Assistive Technology

Google 's futuristic modular smart phone has the potential to dramatically change how we think of electronics. The still unreleased phone call Project Ara has a interior metal structure with slots for different components to connect. For example, modular components could house a camera, battery, touch screen display, or speaker. These components snap into place making a relatively standard looking smartphone. Consumers could purchase components and assemble them to make a personalized smartphone. The phone allows consumers to exchange a component for extra battery power or a more powerful camera depending on the situation. With such customizable hardware, the Ara phone could adapt to fit the needs of people with various disabilities. If users have a hearing impairment they could add a louder speaker component. Conversely, if a user is deaf there is no need to waste space with a speaker when the space could be used for something more useful. The possibilities are almost limitless. A...

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. ...

Both iOS 7 and Android KitKat include the ability to customize captions. Now both major mobile operating systems include the ability to customize movie and video subtitles system wide.. For iOS, the customization settings are under Settings > General > Accessibility > Subtitles & Captioning. From that menu you are able to change the appearance of subtitles of any video played through the default iOS video player. There are many options for customization including font, font size, font color, and background color. Android includes a similar feature that can also be accessed in the settings menu. These options are a welcome addition to mobile devices and can make subtitles much easier to see. It is great to see both Apple and Google improving accessibility on their mobile products.

Amazon's newly announced Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Fire HDX include built in accessibility features. Historically, Amazon has been slow to make their Kindle products accessible. With the new accessible Kindle Fire and accessible Kindle app for iOS Amazon maybe turning a new page. That being said, Amazon still doesn't want to make their Kindle eReaders accessible and has requested an exemption from the FCC . The new Android based Kindle Fire tablets includes accessibility features for the blind, low vision, hearing impaired, and mobility impairments. For the blind and visually impaired the Kindle Fire includes a screen reader that can describe what is taking place on screen. There is also Explore by Touch which allows users to use gestures to navigate items one-by-one. For low vision users the new Kindle Fire tablets include a screen magnifier which is activated by a triple tap on the screen. There are also large font size and high contrast options to benefit low vision user...

The Celluon Epic is a Bluetooth laser keyboard. The compact device projects a QWERTY keyboard onto most flat surfaces. (Glass tabletops being the exception) You can connect the Epic to vertically any device that supports Bluetooth keyboards including devices running iOS , Android , Windows Phone, and Blackberry 10. On the back of the device there is a charging port and pairing button. Once you have the Epic paired with your device it acts the same as any other keyboard. For any keyboard the most important consideration is the typing experience that it provides. The virtual keyboard brightness is adjustable and is easy to see in most lighting conditions. Unfortunately the brightness does not automatically adjust based on ambient light. With each keystroke a beeping sound is played which can be turned down. The typing experience on the Epic is mediocre at best. Inadvertently activating the wrong key can make typing frustrating and tiring. Even if you are a touch typist you'll still ...

Recently Google added advanced voice search to the Chrome browser . Google's advance voice search feature was previously only available for Android and iOS , but is now available on Mac and Windows . The feature is similar to Apple's Siri ,but works on your computer as well as mobile devices. To access the feature, navigate to Google using the Chrome browser and press the microphone icon to the right of the search bar. Then you can search by voice and Google will speak back select results. I have found the voice recognition to be very fast and accurate. One of the most notable features for struggling spellers is that you can ask how to spell a word and then Google will speak back the correct spelling. Google will also provide spoken responses for many other queries as well. Watch the above video to learn more.

Google's popular Google Now feature may be coming to Apple devices if a leaked video is to be believed. Google Now is currently an Android exclusive feature but Google has brought flagship Android features to Apple devices in the past. One example is Google's advanced voice search that came to iOS last year. Google Now has predictive cards that provide information to users automatically. The cards gather information about a users search history and provide useful information automatically. Engadget.com was sent the video which was later taken off YouTube . The leaked video is visually similar to other Google promotional videos with lends credence to its authenticity. If the video is legitimate Google Now would be a great addition to Apple's mobile devices. Click read more to view another video about Google Now.

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.