TapType is out. It's a keyboard for blind Android users.
There are no visible keys. You tap where QWERTY keys would be from muscle memory, and a spatial prediction algorithm figures out what you meant. It scores nearby keys using a Gaussian proximity model and runs a beam search against an 80,000 word dictionary. You don't need to be precise. That's the whole point.
Swipe right to commit a word. Swipe down or up to cycle through suggestions. Swipe left to delete. It learns what words you use most and ranks them higher over time, and you can add your own words to a personal dictionary.
Every letter has its own unique sound, from Andre Louis's keyboard sound recordings, so you can learn to identify keys by ear without relying on speech. Each swipe direction has a distinct sound too. TTS is there when you want it, adjustable speed, and you can turn it off entirely if you prefer sounds only.
It has emoji search with skin tone selection and favourites, a number pad mode, an upper case mode, and full punctuation support with a customizable quick list. Two-finger gestures handle things like send, close keyboard, switch keyboard, and voice input.
Everything works with TalkBack. I built this because FlickType was a fantastic keyboard for blind iOS users and then it was gone. Nothing like it existed on Android, so I made one.
It's free, no ads, no tracking, no metrics. I'm not evil.
Download: https://github.com/aaron-gh/taptype-releases/releases/latest
#TapType #Accessibility #A11y #Android #Blind #VisuallyImpaired #TalkBack #Keyboard #AssistiveTech
Release TapType 1.0.1 · aaron-gh/taptype-releases

Bug fixes Fixed touch passthrough breaking other keyboards when TalkBack is active. Passthrough now only activates when TapType is the current keyboard, and clears immediately on keyboard switch, ...

GitHub
@fireborn How come you're not making the code open source but just using Github for the releases? Something like this honestly would make sense being open sourced.
@alexchapman I likely will at some point, it's just kind of messy right now.
@fireborn Oh right.
@alexchapman It was originally going to be a Sandfly feature that I pulled out and made its own thing.
@fireborn Oh OK, what's Sandfly? Sounds interesting.
@alexchapman Android screen reader in development.
@fireborn Oh interesting. I guess that's also gonna be open sourced eventually?
@alexchapman No. That will have paid features.
@fireborn Um OK, paid features in a screen reader? Jisuo or however its spelled has a paid thing going on, I'm surprised you wanna monitise an accessibility tool.
@alexchapman Do keep in mind I don't work full time any more. This is what I do now, as well as teach.
@fireborn Yeah, although I do think there's other stuff you could do paid features on, a screen reader just seems kinda... Idk how to describe it, I've seen it all over, Jisuo, Jaws and Supernova on Windows, it just feels off.
@alexchapman The core functionality will be free. The only things that will be paid are anything that cost me money to maintain.
@fireborn Right, so things like anything that requires some sort of server to function, that sort of thing. I've thought about doing stuff like that, but I've always said to myself if there's ever gonna be monitisation in any software that I do, I'm gonna do it where its completely optional, where the software is open source, and the only thing that's a paid thing is certain features running on my infrastructure. If people don't wanna pay, they can selfhost the full stack. That's the only way I'd ever do stuff like that.