Has anyone tried the SwiftKey keyboard with VO?

By peter, 27 October, 2015

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

The subject says it all. In light of the difficulties people have had with the Fleksy keyboard and VO, I was wondering if anyone had experience with the SwiftKey keyboard and using VoiceOver. SwiftKey is supposed to be another "smart" keyboard that uses predictive typing.

Thanks.

--Pete

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Comments

By Chris Smart on Wednesday, October 28, 2015 - 01:49

I'm also wondering this, especially with their new keyboard in beta that uses much better predictive methods.

By Mike V on Wednesday, October 28, 2015 - 14:16

Hi.
I have used it with VO on my iPad Air. All I can say is that it is totally inaccessible. When I try tapping on a letter to type, I don't get any feedback from VO. That's all I can say. Other than that, it's not accessible to VoiceOver users.

By peter on Thursday, October 29, 2015 - 01:40

Okay, I finally fished in and downloaded the SwiftKey predictive keyboard app to see if it was useable with VoiceOver.

Unfortunately there was no feedback as I typed or moved my finger over the keyboard. As I moved my finger around and then flicked around the screen, I could see that predicted words had popped up, but they weren't automatically spoken with voiceOver. thus, one has no idea of what one is typing until one looks around the screen.

Also, I couldn't even switch keyboards since no buttons spoke when I moved around the keyboard area of the screen. I had to totally remove the app from my iPhone to get the built in Apple keyboard to be visible again.

conclusion: As the previous poster said, not useable with VoiceOver. This app is not accessible.

too bad. It would be nice to have another keyboard option. Maybe the developers will wake up some day.

--Pete

By Fatima.Hamoud10 on Saturday, February 13, 2016 - 16:18

I once tried using the swiftkey keyboard with voiceover on both my iPhone 5S and iPod touch (5th generation) and the word predictions only appeared when voiceover was turned on. When I turned voiceover off the whole keyboard showed up on the screen. I'm a blind iOS user so I can't see the keyboard at all. I once contacted Swiftkey on Google Plus but they thought I was talking about voice dictation for some reason. I tried telling them that voiceover was a screen reader that is built in to iOS devices and it is used so that blind people can navigate their iPhones, iPads and iPod touches but I guess they didn't understand. Maybe Swiftkey can work with Apple to make the keyboard accessible with voiceover.

By Fatima.Hamoud10 on Thursday, March 31, 2016 - 19:38

Hello everyone. Just wanted to let you all know that swiftkey keyboard is now accessible to voiceover users. I guess Swiftkey and the Apple accessibility team might of worked together in order to make the swiftkey keyboard accessible. Very proud of SwiftKey and Apple today! I just downloaded the swiftkey keyboard app on my iPod touch (5th generation) and it works perfectly.

By Vsevolod Popov on Thursday, March 31, 2016 - 20:02

I downloaded the keyboard. What are the differents between this keyboard and Standart? And how to switch languages of typing? I want to type in Russian. How can I switch it?

By Southpaw on Thursday, March 31, 2016 - 20:20

I understand the value for sighted people but does this keyboard make a noticeable difference with VO? Thanks for sharing!

By Fatima.Hamoud10 on Thursday, March 31, 2016 - 20:26

It doesn't make any noticeable difference. The only thing that a sighted person would notice is that if they turned off voiceover they can type normally. Or they can learn how to use voiceover if they want to learn the accessibility features of the keyboard.

By Fatima.Hamoud10 on Thursday, March 31, 2016 - 20:33

The difference is that the standard keyboard for iOS has word predictions but it doesn't have any themes like the swiftkey keyboard. To be able to switch languages you have to try these steps:
1. Open the swiftkey app on your device.
2. If you haven't done already, follow the instructions on your screen to set up the keyboard.
3. When that's done, open the swiftkey app and scroll down till you hear "languages."
4. Double tap the languages button.
5. Scroll through the list of languages and see if Russian is available.
6. If Russian isn't on the list, submit a feature request to Swiftkey support.
7. You could also write a review in the app store.

Very cool! Thanks for letting us know. So, any tips for a beginner? Does this thing come with some getting started type help? :)

By Fatima.Hamoud10 on Friday, April 1, 2016 - 15:51

I also found out that you can use the direct touch typing and touch typing options like on the default iOS keyboard. Is it true that SwiftKey and the Apple accessibility team came to work together in order to make the keyboard accessible?

By KE7ZUM on Friday, April 1, 2016 - 18:30

I'm actually trying this out and the layout is way too big for my taste. I think I've been spoiled by the real ios keyboard. Lol! But it was easy to set up, I didn't even need a manual, I just followed clear instructions on the screen..

hope that helps a bit.

By Marro on Friday, April 1, 2016 - 19:17

Hi, i cant acces the settings. How can i access the settings from the app? When i go into the app, i get a keyboard.

The SwiftKey keyboard is now accesible with VoiceOver! I knew that because I downloaded the keyboard on my iPod touch (5th generation) and it works perfectly. So the developers woke up and made it accessible to VoiceOver users. I wondered if SwiftKey and the apple accessibility team came together. They've been working so hard to make the app accessible. Also I wonder how they came up with that name. Maybe the keyboard was named after Apple's new programming language which is swift? Such a great name for a smart keyboard. Especially for a keyboard that learns from you:)

By KE7ZUM on Saturday, April 2, 2016 - 17:26

I like it, but I'm only seeing 3 suggestions like in the real keyboard. Also dictation has been disabled and I can't switch keyboards as it's stuck at default and no way to switch to the other 2 keyboards I have installed. Also what's flow? I tried to look in documentation in the app but could not find it.

Take care to all.