Introduction
Last month, I attended the HopeX, Hackers on Planet Earth conference in New York City. It was a terrific event and I encourage all of my readers to come to the next Hope conference when it happens in 2016. At HopeX, I enjoyed a lot of different talks and I had a lot of fun hanging out in the Lock Picking Village where I was taught how to pick simple locks, a fun hobby for a blind person as everything one needs to do is entirely tactile but hearing little “clicks” helps too.
The first talk I attended at HopeX was presented by a terrific woman whom I would later get the chance to meet. Her name is Gus Andrews (@gusandrews on Twitter]). Gus described a talk at a previous Hope conference given by Eben Moglen, the founder and head of the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC), a man I know reasonably well and someone whom I respect greatly. Moglen described Apple as a “vampire” that lures unsuspecting technology consumers into using its products by providing “sexy” user experiences that makes their technology easy to use while it takes away your information freedoms. Andrews, in her talk, responded to Moglen’s statement by asking the question, Are free software proponents, Stallman, Moglen and others who insist on using GNU/Linux systems the ‘Amish’ of the computer using public?”
Andrews thesis suggests that some people will eschew a nice, comfortable and simple user experience purely because they have some sort of religious obsession or philosophic bent that causes them to choose what is metaphorically similar to an “Amish” experience. They give up a nice and easy user experience, they even pronounce that they prefer a user experience that is less efficient, less “pleasant” as they seem to believe that doing things in a simple and intuitive manner somehow offends their religious fixation with living in the technological equivalent of a hand built survivalist type cabin in the woods where they can live out their fantasies of technological and moral superiority.
This article intends to explore this notion as it may apply to the community of blind people using computational devices.
Corrections and An Apology
In the text that follows, I state that the Microsoft mobile phone platform remained inaccessible. A regular reader sent me a correction on Twitter telling me of the recent release of Windows 8.1 Phone and that the Narrator it comes with is quite a credible screen reader. I haven’t seen one of these yet so I won’t write more about it.
I would like to apologize to readers for using the phrase “Ted Kaczynski cabin” as a metaphor for someone who ives without the standard amenities of modern life. When I wrote that, I was thinking, “off the grid, survivalist sort” and not specifically a man who committed murderous acts of terror, one of which severely injured a man no more than a few blocks from where I sit writing this in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I apologize for using this metaphor, it was insensitive and I’ve changed the article to reflect what I actually meant with that phrase.
Another Expert Gives Up On Android
Marco Zehe works as an accessibility engineer at the Mozilla Foundation. He personally has worked on the excellent accessibility solution provided in FireFox on Android so he knows that operating system both as a user and as a developer. Prior to joining the Mozilla Foundation, Marco worked at Freedom Scientific for a number of years and, in my opinion, was the single most important contributor to the excellent design that the braille support in JAWS has today.
In the summer of 2013, Marco wrote a blog article describing his experience attempting to use an Android based phone for thirty days. In that article, Marco detailed a number of fundamental showstoppers in his use cases; this month (August 2014), Marco tried to repeat the exercise to determine if, indeed, he could use an Android device accessibly, conveniently and effectively in his personal use cases. Marco’s series starts on his blog and, from there, you can find links to the entire series.
Earlier this year, I ran a series of three articles, “Testing Android Accessibility: I Give Up!” “Testing Android Accessibility: A Deaf-Blind Perspective” and “Testing Android Accessibility: The Programmers’ Perspective.” I wrote “I Give Up” and “The Programmers’ Perspective” and a really terrific deaf-blind fellow named Scott wrote the third.
