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Google today announced the launch of a virtual braille keyboard for Android designed to allow people with low vision or blindness to type on their phones without additional hardware. The tech giant says it collaborated with braille developers and users to create it and ensure that it can be used anywhere a user normally types, including social media, text messages, and email applications.
According to the World Health Organization, at least 2.2 billion people worldwide are visually impaired or blind. To address their needs, Google previously developed and launched BrailleBack, an accessibility service for Android that helps users use braille devices, but BrailleBack did not offer screen writing.
The new braille keyboard, which will be implemented on devices with Android 5.0 or later through an update to the Android Accessibility Suite in the Google Play Store, is activated by sliding three fingers up on the screen. It supports grade 1 and grade 2 braille in English (with additional languages to follow) and can be turned on or off as easily as switching between international keyboards.
The keyboard uses a standard 6-key layout and each key represents one of the 6 braille dots that, when touched, form any letter or symbol. For example:
- Touch point 1 to write the letter A.
- Touch points 1 and 2 to write the letter B.
- Touch points 1 and 4 to write the letter C.
- Touch points 1, 4 and 5 to write the letter D.
A left swipe removes a letter, while a left swipe with two fingers removes a word. Swiping to the right adds a space, while swiping two fingers to the right or upwards inserts a new line or text, respectively.
“Today, braille displays make writing accessible on most phones and computers through a physical braille keyboard. But it can take a long time to connect an external device every time you want to quickly type something on your phone, “wrote Android Accessibility Product Manager Brian Kemler in a blog post.” As part of our mission to make the information in the world is universally accessible, we hope this keyboard can greatly expand braille literacy and exposure among blind and low vision people. “
The braille keyboard is Google’s latest accessibility effort, following in the footsteps of others announced at the tech giant’s I / O 2019 developer conference, including the Euphonia Project. Another, Live Relay, is designed to help deaf users, while Project Diva aims to give people with various disabilities some independence and autonomy through the Google Assistant.
To this end, the Braille keyboard complements the Sound Amplifier, which boosts the audio in the wired headphones by increasing the quiet sounds while “not increasing the loud sounds too much.” In 2018, Google brought native headphone support to Android. More recently, Google brought detailed voice prompts and new types of verbal announcements for foot travel to Google Maps. And it introduced Live Caption, a feature for select Android devices that provides real-time on-device voice transcription for any medium.
