The Future of Fleksy in the AppleVis iOS App Hall of Fame

Hi there, I think it's about time we go on record and respond to the Accessibility community about Fleksy VO, the Fleksy Keyboard app, our SDK, and all the concerns we have been receiving about our commitment for accessibility. Rather than writing another, more extensive blog post, we think it is better to go on record and answer your questions directly. We are arranging an interview with Jonathan Mosen, and are encouraging all participants of this forum to send him questions for us via the form at mosen.org. We have asked for a challenging interview, and we hope it will help explain a lot of things to the accessibility community, which we have sadly upset. Please watch this forum for details of when this will air, and send Mr Mosen your questions for me. Thanks Ioannis Founder and COO @fleksy

Actually, the trigger was as much Jonathan's blog as this post here. Ioannis

Please be sure to cast your votes in the area at the end of the blog post, as this is what we will be using to determine the status of Fleksy in the Hall of Fame when the voting period ends.

I am uncomfortable with Syntellia’s decision to divide Fleksy into one product for the sighted and one for VoiceOver users. Even if this change is for the short term, it is a disconcerting move. “Separate, but equal” is a step backwards. In 1972, my college roommate told me stories of how when he was a child, he was not permitted to use the city swimming pool nearest to his home. Instead, he head to tap his way a couple of miles further to use a swimming pool reserved for non-whites. He shared memories about separate restrooms and drinking fountains, and separate seating in theaters and buses. Even if implemented with the conviction that “Separate, but equal” is meant to really offer equivalent or extended services, “Separate, but equal” is never equal. “Separate, but equal” still implies that one group is so different from the other that they cannot be mutually served. I would suggest that Syntellia, the developers of Fleksy, stay on their original track, to have one product, that serves all of their customers. And, I would suggest that their SDK absolutely incorporate the excellent support for VoiceOver so that other products developed by other companies would also be accessible should they incorporate the extremely useful Fleksy keyboard. I very much appreciate all of the work that went into Fleksy and I am always happy to pay for really useful tools like this very clever and accessible keyboard. I hope Syntellia reincorprates the entire Fleksy app into a singular product as soon as possible. That would send the right message.

i wish my little brother were never born! i'm sorry. the developer did make a fatal mistake. they should have create a new version of software, call it fleksy ii or something and left the original fleksy alone, instead of creating a new version called fleksy vo. just imagine the difference it'd have made.

Maybe I'm just too layed back, but even after reading Jonathan's blog, I just don't understand why this is such a big deal. They've provided an accessible app, so the hall of fame thing seems like a no-brainer to me; just replace the old with the new. I voted for that yesterday. Like JT, I have no desire to use an app like this, so perhaps I don't even have a right to contribute to the conversation, but I honestly think that folks are making a mountain out of a mole hill. Again, just my opinion, for whatever it's worth.

As someone who was an original beta tester and spoke very positively about Fleksy and their original commitment to accessibility, I am very saddened to their decision to create separate apps for the blind and sighted. While this decision makes me think of different bathrooms for different racists, I feel this decision really takes inclusion and accessibility backwards. My question is if Fleksy plans to have individual apps incorporate their technology in to the app, which keyboard are apps going to go with the one for sighted Fleksy users or the one for VoiceOver users. What really annoys me most is Fleksy used the blind community to build this app and help make it a success. I hope that invitation to the White House wasn't because of accessibility. A really bad decision by the development team at Fleksy. I am interested to hear Jonathan's interview with them.

My vote is to replace Fleksy with Fleksy VO until the regular version has its accessibility issues addressed, at which point the regular version can reassume its place in the hall of fame. This is essentially what Fleksy VO is—a temporary solution until the current codebase can e updated with a more permanent one. I think suspending Fleksy is unfair to the developers who were kind enough to provide a temporary solution, even if it isn't an ideal one, until they can get their bugs worked out. They could have been like a lot of developers who tell us to wait until the next version which "hopefully" will have the problems addressed, without providing any support in the meantime. I appreciate what Fleksy has done, even though I don't use the app personally, and am saddened to see so much criticism over this.

