Posts tagged "switch access"
For people with quadriplegia from Spinal Cord Injuries (SCI), Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Cerebral Palsy (CP), Muscular Dystrophy (MD) and other mobility impairments, using a smartphone or tablet with a touchscreen can be impossible. However, as mobile...
Amazon Alexa is a powerful tool that has made us more efficient at gathering information and performing daily tasks. With thousands of integrations with third-party services, Alexa really is like a personal assistant sitting in the room that can do your...
This holiday season, we invite you to join Tecla and Ontario March of Dimes Canada in sharing the gift of accessibility. For every $175 USD we raise, we will match you, dollar for dollar, and donate a Tecla to someone who hasn't yet benefitted from accessing mobile technology.
But first, a little history...
Before Tecla existed, as a person with limited upper-body mobility, your options for accessing a smartphone were slim. The only solution available was to attach a switch to an adapted Bluetooth headset. With this setup, you could pick up a call or dial pre-programmed numbers.
In 2007 when the iPhone came out, many people with limited mobility attempted to use it, but the only ways to access the screen were by using a mouthstick with a stylus or by using a typing splint. This wasn’t ideal and, frankly, difficult to manage.
Apple’s operating system for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch was recently updated, and with this update comes some interesting new features. Two of the most relevant new features for accessibility are 3D Touch and Hey Siri. 3D Touch introduces a new way to interact with the screen by measuring the amount of physical force applied to the touchscreen. And Hey Siri allows voice command without having to press an actual hardware button, a feature that was previously only available while the device was plugged in.
Alongside these new features, improvements have been made to the existing array of touch-based accessibility features, including Switch Control, AssistiveTouch and a new feature called Touch Accommodations.
These new updates are especially relevant to current Tecla users and those with Apple devices who are wondering if Tecla is right for them.
