Ok Google, call...
Recently, RantWoman fielded a call at the Friendly Neighborhood Center for Extreme Computing . Caller's mother is losing vision and caller asked about getting a voice-activated computer. RantWoman probed further: caller's mother has an Android phone and already knows how to make calls, and do email, all she wants to do. Caller was thrilled to learn that probably he and his mother will be able to do what they need just on the smartphone!RantWoman was not thinking as insightfully as she would have preferred: RantWoman should have just said "Check out the Google Assistant. You can get started just by saying 'Okay Google' and the Google Assistant will help you from there."
RantWoman for various reasons is not a Google Assistant super user. RantWoman has said "Okay Google, Call Mom" or "Okay Google, text mom." RantWoman has not said "Okay Google, email Mom." For one thing for long emails, RantWoman usually prefers to compose on another device besides her phone. RantWoman also frequently needs to edit and clean up the errors that creep into speech to text.
Here we come to the next increment of accessibility customization: ease in gradually with a mix of screen adjustments or go straight to all TalkBack all the time. If doing everything by voice seems like too much, definitely there are ease into it options; on the other hand for people already frustrated by vision loss, it might be easier just to learn to work with the screen reader as soon as possible.
SO RantWoman suggested a visit: come to the STAR Center and either RantWoman will show people around how she uses Android accessibility features OR visit with a totally blind self-taught whiz who knows all sorts of ins and outs much better than RantWoman!
Happy Emailing!
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