EGDE, A Soft Keyboard for Fast Typing for the Visually ChallengedStudent Design Competition
/ Rajendran, Chandni
/ Parab, Chinmay
/ Gupta, ShreyaExtended Abstracts of the ACM CHI'16 Conference on Human Factors in
Computing Systems2016-05-07v.2p.50-55
Summary: EDGE is an accessible text-input overlay on touch screen phones that is
designed specifically to enable speedier typing by users with vision
impairment. The model uses the edges of the phone because all the tactile
references available on a touch screen are concentrated along the edges. The
characters are laid out along the edges in the same grouping as a 3x4
International Standard Key Pad, building on users' familiarity [1]. It can be
initiated in the same manner as any keyboard service on a smart phone. However,
it occupies the full extent of the screen as an overlay and can be dismissed by
an on-screen gesture. The model has the ability to switch between single-tap
and multi-tap mode and features that provide context awareness while typing.
Along with text prediction as an added feature, EDGE could be a very effective
text input method that visually impaired users will be able to use with
confidence even without audio feedback.