Marco and I took very different approaches to our testing. I followed a system based entirely in objective measures, standards (take a look at the BBC Mobile Accessibility Checklist, it was written by the same team as who created the mobile checklist for Section 508 and it will be US law when GSA is completed with its final acceptance process) and the basics of the science of human factors. I tested every control in every app that ships on a standard tablet from Google looking for anything from unlabeled graphics, objects out of the swipe order and so on. Marco took a very personal use case approach and attempted to do fulfill all of his mobile computing needs with an Android phone. My approach was rigid and refused to take into account applications from third parties; Marco used every resource he could find to try to crate a usable experience for himself. I would flag every unlabeled graphic or control and everything that wasn’t in the swipe order as a failure; Marco would accept that sometimes a blind Android user may need to label controls for himself and poke around with “explore by touch” to find items that aren’t in the tab order. I slammed Google for refusing to include accessibility in its automated testing processes as, virtually all of the problems I had found could be discovered by an automated testing tool simply and corrected easily and inexpensively; Marco took an approach that ignored Google’s failed software engineering processes and only explored the user experience itself.
Quite obviously, Marco and I viewed the task of testing Android accessibility very differently. I did as I do and stuck to published requirements and known best practices; Marco took a user centric approach and listened to advice from people on the Eyes Free mailing list on third party applications that can, in their opinion, replace the broken apps that carry the Google brand name. The most surprising thing is that, given the radically different ways Marco and I looked at the platform, we came to the same conclusion and even used nearly identical same vocabulary to describe Android’s failed accessibility experience, namely, “I give up, in my case, and “I Quit,” in Marco’s.”
I wrote the first article in my series with the title, “I Give Up!” Marco wrote the eighteenth in his series and titled it, “I Quit!” My articles were widely criticized by blind Android enthusiasts for taking a standards based approach (something I documented in an article called “Standards Are Important”) as they all asked why I didn’t try a variety of third party apps that I could use in a moderately to very accessible manner. My answer was that I was only testing the out-of-the-box system sold by Google.
Marco’s work should end this controversy. Android accessibility failed both objective and subjective testing procedures performed and reviewed by noted accessibility experts.
The Blind Amish
In preparation for writing this article today, I went to Marco’s blog yesterday and reread each of his eighteen days of trying to live with an Android phone for thirty days before giving up and reading all of the comments written by his readers.. One comment jumped out at me. It’s author stated very eloquently that the people who hang out on the Eyes Free mailing list often say that blind Android users need to “be patient” and to “wait for Google to catch up.” The person who posted the comment and I seem to share the same opinion, “why suffer an inefficient and unpleasant user experience when there are good and excellent alternatives?” and “Why decide to be Amish in your technology choices?” Blind users of mobile devices already have two good choices for tablets (Apple and Microsoft) and, now, with the release of Windows 8.1 there’s choice on a mobile phone.
Let’s consider the notion that, indeed, Android is an actual choice when it’s accessibility is so fundamentally broken, even when one allows for using a bunch of third party apps to do what a sighted person can do with their Nexus or other Android device in the first few seconds of ownership. Is living without indoor plumbing, a hot water heater and all of the other comforts the Amish reject a true lifestyle choice? Is going through what Marco and I experienced in our testing of an Android device, when compared to iOS and Windows 8.1 on a tablet, really a “choice” when the interface is so inefficient? As Marco demonstrated, it is impossible for an expert level blind technology user, a person who invented a whole lot of things the rest of we blind people use every day, to live with an Android device for a month, let alone as a permanent solution. Given all of this, I can only conclude that, no, Android is not a choice at all.
If you like living in the technological equivalent of an Amish community, a system that requires far more effort and provides profoundly less comfort than the alternative, please go right ahead and do so, just don’t tell the rest of the world that your choice is “accessible” when, in fact, it’s really only marginally useful when compared to the state-of-the-art. When you claim that something is “accessible” when, in reality, it is not, you only encourage companies with a history of poor accessibility to continue being poor as they will find some blind Amish willing to state that virtually anything that talks at all is accessible. By claiming that Android is accessible, you make the work of accessibility professionals and advocates much harder as we then need to convince our clients that the truth of the Android accessibility experience is that they will fail all known regulations without doing profoundly more work than they would need to in order to make an app accessible on the Apple and Microsoft operating systems.
What About Other OS?
