Alternative access and accessibility

AssistiveWare apps are compatible with the built-in accessibility features of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS. Some of our apps offer additional accessibility features that were developed prior to the availability of certain OS accessibility or were developed to complement or extend the OS accessibility features.

Speech

Text to Speech

All our AAC apps (Proloquo, Proloquo2Go, Proloquo4Text, simPODD) provide Text to Speech output with Acapela Group voices and system voices. Acapela Group voices are included in all these apps for the relevant languages and regions without extra costs. For many languages and regions both adult and genuine child voices are available.

Personal Voice

All our AAC apps (Proloquo, Proloquo2Go, Proloquo4Text, simPODD) support Apple’s Personal Voice feature, introduced in iOS 17.

MyOwnVoice

All our AAC apps (Proloquo, Proloquo2Go, Proloquo4Text, simPODD) support Acapela Group’s MyOwnVoice.

Motor

Touch accommodations

Assistive Touch

All our apps are compatible with Assistive Touch.

Keyguards

Proloquo can be used with a keyguard in use mode (except for Search and Thinking Space) but not in Customization Mode. Among other places, Keyguards for Proloquo can be ordered at Keyguard Assistive Technology in the US.

Proloquo2Go offers multiple grid sizes and customizable button spacing to adapt to keyguards. Keyguards can only be used in use mode, not in the Proloquo Options or Edit Mode. Keyguards for Proloquo2Go can be ordered among other places at Keyguard Assistive Technology in the US and Communicate AT in Australia.

simPODD keyguards, for use mode, can be ordered among other places at Communicate AT in Australia.

App-specific touch accommodations

Proloquo2Go offers features such as Hold Duration and Select on Release to support users with disabilities that affect fine motor control.

Proloquo4Text offers a Large Icons option in its Appearance options to make the buttons in the interface larger and easier to touch and see.

Keeble offers Select on Release, Select on Dwell, and Repeat delay features to facilitate typing for users with fine motor disabilities.

Head tracking

All our apps are fully compatible with head trackers such as the HeadMouse Nano. This is one of the most effective access methods for users who cannot touch the screen effectively, especially when combined with a switch to click (rather than relying on dwelling).

Eye tracking

All our apps are compatible with the native eye-tracking support built into iOS 18 and later. They are also compatible with eye tracking with Made for iPad certified eye tracking cameras and cases such as Hiru, TD Pilot, and VersaEye. On iOS 17 and later, you should use the Snap to Item feature for the best eye-tracking experience.

Proloquo2Go allows extensive customization of grid size and button spacing and an adjustable toolbar size, making it easy to create bigger targets for eye-tracking users.

simPODD offers multiple grid sizes, which makes it possible to work with larger targets. simPODD does not include the Alternative Access layouts.

Keeble offers the option to choose between Extended QWERTY (with a numbers row) or a QWERTY (with larger buttons) on iPad Pros.

Switches

Switch Control

All our apps are compatible with Switch Control. That means that switch users can access and use all our apps. However, our AAC apps do not include vocabularies optimized for scanning.

Keeble, our accessible on-screen keyboard for iOS, offers an optimized, frequency-based keyboard layout which allows switch users to type much more efficiently than with the standard iOS and iPadOS keyboards. It also allows users to customize scanning patterns.

Dedicated switch access

Proloquo2Go offers dedicated scanning features for single or two switch scanning with either external switches or by using the screen as a switch. The following scanning modes are offered: Automatic scanning, automatic selecting, inverse scanning, step scanning, and automatic step scanning. Note that the included vocabulary was not optimized for scanning use. Also, note that the dedicated scanning features only support scanning use mode and not in the Proloquo Options or Edit Mode.

Pictello offers non-scanning switch access options for story playback.

Vision

Light & Dark Modes

Proloquo provides a light and dark mode, following the iPad or iPhone’s Display setting. Dark Mode offers a higher contrast than Light Mode.

Proloquo2Go provides a light and dark mode in Edit Mode and in Options, following the iPad or iPhone’s Display setting. The main grid can be customized using the settings discussed in the next section.

Proloquo4Text supports light and dark mode, following the iPad or iPhone’s Display setting. Dark Mode offers a higher contrast than Light Mode.

Contrast & size

Most of our apps offer at least some specific settings to control the size of display elements or the color contrast.

Proloquo2Go offers 23 different grid sizes to support a range of vision needs. All grid sizes provide access to the same words, but on grid sizes with larger but fewer buttons, more navigation is needed to access the same words. The button background color can be adjusted globally, as can the page background color. Additionally, button spacing can be adjusted, and also the appearance of the message window can be adjusted.

Proloquo4Text offers a Large Icons option in its Appearance options to make the buttons in the interface larger and easier to see and touch. It also supports changing font size and color and background color on the Text Pad and Quick Blocks. Word prediction font size and color can be adjusted independently.

simPODD offers page sets with different button sizes.

Pictello offers two themes: Wood and Apple. The Apple theme uses high-contrast black text on a white background and removes fine graphic details.

Keeble offers multiple color themes and allows the creation of a custom theme to fully control the contrast between key labels and background.

VoiceOver

All our apps are compatible with VoiceOver.

Speech feedback

Many of our apps offer Text to Speech features. Here, we will focus on those features specifically designed to support users with vision-related disabilities.

Proloquo2Go’s Select on Release feature can speak the touched buttons using a secondary voice (which can be different from the main communication voice). It also provides a basic form of auditory scanning with its built-in switch scanning feature. Proloquo2Go also provides a Speak as Your Type feature when using the keyboard.

Proloquo4Text provides a Speak as You Type feature so that users can hear each letter, word, or sentence as they type to confirm they are typing what they intended to type.

Pictello provides a Speak as You Type feature when authoring stories.

Keeble provides a Speak as You Type feature.

Dynamic Type

Dynamic Type is an iOS and iPadOS feature that allows users to customize the text size across the whole device. Our AAC apps (Proloquo2Go, Proloquo, Proloquo4Text, simPODD) support dynamic type for text in Edit/Customization Mode and Settings/Options. Dynamic Type is not supported in use mode because text size is grid size-dependent, and the apps typically offer finer-grained control.

Proloquo, in addition to what was mentioned above, also supports Dynamic Type for the Message Window when the iPad is used in portrait mode.

Pictello supports Dynamic Type in its Options.

Keeble supports Dynamic Type in the Keeble app, not in the keyboard.

Hearing

Our AAC apps (Proloquo, Proloquo2Go, Proloquo4Text, simPODD) all have a message window to text pad that shows what words have been spoken, allowing users to communicate with someone with a hearing disability.

Proloquo4Text also has a zoom feature that shows the message full screen in a larger font.