Hi all. I was just wanting to put my thoughts down about the state of the Fleksy app. Let me begin by saying Fleksy was and is the tipping point that persuaded me to finally stop using my Nokia with Talx and upgrade to the iPhone. It is an amazing development and as someone who used to code before I lost my vision I can totally appreciate how much of a technical achievement it is too. It would be fantastic if Apple would integrate it into iOS but as yet they seem unwilling to do so but the new packs that Sintellia have released means we might see it in our favourite apps in the meantime... or will we? As you all know, the latest update of the app is a non voiceover compatible version and we have been told to download the Fleksy VO version in the meantime. This is basically a downgrade for voiceover users at the moment until the developers allow themselves time to work with the third party developers to get Fleksy running properly in their apps. I know this has left a sour taste in the mouths of the voiceover community for many. The first are minor gripes, in that you have to reset your favourites once you start using the VO version and also the dictionary isn't instantly available either, if at all although it does say it is. IPersonally, I think the main reason the voiceover community are up in arms is because the app was originally aimed directly at us and, let's be honest, when it came out it wasn't cheap. It was £10.49 in Scotland, and $9.99 in the U.S. and there were some people put off completely by this. However, I was not as I knew it would unlock a door to using a touch screen phone at the same speed as my sighted peers. So way before it was free, the voiceover community were thrones that paid for it and gave the developers the shot in the arm that has helped them grow in size and reputation, not to mention all the awards etc including The Golden Apple award from this site that snowballed the more general public's awareness of it's existence. I haven't voted on whether to suspend Fleksy from the Hall Of Fame as I can't decide which way to go as it is still easily the most frequently used app on my phone. It's just the feeling that n ow that they appear to have a larger market to aim for it seems Sintellia have taken their focus away from where the roots of the app came from and who it was aimed at. In conclusion, I hope no matter which way the vote on here goes, this is just a blip and once the third party integration problems are solved that we can get back up to using the most current version and be on a par once again, assuming they don't leave it as two separate apps in the future? And if they are brought together as one again, will there be more dictionary, favourites etc set up required again? Only time will tell I guess. Please let me know what you all think and here's to more happy typing in the future...

Hello all. I have been looking over this entry, and I have some thoughts to share. For one, I myself am using Fleksy, even to type this comment. Many of you have complained about the separate app thing. To put it honestly, what is the big deal? So what if they are separate apps? The developer made the vo one for a reason. They put forth a lot of effort to make Fleksy usable for us and this is the thanks they get? They could've said screw you and not even bothered with this, but they didn't do so. They didn't have to make these accommodations, but they did. I read Jonathan mosen's blog on Fleksy and I have to disagree with him. Go ahead and remove the app if you want, but you will be missing out on a wonderful typing experience. I understand that most may disagree with me and I can't make you all take my side. All I ask is to please show the developer the respect they deserve. I feel that the complaining and protesting could give the blind community a bad name. Its these negative attitudes that push hard working developers away. Do you really want that? To the members of the Fleksy team that see this, hats off to a wonderful job well done. I will continue to use Fleksy for as long as I'm able to.

People are overreacting to this just like so many other times. I'm constantly amazed at how fast people will turn on a developer in a situation like this. Fleksy could easily just have said we blind people should take a hike but instead they gave us another useable option with an explanation of their plans for down the road. What could people want? Sometimes separate is better. I'd rather have a different app intended for VO users than a bloated app for everyone full of features I care nothing about. This doesn't make blind people second rate, just people with different needs. I think everyone needs to put their keyboards down for a minute and take a deep breath. We still have Dleksy and guess what, the world is still turning. Let's wait and see what happens before we collectively freak out.

Hi all. toonhead, good along with others who basically said, calm the .... down. Personally as i said I don't use flexy, the price being a big problem for me to get past, whether i had iTunes credit or not. What i don't get is, why do the developers act as though they've done something wrong? They as toonhead put out did give us something, whether or not it works for you, it's a choice. I havent' read Johothan's blog, I probably will. But why should the developers feel like they need to take the blame on accessibility when tye did what they could for however long that will be until they can fix or improve what's out there? Clearly, if this app were so great, reading mos tof the comments had soured me on ever trying it.

