Inspired by my late mother-in-law who was visually impaired, I have developed a new keyboard for iPhone with large and extra large keys that should help visually impaired folks when they need to type and dictation will not do.
In our completely new keyboard design, we are trading key size (we have larger keys) for typing speed (need to type more keys). However, with our predictive key’s algorithm, the number of additional keys to type is only 10% to 20% more than on a system keyboard so the speed is very good and it can be used like any other keyboard.
The 2cBoard keyboard app can be downloaded for free from the App Store to try it.
If you have checked the app and have some feedback I will also be glad to receive it.
I intend to continue on developing the keyboard over the coming years and if there is something that you think will improve it for you please post a comment to this post.
Having a small development team (Rami and I) has its advantages because we listen and when feature requests are feasible we implement them quickly.
Daniel Pohoryles
PS: The link to the app website is https://2cBoard.com
Comments
Needs clearer high contrast
On my iPad Pro using latest os, only the top line of letters had enough high contrast for my eyes. I need deep black background on every key with bright white letters,, preferably as capital letters. I suggest a one-finger swipe right to insert a space and a one-finger swipe left to backspace.
Harry
SO am I.
I don't need this as a completely blind person but I'm so glad it exists.
You'd think apple would add a big letters keyboard like you've made in their accessibility options but nooo.
I could only see a few keys
I downloaded the keyboard, and must have not understood well how it's supposed to work. I could only see about 10 or 12 keys, and they didn't seem to be in the same order as the qwerty keyboard. Not sure what I missed.
@louise
I can't use the app but I believe you tap a couple of keys and the word suggestions come up.
I'm not completely sure on that so take the devs word over mine, I hope they help you.
I will try to answer the…
I will try to answer the questions as best as I can
For Harry: You may use the Custom Color in the Preferences of the app to change the color of the letters or of the background to get a better contrast today. I will see how to incorporate your suggestions in a next version.
For Louise: To have larger keys than in a regular system keyboard, you need to have fewer keys than in the qwerty keyboard, and this is the idea behind this keyboard. How the App works is explained in the website but in short here it is. The 2cBoard keyboard has two rows of letters. The first row is the predictive row and the second row is the dynamic row. Typing on a letter in the predictive row will immediately enter the letter in your text. Typing a letter on the dynamic row will not enter a letter but it will show the letters following this letter in the alphabet. Then with a second tap you will be able to enter the letter that you wish to enter. There is an example and a short video of how to type "buy milk" on the website.
OK, thanks.
Thanks, I can see how that would be useful for some people. I use Braille Screen input, so this probably wouldn't be an improvement for me.
For people with a bit more sight than me, and who don't use Braille, I imagine this would be game changing. Thank you.
Some VoiceOver issues
There appear to be some issues for those of us who would want to use this keyboard with VoiceOver enabled.
Rather than displaying a full keyboard, only a subset of characters are shown at any time. I've not been able to find a way to reveal the next set of characters with VoiceOver enabled. I've tried various likely gestures, including a 1 finger tap hold and drag and a 3 finger swipe left or right, but nothing works. Anyone know if this is possible?
Secondly, the VoiceOver labels for some of the keyboard buttons could be more meaningful/descriptive.
Lastly, on the Store page of the app, VoiceOver reads the price of the in-app purchases but not the text which describes what each purchase is. So, you essentially don't know what you would be buying.
I assume that many of us with some residual vision would want to use the keyboard in conjunction with VoiceOver, so hopefully these issues can be resolved and we can give the keyboard a true test.
We will work on VoiceOver…
We will work on VoiceOver issues (and other comments) and I will post a comment after we resolve them
I don't know if you'll be able too work with voiceover and this.
I'm blind so can't use it but I believe the way it works is you tap a letter, words come up that you might want to use, then you pick your word and keep going.
It's a very visual thing from what I understand.
I'm not sure if it's still going but perhaps flicktype might be more your kind of thing.