Hi all,
I go back-and-forth on this idea, but I'm considering a tablet to complement my PC. Particularly a Samsung tablet, because I had really bad experiences with VoiceOver on the iPad and a bit scarred from that.
My use cases:
1. Drafting stories using Microsoft Word/Google Docs.
2. If I join an in-person D&D group again, managing my character sheet using Microsoft Excel/Google Sheets (I did struggle with how touch screen intensive this was on my iPhone, even with a Bluetooth keyboard)
3. Playing games like Dawncaster and other mobile games (since more blind-friendly games are coming out on mobile, it appears, but I just... don't like playing games on my phone for some reason).
4. Reading Kindle books alongside my Brailliant (I hate how the Kindle app works with my braille display on iPhone, I much prefer how it works on PC.)
Obviously, I'll get a keyboard alongside it. But I'm just wondering about your tablet experiences. Thank you :)
Comments
Recommend the Pixel Tablet
I recommend the pixel tablet over a Samsung one, but otherwise think you're on the right track. All my personal and second hand experience of using Samsung Talkback on a Samsung tablet is not great. The Pixel tablet also has a speaker doc if you also want to use it for shows / music streaming. I haven't personally used Microsoft Word on there, but I can say that the file system structure will feel familiar to a windows user and transferring content between PC and Pixel devices is quite easy, which I do for books and alike.
Good luck with your tablet purchase!
Some potential uses
I've purchased a Lenovo Tab Plus. Has decent speakers, so it's my default bluetooth speaker. You can actually pair it with any phone and use it like bluetooth. Latency is there, so not ideal for screen-readers.
It has a builtin kick-stand, so setting it down on a table is very quick and hassle-free. It often rests on my kitchen counter, or, on the musical notes stand on top of my musical keyboard.
I've downloaded some playstore app to make it behave like chrome-cast receiver whenever I want, so can cast content from my iPhone or android phone. And the Spacedesk app is able to make it behave like a second monitor for my laptop.
It actually works well with a bluetooth keyboard, Lenovo has added some windows like keyboard shortcuts, win+d for home-screen etc. It has a PC mode, but I prefer just the normal tablet mode even when connected to bluetooth keyboard. The tablet does offer you to automatically switch to PC mode with a bluetooth keyboard if you want it to.
My only complain is that Google Assistant/gemini currently detects 'Hey Google' only when the screen is on. When tablet's screen is off, I can't just shout 'Hey Google', and ask it to play music. I've tried all relevent settings to enable that, no luck. Lenovo should look in to that.
Text Editing
So comments above have been useful about media and other use cases. For me text editing on Andorid is horrible. This is when I tried it last time a year ago. Basic text navigation commands do not do what they are really supposed to do. The web expperience is clunky. I was trying Docs and Word on the Tab 6 I owned and they did not work well with screen readers, i.e. Jishuo and TB.
Text Editing On Android
The following article may be of interest:
https://accessibleandroid.com/a-beginners-guide-to-text-editing-with-talkback/
, though selecting text on the web still requires the 'Copy Last Spoken Phrase' comand.
Also see:
https://accessibleandroid.com/switching-from-talkback-to-jieshuo-navigating-the-world-with-a-new-accessibility-lens/
As for selecting text with Jieshuo, there's some improvements with that thankfully:
https://accessibleandroid.com/how-to-leverage-selection-mode-in-edit-boxes-with-the-jieshuo-screen-reader/
Said issues with Talkback specifically, should be passed onto the Google Accessibility team via the Be My Eyes app or by visiting
https://support.google.com/accessibility/?hl=en#topic=9071908
, especially since that many Talkback gestures currently do not have a hardware keyboard equivalent.
PS. As for Google Docs on Android, switch to reading by lines if using the touch screen.
As For Lag
, use 'Anything other' than Google TTS. That's something more people need to raise the alarm about.
I second not using Google TTS
I myself use Vocalizer TTS, although that one has been giving some trouble on tablet lately. So back to Google TTS, but not for long. Need to troubleshoot what's wrong with my vocalizer TTS. On phone, it's working fine.