Almost every day, I have cause to use iOS/7 on my phone, OS X Yosemite beta on my laptop, Windows 8.1 on a convertible I got about a year ago and Ubuntu GNU/Linux via a command line via ssh and in a virtual machine on my Macintosh. I tried to live with an Android device for three months and, finally, I gave up on it. Of these operating systems, I feel that, regarding accessibility, iOS/7 is the most comprehensive with 100% (when rounded to integers) of its features, when measured objectively, are accessible not just to a blind person but to people with a panoply of disabilities. Windows 8.1 comes in second but I take away points for a relatively small number of stock items I found that had accessibility problems but, more so, because its built-in screen reader, Microsoft Narrator, remains sorely substandard when compared to the state-of-the-art coming from third party screen readers like NVDA and JAWS. I’d put OS X in third place based upon the official Mavericks release (it’s what I’ve been using for most of the past year) and, for now, I’ll reserve comment on the Yosemite beta as I signed their non-disclosure agreement (NDA) and I’m a bit of a stickler for obeying contracts I’ve signed. This leaves the GNU/Linux experience in dead last place as I’d also say that my Android experience was more pleasant than most of what I deal with daily in Gnome with Orca.
Gus Andrews said of all GNU/Linux users that they seem to be the Amish of the mainstream technology community. I’ll say that, in addition to android, GNU/Linux using blind people, especially those who use the Gnome windowing system, are the Amish of our community.
Conclusions
No matter how an expert tests accessibility on Android or GNU/Linux, whether it’s me doing an objective, standards based approach, if it’s Marco doing a user based subjective set of tests or the programmers who I used as sources on the “Programmers’ Perspective” article just trying to do their jobs, Android and GNU/Linux are accessibility outposts.
Some will argue that Android can save a user some money but so can going off the grid and living in an off the grid survivalist cabin in the hills. There are many ways people can save money but why go Amish on us to save a few bucks? If you believe your time is valuable, why spend so much more configuring a system when Microsoft and Apple provide excellent choices out-of-the-box?
So, don’t live in a cabin in the woods, come into modernity and enjoy mobile devices from companies who take accessibility so seriously that they actually deliver it today.
Perhaps, I am old-fashioned. Maybe I just misunderstand something when it comes to blogging, booing, podcasting, audioposting and all that. But when I read this pretty long post, one question leaps out at me. ‘What was your goal when you wrote this? Why spend the time you obviously spent on this to write this article? This is something I encounter more and more. People write blogs, record audioboos and seem to think it is a very important contribution to society. When it usually either just isn’t, or has already been done by someone. Again, why did you make this? You point to a series of articles by Marco detailing his Android experience and write a huge article around that. Was that your goal? To point people at that informational resource? If so, a retweet would’ve done, really. Also, I detect a tone of “I told you so’ in your writing. It is almost like you are trying to radiate that you feel vindicated by Marco’s failed attempt and are coming to …dare I say it? gloat. Let me give you my view on Android and the reason why I can, apparently if your article is to be believed, be classified as an amish who swears off everything to do with the technological resolution to work with an inferior system.
It is in fact very simple. I have been working with Android because of a few factors. The first one is that it saves me about 400 euro. iPhones are very nice, I won’t ever dispute that. But what they add for me is definitely not worth the price increase. I am a student, student life is expensive enough as it is and an iPhone does not fit in that image.
Second, the Android eco-system fascinates me. I can, if I want, sit down at my pc, download the android development tools and start hacking away on my very own app. I don’t have to have a mac, I don’t have to work with one particular IDE to get stuff done, I don’t have to have anything at all to do with Google if all I want to do is write an app for myself. If I do, the price of entry is far lower than the iPhone eco-system. Again, this saves me a lot of money, unnecessary hoop-diving and frustration.
