TalkBack should not speak "button" BEFORE contentDescription regardless of grammatical convention (function over form) #486
Description
The latest TalkBack has for the longest time been speaking the word "button"
before the contentDescription tag for languages like Russian, Bulgarian.
This is probably not a bug, but a convention adopted by TalkBack, but it needs
to change, because it is robbing TalkBack users in those languages of the
precious time between a swipe and getting actual meaningful info.
This is a perfect example of emphasizing form over function.
As it stands in Russian, Bulgarian (and probably other languages), a user has
to wait nearly a SECOND to get a meaningful feedback over buttons.
This makes is impossible to design interfaces for blind users (in these
languages) where just swiping across buttons gives a "feel" to the user which
button it was (because of the first 100 microsecond of the button's name).
In our effort with the single app we make for TalkBack users, we try to make
adjacent buttons have radically different names, so that after some time the
user will just know which button it was just from it's initial sound as they
swipe over buttons.
This approach is completely trashed when there is a guardian "button" standing
over every utterance by TalkBack.
This needs to change, and is probably the single biggest problem right now with
TalkBack (for those languages).
For context: TalkBack in English is fine, because it speaks the word button at
the end (thankfully).
A POSSIBLE SOLUTION:
And this points to a possible solution - to completely scrap the usage of
"button" - so that TalkBack no longer tacks on "button" the end of every
contentDescription (as happens for English). And this will solve the problem
for Russian, Bulgarian etc. as well then. WITHOUT the political hand-wringing
that the decision over what is grammatical would have entailed.
So just drop the "button".
Because for developers who are actively setting contentDescription tags, this
is a pain in the ass - but acceptable since "button" is spoken at the end.
With TalkBack ON, also there is a complexity to the UI design, where some
elements do not currently stop the touch event going through to elements below.
So for our apps, we wind up using Button or ImageButton for things which don't
have to be buttons. This is to ensure the usage is smooth and fast.
However, we pay the cost of having the "button" tacked on at the end (for
English) - which is fine since users have already moved on to something else
before that usually.
SUMMARY
Just move "button" or element being spoken to the end of the utterance. Or
make it an option in TalkBack so users can remove the speaking of the element
type.
Original issue reported on code.google.com by stereoma...@yahoo.com on 11 Nov 2015 at 2:13