Voice control

Summary: Voice control allows people to operate their devices hands-free through verbal commands, described by some users as an “invisible hand.” Google Assistant or Android Voice Access, as examples, can be used for everyday tasks in the home or on mobile devices

  • People who are blind
  • People who have low vision
  • People with mobility or motor impairments who have difficulty using a keyboard or mouse
  • People with cognitive disabilities and differences
  • People with different learning styles

Speech control software

Speech control software helps people control a computer by speaking commands or dictating text.

Mobile

Voice Access is an Android accessibility service that lets users control their device hands-free through voice commands that open apps, tap buttons, scroll, and type.

The iOS option is called Voice Control.

Navigate by saying words and icons. A users speaks tap like to tap on the thumbs up icon in a YouTube video Voice Access can recognize some icons on the screen in addition to the accessibility labels, enabling it to find the appropriate icon in a UI to take action on.

Desktop

Speech control software can be part of the operating system (Voice Control on MacOS) or separate software, such as Dragon Naturally Speaking. Dragon Naturally Speaking has been on the market for many years and established voice interaction patterns that also make it challenging for some to learn and adopt new voice patterns.

Dragon Naturally Speaking uses speech recognition to convert speech into text, which lets users navigate by using spoken commands. The navigation generally emulates keyboard and mouse interactions.

Natural Speaking top bar over a browser window Dragon Naturally Speaking runs on Windows and Mac. It's available in eight languages.

Try it out

Head over to the Alphabet Accessibility Academy to try some simple voice access exercises on your mobile device.

Did you know

People who use Voice Access can continue to use Google Assistant with the "Ok Google" wake-up phrase, as well as, "Ok Google, Voice Access" to control their devices with voice input.

Voice control stats

  • As of January 2020, 87.7 million U.S. adults were using smart speakers. A 32% increase over the previous year.
  • As of 2020, Google Assistant has 500 million users a month.

    • Source: Voicebot.ai, go/accessibility-testing

    Learn about how Paul uses Voice Access

    Check out this Youtube video from Android about a man named Paul Lane who uses Voice Access in his own life, and to help others.

    Watch Android presents: Paul + Voice Access

    More voice access resources

    Drive presentation icon

    Accessibility with Google Assistant

    Browse through a series of videos designed to help the disability community get the most out of their Google Assistant

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    Voiceover and Braille screen input

    Watch a YouTube video of an individual using VoiceOver and Braille screen input to compose a tweet and show navigation on their Android device

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    Common braille commands

    Learn about using a braille display with Voiceover on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch and various commands that support navigation

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    Voice Access Google group

    Join the Voice Access Google group to connect with others who use the assistive technology.

    TVCs follow the instructions at go/add-me.

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