Lastly, if it comes down to it what do I do with my phone. I call, text, use facebook messenger, whatsApp, listen to music now and then, maybe read a blog on the web and listen to a podcast. I am not pulled in by the whole ‘productivity in your pocket’ spiel tablet and phone makers are going for. A touch screen device, be it Android or iPhone, will always be inferior to my trusty old laptop with it’s trusty old keyboard, it’s trusty old NVDA and it’s trusty old office suite and web browser. I don’t need my phone for that and frankly I call everyone who does all this with their phone a masochist. Why then, if I can do all that with an Android phone, would I shell out 400 bucks more for a sexy-looking, branded, somewhat more polished phone? Frankly, I don’t see the reason. Does that make me an ‘amish of the blind community”? I think that is slightly insulting to be very honest with you.
Now I realize my own question can be thrown back in my face. Why did I take the time to write this humongously long comment? Because I think someone needs to speak up about this ‘ x is more accessible than y’ nonesense that I keep seeing everywhere. If you want to use an iPhone, use an iPhone. If you want to be a sanctemonious rabid fanboy about it, expect to be slammed. I’ll be the slammer today. If you like Android, don’t mind its shortcomings and problems (yes, I freely admit they exist and there’s a lot to be fixed) and feel comfortable with that, go ahead. If you are going to be a sanctemonious Android fanboy, expect to be slammed just as hard as the sanctemonious Apple fanboys. Live and let live people, is it really so hard?
Hey Zersiax,
it looks like you answer the question “why are there Amish users” in three points:
Amish are cheap, which for lots and lots of people means “affordable”. Whenever I do get the money to afford a smart phone, it still can’t be an iPhone.
Free as in speech (to go with the afforable/free beer above): it’s not just the “cushy easy” experience Gonz references that the “Amish” turn their backs on. It’s the voluntary giving up of the rights to know what’s going on on that thing you use and paid for; to play with it, inspect it, and change it as desired… and maybe the “Amish” are refusing to agree to that constantly-changing 800-page terms of agreement contract where you inadvertently sign away your first born or agree to become part of the Human cent-iPad.
Gonz, Marco and lots of other people use their phones as extensions of their computers, and on top of that, use their computer-phones as general real-life assistive devices (whether you’re physically disabled or just a harried parent or whatever). But the “Amish” may consist of a group that still stubbornly exists: those of us who either don’t have smart phones, or don’t use them for a whole lot. We will probably never disappear. And we open cans with manual can openers, and they’ll work when the lights go out and yours won’t, muhahaha!
But those things aside, there are are folks who do live on their portable computers, who are able to pay for something that’ll work most of the time instead of some of the time, who will trade freedom for their personal productivity (esp if you can’t read, write, or change code, does it matter that you don’t have access?).
I think also a lot of us are hoping that if enough people blog/write/tweet/bitch about how shitty Google’s accessibility despite having the resources to read our mail, make and implement a replacement for HTTP that conveniently goes through their own servers, and detailed street photography for streets around the world… among other things. Sometimes just bitching enough can get things moving. Usually not, but sometimes : )
arg TurdPress stole my carefully numbered ordered list :( sadpanda
After reading the comments, I’m not sure where to begin.
Chris is referencing the amish as a comparison between android and the non amish as the apple community.
This is rather unfair and shows a severe lack of understanding of the amish and android.
As a member of the old order amish church I could choose to find this whole article rather offensive but instead I am going to try to correct some points.
My main comment on android is this, I started out with android about 2 years ago with the galaxy nexus running 4.0 ICS.
This had some major accessibility but was a huge improvement over android 2.3
I picked android because it was cheaper and as was stated in the comments already, the flexibility between the 2 platforms can’t be compared.
When I got my device, the Samsung galaxy nexus the 4.1 update was already available but out of curiosity I ran it on 4.0 for a couple of hours.
There are still certain portions of that ui that I miss, the single tap being the main thing.
However the a11y improvements were worth the upgrade.
This was where navigating by character, word, etc was made available.
4.1 also had it’s problems, mainly the web view problem that still pleagues 4.1 users and some 4.2 users as well.
My next device was the droid razer m, admittedly a mid range device but a fairly good one.
