Reviews

Zello PTT Walkie Talkie

Social
free
Turn your phone or tablet into a walkie talkie with this lightning fast free PTT (Push To Talk) radio app, which works between Android, iPhone, BlackBerry, and PC.

Submitted by Kyle Saturday, 28-Apr-2012 04:45 AM ET
Phone model: Samsung Transfix
Accessibility Rating:
4 – The app is basically accessible, though there are some minor improvements that would make it more usable
Navigation:
Most of the controls can be accessed
Labels:
Most, but not all buttons, edit boxes, and controls are labeled
User comments:

With the exception of some of the edit boxes in the signup screen not being labeled, this app works quite nicely, and is definitely one of the best of its kind. Notes: The edit boxes in the signup screen if you don’t already have an account are not labeled in Gingerbread. The one at the top is for your desired username, the second and third are for the account password, and the one at the bottom is the e-mail address to be used on the account. There is a button to the right of the username field to check the availability of your chosen username, but unfortunately, it doesn’t speak, whether the username is available or not. Also, if you choose a username that is not available, the error message is also not spoken, but you will be placed back on its field to change it. When receiving a request to be added to someone’s contact list, you will need to go to the notification area and look for a Zello event. Note that this is separate from the Zello icon that is near the top of the screen after the notification bar is opened, and usually says something like “1 event(s) Zello: click to view.” Click the event notification to hear the username of the person who is requesting to add you. Click the name to see the accept and decline buttons and then click whichever one you want. These add requests don’t seem to be available from within Zello itself, or if they are, I haven’t yet been able to find them. Two of the settings in “under the hood” are not clearly labeled in Gingerbread. They look like dropdown lists with a number of seconds shown in each one, and clicking either of them shows an alert window that simply says “select value.” From reading in the support questions, it would seem that these values determine the time interval at which keep-alive packets are sent to the server. There is one of these along with a couple of other labeled settings for 3G/4G and wifi, but I was unable to find which set is listed first. I tried the other two most popular voice chat/messaging apps, and Zello was by far the easiest for a blind/visually impaired person to use, and it also has features such as channels, saved message history and realtime radio-like communication that make it one of the best. As soon as these issues I mentioned are resolved, most of which are more annoyances than anything, Zello will certainly become the best by far.


Keep on Rolling

Casual
free
Addictive talking dice game written for the blind and visually impaired.

Submitted by wrgb Wednesday, 11-Apr-2012 10:32 AM ET
Phone model: samsung intercept
Accessibility Rating:
5 – The app is completely accessible using a screen reader
Navigation:
Yes, all controls can be accessed
Labels:
Yes, all buttons, edit boxes, and other controls are properly labeled
User comments:

Does not require a screen reader. Written expressly for the blind and visually impaired.


Dialbones

Communication
$1.00 USD
Dialbones, the barebones dialer. Dialbones is a small, fast, simple app which allows you to quickly flick through a list of every phone number in your contact list.

Submitted by jliles Thursday, 29-Mar-2012 10:58 PM ET
Phone model: Samsung Exhibit II 4G
Accessibility Rating:
5 – The app is completely accessible using a screen reader
Navigation:
Yes, all controls can be accessed
Labels:
Yes, all buttons, edit boxes, and other controls are properly labeled
User comments:

Works great for calling my contacts quickly and easily, I use it every day. I may be biased because I wrote the app, but I designed it for a friend with poor eyesight to make it easier for her to make phone calls to her existing contacts.


Checklist

Productivity
free
A simple, easy to use checklist manager.
Create several checklists, make copies, and add items using virtual keyboard or voice.

