Google thinks that there aren’t enough options available in the market for interacting with technology for people with disabilities. This is why it is grabbing the front on the next version N of Android, which will built upon the existing capabilities and offer class leading support.
The company estimates that 20 percent of the world population suffers from a physical disability some point in their lives. As a result, there is a chunk of potential audience available for it, which often goes neglected. That is why Android N will need to plug that gap for disadvantaged users.
One of the major features of Android N would be Vision Settings, which will allow you to tweak the display settings for clearer usage, including fonts, display size, magnification and TalkBack, the screen reader. Google will be making these settings more prominent and configurable so these are easier to find and customized for preferred amount of freedom.
It is bringing a new Accessibility Scanner tool for developers, which will allow developers to customize their apps for more accessibility, including providing the freedom to change font size, contrast, background and more.
Furthermore, there will be a new built-in screen reader called ChromeVox on Android N, which will assist users with text-to-speech software. Features like a keyboard shortcut, Braille output and navigation sounds are also in the pipeline.
The features built upon the existing modes like Voice Access Beta on Android N, which allow users to simply say things like “open Chrome” or “scroll down” distantly, if they are in the unfortunate position of a disability. Google Docs also recently brought the feature to type, edit and format documents using voice command.