It had 4.1 with all it’s issues but I was able to use the device for what I needed.
Next cam 4.2.
This finally gave tb users a way to enable talkback quickly and accessibly, note, do to androids open nature some manufacturers broke this.
I don’t view this as googles fault since this work as expected on the nexus.
Next cane 4.3,
This gave users the ability to label unlabeled buttons, a feature that I don’t use because once I figure out what a button does I don’t need to label it anymore.
Some time around the 4.3 release talkback was released as a separate ap.
This gave the tb developers the ability to update the ap separately from android.
The web view issue was fixed for the most part in 4.3
Now comes 4.4
This was a big update in performance according to google although I really haven’t seen it.
The web view issue returned somewhat however.
However the tradeoffs were worth it.
Let’s take k-9 mail for an example.
In 4.3 you could not read your email by exploring the screen.
This was completely fixed in 4.4
In addition we also finally got an accessible office suite.
Improvements since have mostly been in aps, for example chrome and some of the other google aps.
I guess what I’m trying to say, is yes, android has it’s problems but so does IOS.
My biggest problem with the article is the fact that you are labeling android as completely inaccessible.
If this is true then ask yourself this question, why have I stuck with android for the last 2 years? Also, I will say this.
Use case for my phone is the following.
phone, email, contacts, texting, calendar, alarms, music, podcasts, web browsing, facebook, and OCR.
I also use amazon kindall from time to time and audible as well.
It’s not because of the money situation, I passed up an IPhone 5s last winter when I got my lg g2.
I passed up an IPhone 5 that someone wanted to sell to me 2 months ago for a bargain price.
This spring I finally got an IPad.
Now some of you are going to say that this is because I needed some additional functionality that IOS offered.
Not true, I got it to teach myself the OS and because I wanted to.
I still don’t use the device much, not because it isn’t accessible, more because I don’t like the u I.
It’s all up to personal choice, but to me at least I really wasn’t impressed by the IPad.
Now, you can compare the amish to this.
There are groups that still don’t use indoor plumbing etc, but they are a minority.
I’m not going to write much about the lifestyle here but all the tv shows like amish moffia and breaking amish are pure junk.
They are produced by x amish, yes but these people have a problem with the culture and are not portraying it correctly.
In closing I would like to address the comment on windows phone and cortana. you can actually use her with narrator turned on and she blows siri and google now out of the water.
Also, sorry about the way this was written but I’m not a very good writer.
Thank you, Chris, for this excellent write-up and the analogy to the talk you attended! it echoes pretty much the feeling I have when reading some resources on Android accessibility on mailing lists and elsewhere, and which at some point or another, also popped up in either comments to my 30 days with Android series, or Twitter comments on that experiment. I, for one, am not going to repeat that experiment for quite some time, since my testing of Android L preview on a second Nexus 7 shows that it’s only continuing the story, only with marginal improvements here and there. I know it’s a preview, but I don’t foresee miracles to happen.
P.S. For the record: I wrote “I quit”, not “I give up”. smile
Being an Android and GNU / Linux guy myself, the Ted Kaczynski references
were umm, to put it mildly, just a wee bit offensive.
I mean, the man murdered people.
I’m sure the Amish would be equally offended, being lumped in with a
murderer. They’re very peaceful people. Last time I looked, they’re
doing practically no harm to the planet or humanity.
How would you feel if I compared Apple fans to members of the Manson
Family or the Jim Jones group, with Steve Jobs in the cult leader role?
I’m sure you’d find it equally offensive.
We’re straying into Godwin territory.
what a load of nonsense this blog is. I have been using android as a blind user for 4 years and I find that it blows ios out of the water. so much flexibility and freedom
I must echo the thoughts of the first comment, this was way over-the-top, and does sort of come off as gloating. It’s certainly ok to say that you gave Android a shot and it’s ok to say that you quit, or give up, but to compare Android users to Amish folks? I think it takes the whole issue way way too seriously. If someone prefers an android device, why should you care? Obviously they chose Android and shouldn’t hurt your tender sensibilities. Again, I agree with the first comment, live and let live. If I had written the article and if I had conducted the exact same tests I think I would’ve simply said, I find Apple to be vastly superior to the Android platform. and that’s all you have to say. The references to Amish folks and living out in a Ted Kosinski type of cabin in the woods is just way over the top and weren’t necessary.
