If you think the world around us is easy to navigate, especially the tech world: try closing your eyes and using a touchscreen device. It’s this fact – taking into account the 53,000,000 blind and visually impaired people on earth – that Google has sought to improve the on-screen browsing experience: Enter the TalkBack screen reader.
Working with the visually impaired and blind users of the cohort, Google has developed a range of customizable gestures to meet the needs of browsing, media reading, or even triggering a screen reader.
Improved accessibility has also made its way to voice commands. You can perform a variety of functions through voice input, such as locating content, changing the rate of speech, or navigating your device.
In the short term, this is available on Samsung devices that have been updated to OneUI 3.0 and Pixel devices. Hopefully other manufacturers join them in expanding accessibility in the connected world.