Submitted by Kyle Monday, 26-Mar-2012 11:09 PM ET
Phone model: Samsung Transfix
Accessibility Rating:
5 – The app is completely accessible using a screen reader
Navigation:
Yes, all controls can be accessed
Labels:
Most, but not all buttons, edit boxes, and controls are labeled
User comments:

I looked long and hard for a simple checklist app that would allow my wife and me to manage grocery lists quickly and easily. We wanted to be able to just enter the items we needed one by one and then go to the store and check off each item as we put it in the shopping cart. Most apps I found were hard to manage or just were not very accessible when used with a screen reader. Checklist, on the other hand is very simple, easy to use, and items can be added either with the keyboard or with voice recognition. It is possible to have multiple lists, and items can be copied from one list to another, or even to another app, using the system clipboard.. It is also possible to move items up or down on a list, so you can enter items as you think of them and then rearrange them based on the store layout. Notes: Voice input requires the use of an unlabeled button, but it is the only button that is unlabeled, so most people should have little trouble finding it. It appears to the right of the “add” button. Just click it, and then you will hear the voice search click. As soon as it detects that you are done speaking, it will add what it thought you said to the edit box for the list item. Arrow to the edit box, and if you like what’s there, arrow back to the “add” button and click it. If it filled the edit box with nonsense or if it wrote something that is different from what you said, you can clear out the edit box to type in the correct item or just try speaking the item again. Whatever you say the second time will replace what you said the first time. The checked state of each item in a list is not currently spoken by either Talkback or Spiel in version 4.11. The best work-around I have found is to select “hide done” from the options menu. This will cause any item you check off to be hidden from the list. If you accidentally check off something on the list and want to go back and uncheck it, go to the options menu and click “show done.” Then find the item in the list that you want to uncheck, click it and click “hide done” in the menu again. A bit involved, but it definitely gets the job done. The “hide done” and “show done” menu options always appear first on the menu, so there\’s no need to scroll around the menu looking for them. Simply go into the menu and then click immediately. This option toggles based on its current state. Update: Version 5.0b3, which I just downloaded as an update from Google Play, fixes the above issue for Spiel users. Though unchecked items are not spoken as unchecked, Spiel now speaks “checked” after each checked item, so the workaround above is no longer necessary if you use Spiel. It does still need to be done for Talkback though, unfortunately. I was more concerned with checked than unchecked anyway, so in light of the fact that it is now working as expected for one of the free and open source screen reader options, I feel that I can say with a fair amount of confidence that this app is now completely accessible and worthy of a 5 star accessibility rating. On my phone, voice recognition doesn’t work with standard stereo headphones. If you are trying to add an item using voice input, you have standard headphones connected to your phone, and the voice input doesn’t work, try unplugging the headphones before speaking. Just a heads-up, as this has happened to me several times. This is not specific to Checklist; it affects many voice recognition and recording apps.


UpSoundDown

Tools
free
Speakerphone tool! Select one of 3 modes to turn on the speakerphone: 1.

Submitted by Kyle Sunday, 25-Mar-2012 3:43 PM ET
Phone model: Samsung Transfix
Accessibility Rating:
4 – The app is basically accessible, though there are some minor improvements that would make it more usable
Navigation:
Most of the controls can be accessed
Labels:
Most, but not all buttons, edit boxes, and controls are labeled
User comments:

Buried treasure. And it still works on Gingerbread. The unlabeled checkbox button enables and disables the app. The only problem I had was adjusting the sensitivity, which uses a seek bar. At this point, these are still not read properly by either Talkback or Spiel, so I basically had to guess the sensitivity level. In spite of this, I would consider this to be a must-have app.


MLB.com At Bat 12

Sports
free
The #1 sports app of all-time, MLB.com At Bat, returns for Spring Training.

Submitted by bean7483 Thursday, 15-Mar-2012 3:22 PM ET
Phone model: LG Ally
Accessibility Rating:
4 – The app is basically accessible, though there are some minor improvements that would make it more usable
Navigation:
Most of the controls can be accessed
Labels:
Most, but not all buttons, edit boxes, and controls are labeled
User comments:

The “stop” button isn’t labled, but as far as I can tell it is the only button there when listening to a radio broadcast. Switching feeds is easily done, as both teams’ feeds are clearly labled. Some things go in to the default Android Browser, saying “Web View” and that is not accessible at all; even though I do have the Accessible Web Browser from Code Factory. Box scores, lines, etc are accessible; if you can keep up with which line/number is what. The app does start off really slow when first starting it up, but either touching your touch screen or waiting about a minute will bring it up. I’m not sure if it is the app or my phone, but some times it wants to move kind of slow; but the app is still worth the price of admission into the ballpark.