I am a technology enthusiast who has been testing and writing product reviews ever since the Longhorn days, build 5048. That was a pirated build, and I certainly did not mind walking the fine tight ropes of writing full-length reviews of other pirated builds at the time, including pre-leaked windows 7/8 builds.
There were many, many sucky builds that came out of Microsoft. I won’t reference posts here because it is not the point of my comment.
By far, this article is one of the best examples of bias, non-professional, condemning journalism I have EVER seen. Let me break my thoughts into points so that this is more clear.
1. The Amish love their culture. If you talk to an Amish and tell them all the wonders of electricity, of modern technology and taxes / our social scale, they will wave their hands and shrug. This does not mean that we should pitty them, that they are inferior, and that we must dominate them because obviously we have to be better than they are thanks to our technology complex. Doing so is already showing closed minded attitudes.
2. You claim that Marco saying he quits at day 18 means the two of you arrived on similar ground. I challenge this, because Marco gave this entire Android experience a better, more open minded view than you have. This is reflected on the way he wrote his posts versus yours.
3. I have a Windows 8.1 tablet. In fact, I have two touch 8.1 machines, an ultrabook from Lenovo and a Toshiba Encore 8-inch tablet. I can clearly say that if I were to use the touch screen alone on either of these, I would be lost entirely. This is partially because desktop interfaces are not meant to be touch-friendly, sure. Another part of it is that even if I were to only run in Metro apps, Windows 8.1 (and sadly, phone 8.1 as well) is super sluggish. I have tried both platforms. Guess what? In Windows phone 8.1, a person can’t even run Kortana (the “siri killer”) with Narrator on because the TTS probably is in use. Does this mean I am going to start cursing out Windows and Microsoft? No. To some people who can get their work done on those platforms and don’t mind the lag, it will be a wonderful experience. I accept this and move on.
Finally, 4. The gay / LGBTQ community, in the past, used to be more flamboyant. They would openly dress or do certain actions to attract haters to them, in order to raise awareness. I am seeing a shift in this as of late, the community is taking a more humble approach and accepting themselves first before seaking acceptance from others. The blind community perhaps has the same problem. We do not accept ourselves and who we are. Not yet. When we do, posts like these won’t exist.
Well, as Marco commented quite positively above, I’m highly confident that he is pretty supportive of this piece. He also retweeted it with a nice comment so, again, I’m pretty sure Marco and I are on the same page.
I say nothing above that in any way denigrates the Amish people. I simply say that some people, like the Amish, choose to eschew modernity, choose to ignore when they can enjoy the luxuries of modern life, say, effectively using one’s device with a braille display just isn’t possible when using an Android device. I accept that it is a lifestyle choice and, as one commenter above, a business partner of mine points out, some people like her prefer the “Amish” world of technology. I say there is nothing wrong with being Amish or using Android or GNU/Linux, I just say that it is wrong to claim that such is accessible when, by any objective standard, it is not.
If you prefer self-limiting by choosing technology with poor accessibility, if you prefer sending your dollars to companies that treat us like second class citizens, go for it. Just don’t claim that your technology is accessible because it is not.
Hey Tomi, totally off-topic but
could you tell me how you kept your numbers in your list of points showing up in the comments? Did you add a space before them?
Thanks
Hey, I’m an android user, but because I’m on a prepaid carrier, I can’t even afford the iphone between bills, food, and supplies. I have to use Android, and I wish it were more accessible.
There’s nothing horse-and-buggy about Android or its accessibility. The OS is modern enough to have inspired features in its competitor, and the accessibility is good enough for blind and low-vision users to enjoy their devices.
