Google's Stroke Dialling system for blind touchscreen users 21 Apr 2009

One of the main criticisms of touchscreen phones is that their keypads prevent blind people from dialling telephone numbers. The fact that these keypads are displayed onscreen and in a fixed position means that users must visually locate each key before they can press it...which, of course, creates a real problem for blind users as they can't see. Or at least, it used to create a real problem for blind users...because Google's T.V. Raman and Charles Chen have recently solved this problem with a beautifully simple piece of engineering.

Instead of making users find keys, Raman and Charles' Android software makes keys find users. How? The premise is simple: When the phone is in dialling mode, wherever the user touches the screen becomes the "5" key. If they want to press a different key, they simply swipe to the position in which that key would be found (relative to the position of the "5" key) on a standard numeric phone keypad. For example, to press the "2" key, they swipe up from the "5" - since the "2" key is found directly above the "5" on a standard keypad. In the same manner, they swipe down for "8" and way down for "0".

For those watching the clip without sound (which is required to hear Raman's interesting preamble), skip to about 2 minutes in to see a demonstration of this technique in action.

Visit the EyesFreeAndroid YouTube stream to see more demos of Android's accessbility features.

[via New York Times / Gizmodo]