Hi all, I have used Fleksy since the day I brought it and yes I did pay 15 quid for it but to be honest that really didn't matter to me because once I started using it, I was typing away. Regarding having two apps now, and since the original one states to use the VO version I'm not particularly that up-in-arms about it. Echoing some other people's sentiments what would you rather have? An app that works with accessibility or one that doesn't? The way I see it is that the app as of all apps/programmes are tools at your disposal. You use whatever tool is required for the situation at the present time and just something to note hear well a couple of things actually. 1. I saw on this foarem that people claim that this is a "downgrade." I myself am actually inclined to disagree with this and I'll tell you why. If you can remember before Fleksy got split into two versions, in the one app the team added the two finger swipe left or right to change to numbers/symbols and in the first VO version this was missing. Then they added this functionality into an update a few days later. So I would call this an upgrade. So I myself wouldn't say that they aren't listening to accessibility far from it I think they are paying attention. Adding to this, As far as I could tell, from what I saw in just the stand-alone app's functionality wasn't any different to the VO version so one isn't missing anything at the time of this writing anyway. 2. Something I'm not sure have been over looked is that when you open the normal app, it states to use the VO version while they work on there SDK whatever that means and it mentions that are "working hard to resolve Voiceover issues." This implies to me that there are urgent issues with Fleksy itself with Voiceover therefore, they have released a Voiceover app in the mean time until such issues can be resolved. So until that time comes hopefully all the code and alike can be merged into one app that is the way I read it. 3. I don't know if anyone has noticed this possibly not because I am making an educated guess here that most people are running IOS7 Well actually, the VO version goes back a long way in what IOS version is required IOS5 something I believe. In contrast, I don't think the original version went this far back. I commend the team on this because its probably one thing to keep an app current with the latest OS but another to insure backward compatibility. I'm just trying to keep an open mind here guys and stay optimistic. Sometimes, things have to get worse before they can get better. Also, writing to developers, in a constructive, sibyl, respected and professional manner is far more better than just snapping like a fiery dragon and complaining all the time. Sure, one is entitled to complain but in a way where it is complaining but not complaining if that makes sense. For myself, I use the app everyday and will continue to use Fleksy and will respect whatever they have for us as a community for the for seeable future. Thank you all for reading Daniel

Instead of uninstalling Fleksy, you could go to the app store and give it a 1 star rating and review. I also think that we should be using the same app as sighted people. It doesn't seem right when before they had it accessible and now it isn't. It seems like Fleksy developers got the recognition that they wanted in the beginning, and now that they have more people knowing who they are, they feel like they don't have to make Fleksy accessible any more. Would people be alright if Amazon made a Kindle-VO? Just my thinking. Thanks, and go Broncos!

That's right off to the garbage it goes no more iPhone no more iPad after all the mainstream only has to tap once to open an app.

First of, I would like to say to me it is not a big deal. I was one of the first people who purchased the app but never used it after a month or so. It could be because English being my second language, and me trying to spell a word was at times way off. And when looking at my choices, I was suprise that one of those choices wasn't. "What the F did you meant to type?". lol But I found Fleksy not to be for me, though I ended up purchasing a second copy of the app for my G/F. And she loved and loves it. She has been able to take full advantage of the app with composing emails, iMessages, etc. Now, about 2 versions of the same app. I don't see the big deal about a blind specific version, specialy if the developers will combind them into 1 in the feature. We must remember that the iOS version was developed with the blind in mind since we can't see the keyboard to type. And the Fleksy team did not hide this fact. So, it was because of all the beta testers that made Fleksy the app that it was before this whole thing came about. But now, if you follow tech, you saw that last year Fleksy was moving away from blind users and targeting the sighted community. When they appeared on CES 2013. Those demos given were on main stream products trying to sell it to the sighted. When beta began on Android, people broke NDA and started to post podcasts on how Fleksy wasn't fully accessible on Android and when the official Android app came out. The app isn't accessible at all. So, when the people of Fleksy decided to make one app to be the same across platforms. One version had to have a bigger influence over the other. Unfortunately Android's version won over. But instead of the developers leaving it alone, they as some of you stated. It seems as Fleksy rolled back to an accessible older version for FleksyVO. And if that is the case, as long as it gives the same functionality that you users know and are use to. Why complain, if the new features may be benefitial to the sighted then to the blind. I agree that it should be where we ought to be given the choice to use or not the new features. But as long as a version of Fleksy is used, I welcome the VO version until the main stream version is fully accessible. Which brings me to the App Hall of Fame, it is a great thing to have. But if main stream apps are to be included in the hall of fame. You will always run the risk of apps breaking accessibility. Thus making the Hall of Fame kind of look at it as a joke. If it will have a revolving door where apps can be put on and 2 months later taken off just for the next month to be put back on. And then having the cycle repeated. I say change the whole Hall of Fame, and just have kind of like a list of the top 10-100 favorite apps voted by the community. So, if one breaks accessibility it will move down or off the list. Just to have others that made improvements to move up. This is just a thought and suggestion. Thanks for reading.

I really like the concept. What I'm wondering, though, is if there is more involved...surely the developers would have done this if they could have?

I refuse to vote. This is because all 3 options are too strong and hasty a response. Personally, i think that the best course of action is to just wait and see how fast things get fixed.

Cat, as it stood, we had an app in the Hall of Fame which was completely unusable with VoiceOver. In the absence of any firm indication of when this was likely to change, leaving the original app listed in the Hall of Fame would diminish the significance of induction and be a disservice to the many developers who strive to ensure that their apps remain fully accessible. As it was a community decision to induct Fleksy into the Hall of Fame, it was appropriate that the community also decided on what to do now that the originally inducted app was no longer accessible.