The facts are these:
• Android devices are used every day by people who are blind or low-vision for work and leisure.
• Articles decrying Android accessibility are written by blind and low-vision users who use iOS regularly, know iOS well, and resist seriously trying anything that forces them outside their comfort zone.
What’s puzzling and exhausting for me is the energy and intensity these iOS users expend on bashing Android. It’s excessive, and given the deeply rooted bias betrayed in their commentary, neither accurate nor productive. This post and most others on the subject sound like a catty girl who spends her day telling other girls about the absolute tackiness of a classmate’s hair, makeup, dress, jewelry, shoes, friends, backpack instead of asking herself why she gets so worked up about it or making efforts to truly get to know the classmate.
Ana, you said:
Quote:
What’s puzzling and exhausting for me is the energy and intensity these iOS users expend on bashing Android. It’s excessive, and given the deeply rooted bias betrayed in their commentary, neither accurate nor productive. This post and most others on the subject sound like a catty girl who spends her day telling other girls about the absolute tackiness of a classmate’s hair, makeup, dress, jewelry, shoes, friends, backpack instead of asking herself why she gets so worked up about it or making efforts to truly get to know the classmate.
End Quote
First and foremost, I don’t buy your analogy — there’s a world of difference between our human interactions and our attempts at interacting with technology — be it a cellphone or an operating system. Sorry for stating the obvious here.
Second, may I ask what’s inaccurate or counterproductive in Chris’s post and Marco’s experiment from a technical, user-driven perspective? After all, their points are far more accurate than the opinions of many biased Android users on the Eyes-Free list who treat Android as if it were their most awesome date ever.
Third, there’s nothing wrong with spending a lot of energy and intensity on Android which is by far the largest mobile OS out there. Just as hundreds of websites take it upon themselves to compare Android and iOS, there is — and there shouldn’t be — nothing wrong with comparing them from the point of view of accessibility. And, by the same token, there’s nothing wrong with you defending Android with such an energy and intensity — it wouldn’t hurt or frustrate me at all.
Finally, it’s obvious that many TalkBack users hate iOS for its so-called limitations — no memory card, iTunes, etc., and that’s perfectly understandable. However, claiming that people use Android as its as accessible as iOS or people who don’t like Android don’t understand Google’s OS is, IMO, absolutely outrageous. I love to have a truly accessible Android one day — something which would mirror Google’s inimitable efforts elsewhere, but till that time prefer to spend my hard-earned money on iOS owing to its superior accessibility not because it’s a godsend.
I use android. it is just as useable as IPhone, but it works different that’s all. Try running eloquence as your tts engine on IPhone. or how about the best app ever, nearby explorer? I’ll take android over IPhone because I can use NE for gps or guidedroid, or eloquence or ivona or voxygen or vocalizer for tts.
Chris, had it not been for your stellar and objective blog posts, I’d have lost hope in Google’s flawed and half-baked attempts at Android accessibility completely. I mean I do hope someone at Google might manage to read your posts — and Marco’s posts for that matter, ignoring fanboys’ optimism on the Eyes-Free list for a moment to see why Android access has consistently failed to take off.
Of course, it’s foolish to assume that Google’s Android access solution is flawed because of the Eyes-Free list — Google is a Behemoth after all and doesn’t design Android itself based on what’s happening on Android Police and other Android-specific sites.
My short-lived optimism regarding Android started with 4.0 (Icecream Sandwich) but, courtesy of Google’s sloppy access-oriented efforts I’ve been always let down. Neither is Android L that desired panacea, nor is Google’s efforts to update TalkBack promising. And Braille continues to live in its own abysmal state as ever. It’s ridiculous that Samsung and LG are now offering improved accessibility on their top Android handsets compared with Google Nexus devices. Of course, ridiculous for Google not them.
As such, my response to Android is, and has been, a resounding “no” despite my ever-growing wish to see it join the likes of iOS/Win 8.1.
Keep up the good work!
Your post drips with so much arrogance and pedantics that I could hardly stand your writing.