Possible ways for the blind to enter email and password

Question

I'm creating an emailing application for the visually impaired using java and I'm having a problem when entering the email and password. The entire application is voice based and I'm using the google speech API for converting speech to text. I've been trying to get the user to enter username/password one character at a time but the problem is google speech doesn't recognize characters properly.

I would be glad if there could be any other possible ways for a sightless user to input username/password or any other possible way to recognize single characters through voice would also be helpful.

More info: I'm trying to login to google so a way to input username/password is the problem I'm facing.

Actual

Here's just a thought, how about asking the users to input password using the phonetic alphabet? You could extract just the first character of each word they read out. For example, to input "test1234" they would read out "tango echo sierra tango one two three four". I agree it makes for a terrible UX but it's 100% error proof. – Lianaliane

@Lianaliane I agree on your idea but can't we find a better option? I would consider this as my last resort if there is nothing else for me to do – Actual

This might be a stupid question, but why make the app completly voice controlled? Most visually impaired people still are able to use a normal keyboard as far as I know. – Larimore

Trick : ask people to enter their password by using a word for each letter of the password, and only take the first letter of what google api returns you. – Coriander

@iXô that's exactly what I said in my comment above :-) – Lianaliane

@911DidBush then i would require a braille keyboard wouldn't I? – Actual

@Rukshan Hassim: No. braille keyboards aren't really used that much. As far as I know blind people just use normal keyboards although some "enhance" the keyboard with braille stickers. The "F" and "J" keys are marked on every keyboard with a bump and even for non visually impaired people typing without looking at the keyboard is the standard (I hope ;) – Larimore

@Rukshan Hassim: I think it would probably be best to get into contact with people who are actually affected and visually impaired. I would personally ask them how they would prefer to enter username + password before I would potentially start implementing a solution that they might end up hating. Maybe they would love being able to enter it with voice control, or maybe they would hate it. Best solution is to get into contact with your target audience. – Larimore

Good idea indeed! Thanks for the tips. I'll see what i can do about that fact – Actual

Answer 1

Wouldn`t a pin based password with just 0-9 be good for this scenario? Easy to recognize (only ten characters) and easy to distinguish between normal speech and pin. You can even create a mapping for wrongly received text (for example once -> one). You will have to code this for every language but it would work pretty good in my opinion.

Does anything speak (haha pun) against using only pin based passwords?

Edit: See here for a java implementation for a small dictionary (like in this case) Java voice recognition for very small dictionary

Wachter

I'm having trouble trying to use Sphinx4. This is what i used before using google speech but it had very poor recognition. I'm having issues getting it to work for limited grammar. – Actual

The way to go in your scenario is iin my opinion definetly limited grammer. This will improve your results a lot! I don`t know if google api offers this function but if not, you should compare google api without custom grammar to the generic java approach with numbers predefined. You will have to define a JSGF file, see the section <digits> in the linked example – Wachter

The problem I'm having with the example you provided is that I cant even get it working for a simple hello world. I will look more into this. Thank you! – Actual