The objective of IDEAL Group's Android Accessibility Project is to make it easy and intuitive for wireless service providers, telecommunications equipment manufacturers, wireless retail store personnel and wireless service provider customers to make their Android smartphones more accessible. The target markets are Android smartphone users who:

• are blind;

• have low vision;

• have other types of print disabilities;

• are 65+ years of age;

• never learned to read;

• use English as a second language;

• use languages other than English as their native language; and,

• wish to use their smart devices in an eyes-free environment.

Our targeted efforts include, but are not limited to, Android devices offered by the following wireless service providers:

• Verizon

• Sprint

• T-Mobile

• Google; and,

• AT&T

2. Variables that make it difficult for end-users to figure out what applications to download and install in order to make their Android smartphones more accessible

General:

• An Android smartphone's firmware (OS), hardware and software all need to be interoperable with each other in order to successfully eyes-free/screenreader enable the device.

• Different versions of Android eyes-free, screenreader and TTS software/libraries run on different versions of the OS. Some applications only run on Cupcake (Android v1.5), others only on Donut (Android v1.6) and others only Eclaire (Android v2.0).

• Some versions of eyes-free, screenreader and TTS software/libraries are not compatible with each other and should not be activated or run concurrently.

• Some mainstream Android applications are not accessible using the Android eyes-free or screenreader software.

• As more and more Android smartphones are released into the market, the more complex things are going to get.

Specific:

• Platform Versions and Distribution¹:

  Android Platform	Percent of Devices
  Android 1.1	00.1%
  Android 1.5	37.2%
  Android 1.6	29.4%
  Android 2.0	00.3%
  Android 2.0.1	00.6%
  Android 2.1	32.4%

  ¹This data is based on the number of Android devices that have accessed Android Market within a 14-day period ending on May 3, 2010. Source: http://developer.android.com/resources/dashboard/platform-versions.html

  Note: There are also variants of all the above. Since Android is open source, hardware manufacturers have the ability to enhance/replace code in the original OS with their own to handle such things as the home page, playing animated GIF's, varying screen sizes, processing images, processing audio, etc., etc.

• Configuration of Smartphone Hardware:

  • Thumbwheels and D-Pads vs. no physical scrolling controls (the touch-screen serves this purpose).

  • Physical Call/End Call buttons vs. no physical Call/End Call buttons. (the touch-screen serves this purpose).

  • Keyboards vs. no keyboard (onscreen keyboard only)

  • Spacing and ability to differentiate one key from another on physical smartphone keyboards

  • Location of touch-screen controls

  • Different screen sizes require unique versions of software (see below)

• Versions of Apps4Android and Eyes-Free Applications

  • Better Voices for Cupcake

  • Eyes-free Configuration Manager

  • Eyes-free Shell

  • KickBack

  • SMSpeaker

  • SoundBack

  • Speaking Pad

  • TalkBack

  • Talking Compass

  • Talking Dialer

  • Talking Caller ID

  • Text-To-Speech Extended

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