Fleksy and Fleksy VO

By peter, 23 June, 2014

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

On the Fleksy web site, the developers claim that the latest version of Fleksy has again integrated complete VoiceOver support and that the Fleksy VO app is no longer needed. Here is the post:
http://fleksy.com/journey-towards-accessibility-we-are-home/

I have the latest version of Fleksy and tried to use it with VoiceOver and seemed to have a difficult time. I'm wondering what other people have been experiencing with the latest mainstream Fleksy app compared with Fleksy VO.

Thanks.

--Pete

Options

Comments

By DPinWI on Wednesday, July 2, 2014 - 18:15

I have had issues with text in the mainstream app not being cleared out after I have used it. If I type something in, and then send it as an email, the next time I go back to the app, I expect to start with a clean slate. This has not been happening consistantly. Further, deleting that text has been problematic for me.

So, I use the VO version.

By Mlth on Wednesday, July 2, 2014 - 18:15

I've have very little trouble with the normal version, which I use.
The only thing I can't get to work is line breaks, also I wished blind people could touch the language-changing globe, since I type in both english and danish frequently.
Regarding fast deletion, you can turn that on within preferences. Then, to clear out the text, simply swipe left but hold your finger on the screen afterwards. That'll clear out words at a very fast rate.

Best regards, Malthe.

By Macky on Wednesday, July 2, 2014 - 18:15

I have found the newly VoiceOver friendly version of the original application to be more difficult to use. Yes there is no two finger swipe up etc but that's minor details but it's the actual typing that just doesn't feel as accurate, as responsive or as natural as the VO version, which I am using to type this. I am hoping they will make the original one feel as smooth as the VO version in time for ios eight release. Hopefully it just needs a wee but of tightening up and polish after they reintroduced the accessibility.

The other issue I have is when deleting a word... In the VO version the word that has been erased is spoken, but in the original it's the word previous to the deleted word that is read. I'm presuming this is a deliberate change to allow us to remember where we are in the sentence we are typing but I find it throws me off and prefer the VO way in this instance. I'd be keen to hear what others think of this.

I'll continue to use the VO version in the meantime but here's hoping they can iron out the original version asap.

By peter on Wednesday, July 2, 2014 - 18:15

Agreed - Typing in the new mainstream Fleksy app doesn't seem to be as accurate. Also, I agree - it is confusing that rather than speaking the deleted word and saying something like "word deleted" Fleksy now speaks the previous word that was not deleted. Maybe it is just a matter of re-lerning this new paradigm, but I would rather hear the word that is being deleted and having Fleksy saying that this word is deleted. I wonder if the reason that typing accurately seems a bit harder with this version is that the keyboard may be taking up less of the screen real estate to accommodate having the options viewable at the top of the screen. Maybe I just have to type a bit lower on the screen and pretend that the keyboard is more compressed vertically. Well, I'll give the mainstream Fleksy another shot, but I'm not deleting the VO version yet. I hope they can straighten out these issues so that there is only one app that is accessible to everyone. --Pete

By Brooke on Wednesday, July 2, 2014 - 18:15

I tend to use the VO version, because typing on the mainstream app just doesn't seem as smooth to me as it does in the VO version. I find myself making a lot of mistakes and having to start over again frequently while using the regular app, and this doesn't happen with the VO version. so I'll stick with it for now.

By peter on Wednesday, July 2, 2014 - 18:15

thanks all for your comments on the usability of the latest Fleksy versus Fleksy VO.

Knowing that some of you had at least a moderate amount of success using the latest version of Fleksy with VoiceOver, I gave it another shot. With some practice, it is fairly usable, but not perfect.

Here are a few observations:

1. In the new Fleksy interface the keyboard seems to be scruntched more toward the bottom of the screen. In previous versions of Fleksy and fleksy VO there seemed to be a lot more latitude in terms of where I could type on the screen. In this latest version, however, I was a lot more successful typing when I constrained my fingers to stay close to the bottom of the screen. this is probably because, in the new interface, the options now take up the top half of the screen (whereas in previous versions one could swipe up with two fingers to show these options, and hide them otherwise).

2. Editing text is difficult. if one makes a typing mistake other than in the last word typed, it is very difficult to rectify. It would be nice if there was an easier way to fix or edit mistakes.

3. I didn't see a way in this version to create a new line. maybe that feature was dropped. Too bad.

4. There wasn't an easy way of clearing text as in previous versions. This was mentioned in the documentation, but again, too bad this was dropped.

5. Also, as was already mentioned on this thread, when swiping left to delete the last word typed, rather than announcing the word being deleted, the word before that is spoken. Strange - I liked it the old way better. This is confusing and doesn't seem to follow standard paradigms of deleting when using a screen reader.

All in all, this seems to be reasonably usable with a bit of practice and if one remembers to keep one's fingers very near the bottom of the screen. Hopefully some easier means of editing can be introduced at a later date.