TalkBack on Android
Testing accessibility on an Android emulator
Get the project source code below, and follow along with the lesson material.
Download Project Source CodeTo set up the project on your local machine, please follow the directions provided in the README.md
file. If you run into any issues with running the project source code, then feel free to reach out to the author in the course's Discord channel.
If you have a physical Android device, it probably has Android Accessibility Suite preinstalled. If it doesn't, you can download it from the Google Play Store. Testing on a physical device is always the best way to determine if your app can be used by a blind or visually impaired person.
If you don't have an Android phone or tablet handy, you can test using the emulator. Android emulators are very minimal and don't come with Accessibility Suite installed, so getting the screen reader up and running is a bit of a process.
Installing TalkBack on the emulator#
First, you'll need an emulator that has the Google Play Store preinstalled. When you go to create an emulator, only some of the device definitions will have a Play icon in the "Play Store" column. You'll need to pick one of those. Once it's created, start it up, open the Play Store, log in with a Google account, and search for Accessibility Suite. Download and install the official app.
Now open the Settings app in your emulator, tap Accessibility, then TalkBack. Turn on the TalkBack shortcut toggle. You won't want TalkBack itself turned on right away since using it through a trackpad is difficult. But having the shortcut button on your screen will let you turn it on after you start your app.