1. TECLA ACCESS
A MOBILE ON-SCREEN SCANNING
KEYBOARD FOR ANDROID
Jorge Silva1,2, Jan Richards1
1 Inclusive Design Research Centre, OCAD University
2 Komodo OpenLab Inc.
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2. Introduction
• Mobile devices pose an accessibility challenge
for people who are unable to physically hold and
manipulate them.
• Two critical gaps for switch use:
• communication of external switch events to mobile
devices
• translation of switch events into meaningful
commands that fully control the device
Note: The spelling of project name is now “Tecla”.
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3. Introduction (con’t)
• The Tecla Access system is an
attempt to close both of these
gaps.
• Initial development has taken
place on Android due to (a) its
support for open source input
methods and (b) its keyboard
interface.
Eric Wan (a developer in Tecla’s
open source community)
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4. Architecture
• There are two parts to the Tecla Access system:
the Tecla Shield and the Tecla App.
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5. Tecla Access Shield
• An open-hardware, standards-compliant
Bluetooth device that enables connection of
powered wheelchairs and external ability
switches to Bluetooth-enabled devices.
• May be plugged directly to the standard appliance
control unit (ACU) port of a powered wheelchair for
up to 4 switch inputs, with two additional
independent ability switches, for
a total of 6 switch inputs.
• Bluetooth profile is supported by
all mobile device platforms with
the current exception of the
iPhone.
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6. Tecla Access App
• Features:
• Navigation keyboard
• Direct user scanning
• Self-scanning with
adjustable speed
• Inverse scanning
• Fullscreen switch mode
• Navigation timeout to Home
• Accented characters
(coming soon)
• Free on the Android
Market.
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7. Tecla App: Architecture
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8. Challenges
• Non-linear highlighting: Android does not provide a
way to scan active elements on the screen in a single
wrap-around linear sequence. Thus, a minimum of four
input events are required just to select elements on the
screen.
• Inaccessible overlays: Some overlay controls are
displayed above the IME and therefore ignore its input.
• Custom widgets: As is the case on many other
platforms (web, desktop, etc.), Android developers are
able to break the platform’s accessibility architecture by
neglecting to take keyboard interface accessibility into
account.
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9. Next Steps
• The Tecla Access system has garnered the
interest of many rehabilitation centres
interested in experimenting with potentially
more affordable open-source alternatives to
proprietary assistive technologies.
• Also commercialization of the Shield by Komodo
OpenLab has allowed the project to evolve from
an academic proof-of-concept implementation to
a pre-commercial prototype providing an end-
to-end solution that may be evaluated in
context.
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10. Acknowledgements
• Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation and the
Ontario Centres of Excellence.
• FedDev Ontario
• Komodo OpenLab
• Electronic Aids for Daily Living Service at the Holland
Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital
• Rogers Communications
• Mr. Eric Wan, Ms Michele Verdonck, Mr. Tim Barlott, Mr
Alan Lawrence and Mr. William Li for their helpful
feature and architecture suggestions.
• Mr. Karel Van Isacker, Mr. Jon Azpiroz, Mr. Mats
Lundälv, Mr. Matteo Rimondini, Ms. Eva Holmqvist and
Ms. Nadine J. for their translations.
• Additional support is provided by the ÆGIS (Europe)
Project which is funded by the European Commission.
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