During the month of march, we ran a poll to find out the community’s feedback on where emphasis could be placed in terms of improving Talkback. We asked if there was a specific feature the community wished Talkback would have, if there was a specific bug or issue that they felt should be given focus and We asked where should Google's Talkback Developers focus their energy?
This was the shortest poll we have run to date and it received the largest number of responses of any poll we have run in the past.
So without further adue, here are the Poll Results:
1. Releasing Talkback as Open Source - 35%
This was by far the leading item from our community. People feel strongly that Google could provide a significant boost to their development, innovation and development by leveraging the power of it’s community.
Community Comments:
Sharing Talkback's source Code would allow community code submissions. Users could implement important stuff themselves.
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During the time when TalkBack released the source code, a number of similar development activities sprung from this free sharing of information. Code Factory, Spiel and other initiatives allowed for a diversity of options for users.
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Availability of Talkback source code would significantly accelerate development due to code submissions by users.
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If the developers of Talkback were to make it open-source, they wouldn't have to focus their attention on only one thing.
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Talkback hasn't been released as open source in some times. As a primary access tool for blind people for the android operating system, it should be released completely as open source to promote inclusion and innovation
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Talkback used to be open source and regularly released to the public but Google has gotten secretive and this should change. Either Google should quadruple it's development team for Talkback or open source the project again.
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Releasing Talkback as Open Source, If Google won't copy Apple, someone else can!
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Accessibility is a right and keeping the source code for a product that was origitnally open source is creating an intentional barrier to Access to Android for blind people
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Open source software often has accelerated development and more user interaction. It'll allow for user contributions and involvement
The other choices (especially the ability to import/export/share labels and automatic language switching support) are of high importance as well. I chose the availability of Talkback source code, since users would be able to implement those, and any other feature themselves for themselves.
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I would appreciate if the developers of Talkback release this screen reader as Open Source because it will ultimately help people for blind people who are living in developed countries as well as for those who come from countries under development. I think that this could be beneficial for all of us and the Eyes-free group of people should consider this when developing Talkback for Androide phones and tablets.
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It'll be great if you can make this open-source for better future development
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Releasing the source code for the newest Talkback will allow for community development, so that people who are familiar enough with the code would be able to submit patches to new or existing issues rather than simply reporting them ans waiting to see what happens.
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2. Allowing more gestures or more user control of gesture (i.e. adopting Firefox web navigation model or Samsung Galaxy Talkback Gestures) - 18%
Community Comments:
Improving the navigation across the Android OS seems like the biggest priority right now.
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I have wanted forms of AI/custom gestures from the beginning - let me define my own gestures, with forms of activities assigned
Chrome is faster than firefox, so element navigation in it would be great.
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This is the most basic improvement of the list that would affect the most users.
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Samsung has always been the best amongst others; hence, if Google TalkBack becomes like Galaxy TalkBack, we can have better
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Some current gestures, like the L-shaped gestures seem clunky, and there just need to be more gestures for simple tasks.
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The existing gesture system is difficult for most people to understand, especially where the circular menus are concerned.
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would like more ways to turn on Talkback without sighted assistance, including from Google Now and via a global gesture that is on by default
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Talkback really needs an item chooser equivalent. It's the one feature of IOS I really miss on a daily basis.
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3. Better adherence or improved support for web standards like WCAG and ARIA - 16%
Community Comments:
Basic web compatibility like labels still don't read on inputs in chrome for last year or 2
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Since so many of Androids apps rely on web views adhering to standards would help quite a bit.
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Better web support benefits greatest # of users.
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Though navigating web content is faster than in previous versions, its still laggy and inconsistent
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Better web support is a must.
4. Adding faster mechanisms for TTS change for better
multilingual support - 12%
Community Comments:
Multi lingual talkback users need something to switch languages easily. This feature is desperately needed
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i speak 3 languages so its very important to have that feature
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For me this change would have an immediate effect on usability of talkback. importin/exporting labels would be second on my list
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It is necessary for people who’s mother language is not English
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I'm Hyongsop Kim in Korea. I use Korean and English language and need to change the tts very often.
in iOs, because there is a language rotor, it is very easy to change tts, but Android, it is very annoyong.
Thank you.
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5. Improving BrailleBack or decoupling BrailleBack from Talkback - 12%
Community Comments:
Braille is key for literacy. it is also ke for deaf blind.
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It would be nice to be able to just use my braille display without speech.
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Braille on android, should be improved,. There are other great braille support out there like code factory's braille support
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Brailleback has not been looked at for a long time now, i would love to be able to read books with a braille display.
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Braille support is currently one of Android's biggest disadvantages when compared with other operating systems
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6. Adding Ability to easily Import Export and Share Labels - 9%
Community Comments:
Everyone doesn't have the sighted help to label the unlabled buttons. So, it is the most welcome feature to have in talkback.
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Adding Ability to easily Import Export and Share Labels Would make more apps accessible.
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if I need to choose only *one* thing, I would choose labels importing/exporting/sharing because that might dramatically increase applications accessibility. For instance, there will be sighted people that would label buttons for their blind relatives or friends, then those blind persons could share them, and this will increase the number of applications accessible for the whole community. Actually, there are lots of important things here. But I would prioritize multilingual support and gestures/keyboard support enhancements.
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Application developers are very careless and do not label the buttons or controls in their applications
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7. Improving keyboard support with more keyboard shortcuts - 5%
Community Comments:
Enhanced Keyboard commands should be introduced for comfortable fast and easy usage of all activities on the OS and with all accessibility features, not just Talkback.
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Improving keyboard support with more keyboard shortcuts To better edit and interact with text files.
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Other - Those who didn’t pick 1 of the above options:
Community Comments:
More methods to enable Accessibility "There are many devices that run Android
More should support Accessibility
Especially those from Google like Android Wear / Google Glass
Not all Android devices have touch screens (example Netbook / Android Stick)
Some require sighted assistance to enable Accessibility
Consider Eyes Free methods such as:
- Keyboards of all types
- Voice control
- Android Device Manager
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Google Play Store Accessibility Rating Support "There have been extensive conversations on this in the Eyes Free group
Please see the archive for the detailed suggestions
The idea is to provide users of accessibility features with a means of finding and rating apps" This can be done in addition to accessibility feature development