Eyes-Free Review: Droid2 From MOT

Here is a quick eyes-free access overview of the MOT Droid2.

Hardware

1. The device has a pull-out keyboard, and the buttons are much more tactile than the original Droid.
2. The device also has dropped the hard-to-use D-Pad from the original Droid in favor of PC-style arrow keys.
3. There is once again no dedicated number row at the top.
4. The capacitive buttons on the front of the device appear in adifferent order from the original Droid --- with the device inportrait mode, reading left to right you have: Menu, home, back, and search.
5. In addition, MOT ships a voice search application on the devicethat is triggered by pressing a special microphone button --it's worth learning the position of this key, since voice-searchcan be useful --- and more importantly, if you're relying onspoken feedback, hitting this button leads to the phone fallinginexplicably silent.

Software

If you look under accessibility, you'll find an applicationcalled Voice Readouts from MOT. This appears to be a screenreaderanalogous to TalkBack, though in my experience, it did notproduce spoken feedback in many instances. That said, thisapplication collaborates well with TalkBack --- and afterinstalling TalkBack from the Android Market (note: the Droid2does not come with TalkBack bundled) -- you can activate bothTalkBack and VoiceReadout for an optimal experience.

VoiceReadout appears to have a preliminary version oftouch-exploration. With VoiceReadout active, a single tap speaksthe item under the finger; a double-tap activates thatitem. Note that moving the finger around on the display does notappear to trigger touch exploration; also, touch explorationappears to be available in only some contexts.

Instances where touch exploration appears to be active

1. Settings application.
2. Portions of Android Market.

In general, touch exploration appears to be available inListView.

In addition, the Droid2 also includes a low-vision accessibilitytool called Zoom Mode ( look for it under Settings ->Accessibility ) this tool provides a magnification lens.

Summary

All in all, the Droid2 appears to be one of the better choicesfor eyes-free use from among the presently available crop ofAndroid phones. Touch exploration, though preliminary, is nice tosee on the platform, and the bundled low-vision magnification aidis a nice touch. Voice Readouts is also a great example of anAndroid accessibility service done right in that it co-existspeacefully with other screenreaders like TalkBack to provide anoptimal end-user experience. To users not familiar with adaptivetechnologies in general, this might not sound like a big deal ---but users of PC screenreders have long been familiar with theneed to have only one screenreader turned on. As we transition tomodern platforms like Android, it's useful to remind ourselvesthat screenreaders can in fact co-exist, with each tool providingsomething useful to create an overall experience that is greaterthan the sum of the parts.