Blind and Visually Impaired Community
↑
0
↓
Phone Screen Broken - Cryptocurrency Disaster (Visually Impaired) (self.Blind)
submitted by Cranberry_West
Hi there,
I have a possibly strange request. I am a UK based redditor.
About 2 months ago, I smashed my phone. The phone still works. But the screen won't turn on. I need to access my phone as it has some amount of cryptocurrency actually ON it. I can't access it in any other way because I'm a fool apparently.
The phone is a Pixel 4A.
I have worked out that if I plug a mouse in to the phone (with a special adaptor), and put the Talk Back feature on, that I can operate the phone. My aim is to cast the screen and do what I need to do on the phone.
However - doing so is almost impossible for me. I'm not familiar with the Talk Back function... and I don't know how to operate the mouse input... I click on the wrong things and end up going back and forward all over the place.
I'm not sure what I'm asking here but does anyone have any idea? I suppose my dream is that someone who is visually impaired or blind may have some experience using a phone in this way. Ultimately they may be able to help me cast my screen to a TV perhaps. I have tried this and gotten very close to managing it. But I feel that my lack of visual impairment is letting me down.
Thanks very much for taking the time to read this post and please feel free to ask a question or message me if you can help.
I have a possibly strange request. I am a UK based redditor.
About 2 months ago, I smashed my phone. The phone still works. But the screen won't turn on. I need to access my phone as it has some amount of cryptocurrency actually ON it. I can't access it in any other way because I'm a fool apparently.
The phone is a Pixel 4A.
I have worked out that if I plug a mouse in to the phone (with a special adaptor), and put the Talk Back feature on, that I can operate the phone. My aim is to cast the screen and do what I need to do on the phone.
However - doing so is almost impossible for me. I'm not familiar with the Talk Back function... and I don't know how to operate the mouse input... I click on the wrong things and end up going back and forward all over the place.
I'm not sure what I'm asking here but does anyone have any idea? I suppose my dream is that someone who is visually impaired or blind may have some experience using a phone in this way. Ultimately they may be able to help me cast my screen to a TV perhaps. I have tried this and gotten very close to managing it. But I feel that my lack of visual impairment is letting me down.
Thanks very much for taking the time to read this post and please feel free to ask a question or message me if you can help.
mehgcap 7 points 1y ago
As a blind person, I find your go-to of a mouse to be an interesting choice. You'd be much better off connecting a standard keyboard. From there, use another computer to look up Talkback keyboard commands. I'm an iPhone user, but I believe you can control most of Talkback with a keyboard. You should be able to navigate the phone with key commands.
Remember that Talkback sees everything as pieces. You're not tapping or clicking on a bit of the screen, you're navigating piece by piece. For instance, if you're moving to the right on your home screen, you're moving icon by icon. In an app, each move to the right or left takes you right or left to the next button, or link, or chunk of text, or text input field. It's a little like tabbing around in Windows, but it covers everything, not just the things you can press enter on like Windows does. I don't know if this makes sense or not, but it's something important to know so you can understand why Talkback is moving around how it is.
Anyway, try a keyboard instead of a mouse, and understand that Talkback will navigate right or left by UI control. Good luck!
Remember that Talkback sees everything as pieces. You're not tapping or clicking on a bit of the screen, you're navigating piece by piece. For instance, if you're moving to the right on your home screen, you're moving icon by icon. In an app, each move to the right or left takes you right or left to the next button, or link, or chunk of text, or text input field. It's a little like tabbing around in Windows, but it covers everything, not just the things you can press enter on like Windows does. I don't know if this makes sense or not, but it's something important to know so you can understand why Talkback is moving around how it is.
Anyway, try a keyboard instead of a mouse, and understand that Talkback will navigate right or left by UI control. Good luck!
DHamlinMusic 1 points 1y ago
Talkback works like VoiceOver, however it does have keyboard support so yeah that should work.
Emmenias 3 points 1y ago
Huh. Talkback has mouse support? That's news to me.
As has already been pointed out, using a mouse for this is probably the wrong call -- though it's certainly a very typically sighted choice, haha. With a keyboard, you should hopefully be able to navigate with arrow keys and such, making figuring out what you're about to press on much easier. Consider that no (or almost none?) blind people use a mouse, even with a computer.
How did you get yourself in a situation where the crypto is directly tied to your phone, though? That shouldn't be possible. Surely whatever wallet app you're using has an account system, in which case it should not be too hard to install the app on another phone and log in. And presumeably, if we're talking Bitcoin or such here, it should still be tied to your Bitcoin address. Then again, cryptocurrency isn't something I've ever had a serious interest in, so take this with a pinch of salt.
As has already been pointed out, using a mouse for this is probably the wrong call -- though it's certainly a very typically sighted choice, haha. With a keyboard, you should hopefully be able to navigate with arrow keys and such, making figuring out what you're about to press on much easier. Consider that no (or almost none?) blind people use a mouse, even with a computer.
How did you get yourself in a situation where the crypto is directly tied to your phone, though? That shouldn't be possible. Surely whatever wallet app you're using has an account system, in which case it should not be too hard to install the app on another phone and log in. And presumeably, if we're talking Bitcoin or such here, it should still be tied to your Bitcoin address. Then again, cryptocurrency isn't something I've ever had a serious interest in, so take this with a pinch of salt.
DHamlinMusic 1 points 1y ago
Yep Talkback has Keyboard support and I think mouse support if you set it up right, though probably cannot do that without a screen, keyboard should be setup already.
DHamlinMusic 1 points 1y ago
Ok so first off I am going to say you should not have posted this here, r/blind is not tech support for sighted people who have to use tools designed for people with disabilities randomly. However as I can see a reason this question could be helpful for some of the other users I will leave it up and try to help.
Mouse is not going to be useful, you'd be better off using a PC and a cable to connect and open the phone as an external drive, if these are just files you need to pull that should work. If that is not the case you will need to connect a keyboard and use that to navigate via "ALT + Arrow" to move around, I am not sure about casting the screen, you could also just copy the phone to a new device via a cable and the setup process. .
Mouse is not going to be useful, you'd be better off using a PC and a cable to connect and open the phone as an external drive, if these are just files you need to pull that should work. If that is not the case you will need to connect a keyboard and use that to navigate via "ALT + Arrow" to move around, I am not sure about casting the screen, you could also just copy the phone to a new device via a cable and the setup process. .
This nonprofit website is run by volunteers.
Please contribute if you can. Thank you!
Our mission is to provide everyone with access to large-
scale community websites for the good of humanity.
Without ads, without tracking, without greed.
scale community websites for the good of humanity.
Without ads, without tracking, without greed.
©2023 HumbleCat Inc • HumbleCat is a 501(c)3 nonprofit based in Michigan, USA.