Steve Kelley
Google’s Reading Mode app for Android is a game-changer for Android users with low vision. The proliferation of screen readers, like TalkBack on Android devices, has radically improved the accessibility of most smart devices for users who are blind. For users with low vision, however, a screen reader may present more of a challenge than a solution due to the learning curve and the natural tendency to rely on remaining vision to see text and images on the screen. Both Android and iOS offer features that allow users with low vision to quickly read text without needing to learn all the gestures required by a screen reader. Android offers Select to Speak, while iOS provides Speak Screen. The basic idea behind both is that they simply read the screen from top to bottom, and the user can pause and resume reading.
One of the limitations of Android’s Select to Speak, at least for this user, is that it may not read an entire webpage or email from start to finish—it often reads only what is currently visible on the screen. This requires scrolling down to view the next portion of text and pressing play again, which is not always convenient and often leads to gaps in what is read. Speak Screen on iOS does a slightly better job of reading from the top to the bottom of a webpage or email. While both features make reading easier for users with low vision who are not yet proficient with a screen reader, there is still room for improvement.
Google’s recent addition to their accessibility features, called Reading Mode, dramatically improves the reading experience for users with low vision.
Reading Mode is currently an app that can be downloaded from the Google Play Store. Once opened for the first time, it becomes part of the Accessibility Shortcut on the phone. When the Accessibility Shortcut is enabled, features like Magnification, Select to Speak, and now Reading Mode are available in a menu that can be accessed from an icon in the bottom right corner of the screen. With a webpage or email open, Reading Mode is activated by opening the Accessibility Shortcut and selecting Reading Mode. Reading Mode then displays the text on nearly the full screen, with a down arrow at the top of the window to close Reading Mode. Three control icons appear at the bottom of the screen: Settings, Play/Pause, and a variable control to adjust the font size or speech rate on the fly.
With Reading Mode enabled, text appears in a high-contrast style of the user’s preference, which can be read visually in a larger font. Using the Play/Pause button initiates text-to-speech reading from the top of the page downward. The forward and back buttons on either side of the Play/Pause button allow navigation by sentence.
Settings can be accessed by clicking the gear icon in the bottom left corner of the display. The Settings menu has two tabs: Display and Audio. In the Display settings, users can adjust the background and foreground colors from a fairly standard set of options, including white on black, black on yellow, and black on white, with a variety of font weights. Users may also choose to have Reading Mode default to their current Android display theme.
Font size can be increased or decreased both from the Settings menu and on the fly using the controller in the bottom right. Text size can be increased to display just a few letters per line, with 4-7 lines on the screen, depending on the size of the original text, and adjusted to wrap within the screen as needed. Line spacing is also adjustable from the Display settings menu.
For visual readers, one of the nice features in the Display menu is the option to Underline Current Text. This feature simply places a line beneath the text currently being read, making it easier to follow along. Currently, it is an option that is either on or off, without additional highlights or alternative colors.
In the Audio tab under Settings, users can select the playback speed and voice. By default, there are around 11 English voices and one Spanish voice available. Many additional voices in various languages can also be downloaded by selecting the download link. The playback speed is adjusted here as well, and can also be adjusted on the fly when the Play/Pause button is pressed and text is being read and scrolled on the display.
Although Reading Mode is fairly intuitive and only takes a couple of minutes to set up according to user preferences, it does include a tutorial, which leaves much to be desired. The tutorial is very brief and appears as dialog boxes with much smaller font sizes and less contrast than the main interface. This left me wondering why the tutorial did not just appear within the same Reading Mode display window.
Overall, Reading Mode works well with many apps and webpages, although there are times when the user receives the message, “Can’t read this content.” This happened consistently in the Messages app and when multiple columns of text appeared on the screen. However, it seems that this depends on the source, as some multi-column webpages do read successfully.
Overall, Reading Mode is a super-simple, easy-to-use accessibility app for Android. It effectively fills in the accessibility gaps for readers with low vision. While it’s a good idea to learn some TalkBack basics, especially for technical reading or editing where word-by-word reading is best, Reading Mode is perfect for a quick read-through of a webpage or email and is highly customizable. Reading Mode is currently available as an app from the Play Store at no cost.
