[BRLTTY] android app

[S. Massy]

Hello,
There is only one point I would add to Dave's excellent explanation and
that is that one has to be slighly careful with Android as some devices
run somewhat customised versions of Android where accessibility might be
impaired or broken. Unless you are purchasing a phone or tablet which
you are confident is running stock Android, I recommdnd trying the
device out beforehand or ensuring that it comes with a reasonable return
policy. 
Cheers,
S.M.

On Thu, Apr 18, 2013 at 04:58:49PM -0400, Dave Mielke wrote:
> [quoted lines by Rob Hudson on 2013/04/18 at 15:07 -0500]
> 
> >I know almost nothing about android, so I'm going to sound stupid. But anyway.
> 
> Don't worry about it. It's way better to ask than not to ask when one isn't 
> sure about something. A sincere question is never stupid, and being honest when 
> we're not sure about something is always the wiser course.
> 
> >I've been thinking about getting an Android device. My question is: should I 
> >get a phone or a tablet? Which would work better in terms of working with 
> >BRLTTY or does it matter?
> 
> Brltty will work equally well on either one. If it's important that you be able 
> to make phone calls then you probably want a phone, although you can make phone 
> calls via a tablet using apps like Skype or Oovoo. Even when using such apps to 
> make phone calls, though, a tablet would, of course, require a wi-fi connection 
> unless you purchase a USB dongle which facilitates cellular network 
> connectivity. So my suggestion is that if you'd like to make phone calls then 
> get a phone.
> 
> Another consideration is how much vision you have. If you have some vision, and 
> can read large print, then you may benefit from the larger size of a tablet. 
> Google does offer magnification capability, but, being as I'm fully blind, I 
> can't try it out, and, therefore, have no opinion on how well it works.
> 
> Then there's the issue of portability. Put another way, a tablet doesn't fit 
> into a pocket. It's much more inconvenient to carry around than a phone is.
> 
> Android phones and Android tablets can run the very same apps so there's no 
> reason to prefer one over the other from that perspective.
> 
> >If I get something like a Nook Color, am I going to be able to read books on 
> >it with BRLTTY?
> 
> Yes, and no. There are esentially two kinds of eBooks. The kind that isn't 
> accessible is simply a set of scanned in PDF pages. Those can't even be read by 
> speech-based screen readers. They even come with a warning that sighted readers 
> are better off with a the larger screen of a tablet than with the smaller 
> screen of a phone. I suppose one could apply OCR (optical character 
> recognition) software to make this kind of eBook accessible, but I'm unaware of 
> that having been done yet.
> 
> >If I get a phone, will I be able to read text messages with it?
> 
> Yes. If you get a keyboardless phone, though, you may find the on-screen 
> keyboard rather frustrating. I myself have never taken to it.
> 
> >How much functionality are we able to access?
> 
> That, of course, is impossible to answer. The general answer is that the 
> graphical world is never very usable by blind people. For example, Google Maps 
> and lots of its friends (Google Street View, etc) aren't accessible.
> 
> That being said, Google has an option in Maps which makes it easy for a blind 
> person to explore street intersections in an area. If you move your finger in a 
> given direction, it tells you which street you're moving along and which 
> streets you're crossing.
> 
> Another problematic area is when app writers use pictures instead of properly 
> labelled buttons. In those cases, the best that a screen reader can do, be it 
> brltty or any other screen reader, is tell you that you're on a button.
> 
> >My second question is what kind of display should I look at? I of course want 
> >something portable that can run on batteries, but not necessarily a full 
> >notetaker like a braille sense or braille note. Since we are dealing with 
> >phones or tablets, probably a 20 cell display should be enough, although, 
> >since I really don't know anything about this, I'm just guessing.
> 
> This, in my opinion, is strictly a matter of personal taste. Everyone has 
> different ideas on what he or she feels comfortable carrying around, which 
> features he or she has access to, whether those features are available within 
> the braille deivce or within the phone/tablet, etc. There's no right answer.
> 
> -- 
> Dave Mielke           | 2213 Fox Crescent | The Bible is the very Word of God.
> Phone: 1-613-726-0014 | Ottawa, Ontario   | http://Mielke.cc/bible/
> EMail: dave at mielke.cc | Canada  K2A 1H7   | http://FamilyRadio.com/
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-- 
Sebastien Massy
Montreal, Canada
Website: http://www.wolfdream.ca
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