{"id":238,"date":"2013-09-19T16:34:05","date_gmt":"2013-09-19T15:34:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.iriss.org.uk\/autismcard\/?p=238"},"modified":"2013-09-20T08:53:02","modified_gmt":"2013-09-20T07:53:02","slug":"how-to-banner-text-speak-phrases-android","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.iriss.org.uk\/autismcard\/2013\/09\/19\/how-to-banner-text-speak-phrases-android\/","title":{"rendered":"How to…show a banner of text or speak short phrases using Android (bus journey example)"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a worked example to try and find an example of an approach that might help with existing problems giving a destination on Glasgow buses for those with travel cards (see\u00a0Pros and cons of autism alert cards and travel cards<\/a> for details).<\/p>\n

In computing we normally call text that’s to be displayed in large lettering a ‘banner’.<\/p>\n

So I did a search on the word ‘banner’ on the Google Play App store<\/a>. And though not all match our intended use there are some that would seem to do what we want. Now if you’ve never downloaded an app from an App store what you very commonly find is that apps for free may have some advertising within them that may or may not be a barrier in what you want to do, mostly but not always paid apps don’t usually have adverts and will often have a larger range of things the app can do – we call these ‘features’.
\nN.B.<\/strong>\u00a0If you have photo-sensitive epilepsy be very careful if you try these banner apps out. Most of them will, as a demo, scroll text quickly, some will flash or blink.<\/p>\n

I was specifically looking for an app that might provide a banner of large text in clear type that could be read from a distance and in low-light conditions. This could mean that your phone\/tablet could be\u00a0held up to e.g. the bus driver to show what destination you want. Because place names can be long and won’t always all fit on the screen the text needs to be able to animate or scroll so the entire name can be shown. To get the maximum amount of width for text it helps if you turn the device on it’s side with the longer edge at the bottom, shorter on the sides i.e. ‘landscape mode’.<\/p>\n

The following sample can display text or can speak short phrases.\u00a0N.B. There are literally thousands of apps in the app store, I’m only using this as a worked example.<\/p>\n