Android 13 will bring native support for braille displays
Sometimes we take our sight for granted and it’s hard to fathom how someone who might be visually impaired uses a smartphone. The good news is that Google is aware of this and in a blog post, the company has announced that in the next beta for Android 13, they will be introducing native support for braille displays.
For those who are unfamiliar, braille displays for smartphones have existed for a while. The only problem with these displays is that they are natively supported by Android and users will need to use the Talkback app in order to take full advantage of it.
With this announcement, it appears that Google is looking to bring native support to Android so that in the future, users who are visually impaired will be able to use their displays right out of the box. According to Google:
“With this new update, there are no additional downloads necessary to use most braille displays. People can use braille displays to access many of the same features available with Talkback. For instance, you can use display buttons to navigate your screen and then do activities like compose an email, make a phone call, send a text message or read a book.”
Keep in mind that this will only be in the next beta of Android 13, so for those who aren’t in the beta will just have to wait for the feature when Android 13 is eventually released, which should be later this year.
In the meantime, those who are visually impaired can always check out Google’s Android Accessibility Suite.
Source: Google