Android has offered 16 standard one-finger screen reader gestures since version 4.1. These include four one-directional swipes, four back-and-forth swipes, and eight angular gestures. However, the Jieshuo screen reader includes an additional 16 gestures, similar to the standard ones, distinguished by the way they are performed. These gestures, known as long gestures, can be used in both global and per-app gesture schemes. By default, they are not assigned to any function.
Table of Contents
How to Perform Long Gestures
There are two primary methods for performing these long gestures:
The Holding Method:
The idea of the holding method is to keep your finger on the screen slightly after performing the gesture. Instead of lifting your finger off the screen immediately after drawing the gesture, let it stay on the screen for a bit. This time is about half a second. If the finger stays on the screen too long, the movement will likely be interpreted as exploring the screen content by touch, not as a gesture.
Alternatively, and this only works with back-and-forth and angular gestures which consist of more than one swipe, the user can pause slightly between the two swipes. For example, if the user is doing the right-then-down gesture, they can have a short pause between the right swipe and the down one. This pause is done by keeping the finger on the screen, not by removing it between the swipes. Here also, the user should pay attention not to make the pause too long.
The Long Swipes Method:
In this method, you extend the length of your swipe. For single-swipe gestures, make the swipe longer but not so long that it covers the entire screen. For gestures involving two swipes, the second swipe should be longer. For instance, when performing an up-then-left gesture, the upward swipe should be short, and the leftward swipe should be longer.
Final Remarks
The additional long one-finger gestures are gestures that people who prefer to perform more gestures using one finger and who think that the number of available gestures is limited could take advantage of. However, since these gestures are similar to the regular one-finger gestures, they may confuse many users. Taking time to experiment and train yourself to deal with these gestures is the key to performing them successfully. The rule is that the swipes of the regular gestures are short and performed quickly without any pause, while the additional gestures require holding the finger slightly on the screen or pausing between the swipes if the gesture has more than one swipe, or making the swipe longer in gestures that consist of only one swipe and making the second swipe longer with two-swipe gestures. Additionally, performing a gesture slowly could also be interpreted as an additional or long gesture if it is not very slow to the point that it is considered as screen exploration.
It is worth mentioning in the end that not assigning a function to any of the gestures means that performing the regular gesture is flexible, like the case with the TalkBack screen reader.
Comments