IBM Sees Watson As Supper Powered Siri Down the Road

Posted by Unknown Tuesday, September 4, 2012 0 comments

IBM's supper computer Watson who beat human competitors at Jeopardy! may answer your voice questions in a few years. IBM sees Watson powering a smartphone app that would act like a supper smart Siri. The app would answer your complex spoken questions in seconds. Not only would Watson be able to pull up facts quickly but it would be able to offer data driven advice for complex problems. The prospect of a Watson app is very existing but is still many years off. A Watson app would be like having a voice activated supper computer in your pocket. Watch the above video to see Watson playing Jeopardy!

Unfortunately, the technology for such a large scale role out of this system is years away but it is still fun to know whats coming.

Free Bookshare App For Android

Posted by Unknown Wednesday, April 25, 2012 0 comments

Bookshare recently released Go Read for Android devices. Go Read is the Android version of Bookshare's app for iOS call Read2Go. The app is free and compatible with a number of Android 2.2 or higher phones and tablets. Features include direct access to Bookshare's library of accessible books, text-to-speech with synced sentence by sentence highlighting and the ability to read ePub books. To learn more about how to become a Bookshare member click here. To download Go Read click here. Click read more below to view screen shoots of Go Read in action.