The best supporting interfaces and appliances
Hable is active in the accessibility industry. The start-up was founded by two students of the TU Eindhoven. The company’s vision is to make smartphones completely accessible for people who are blind. They are doing this by bringing a new type of product to market: the Hable One. This is a smart keyboard that creates the possibility for people with a visual impairment to fully grasp the same benefits of smartphones as anyone else.
Hable One is the first controller of its kind which is made especially for smartphones and has two major functionalities. The first one is typing on a smartphone, and the second one is to use all functionalities of the smartphone. For typing, everyone uses the braille keypad which is a more tactile form of typing on your smartphone. This helps blind users to type more efficiently, faster, and effectively. Moreover, this function enables users to text with more privacy because they don’t have to speak to their phones anymore. This makes smartphone usage not only easy, but also useful in all situations.
It was a challenge to create the navigation function. Eventually, Hable created a way to make the swiping motion on a flat screen easier to navigate. With only eight buttons, users can control their entire phone which means opening apps, closing apps, and navigating within the apps. All without having to use the flat screen of the smartphone.
The controller can either be used while standing, sitting, or walking because it doesn’t need to be placed at a surface. The device is small and fits into the user’s pocket, just like a smartphone. This means that the keyboard can be carried with you anywhere and is truly a mobility device. Lastly, using the keyboard is easy. This enables not only seniors to easily use the phone, but also children who are learning how to use Braille.
