Can't scroll using hands - Are there other options?

Question

I am physically disabled. Just got a Vizio tablet this week can do much more than expected using mouth held stylus.

up/down scrolling is a problem. Is there a honeycomb setting or app that will give me "previous" and "next" buttons or scroll bars?

Other ideas welcome.

score 6 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 06 '12 at 12:23

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Some keyboards like Swiftkey have the option to place arrow keys on the keyboard, which will then allow for scrolling on web pages and such. They also have a free one month trial if you want to try it before you spend money :)

answered Jul 06 '12 at 12:23

jlehenbauer

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Hacker's Keyboard with its english completion dictionary is also quite useful, it includes arrow keys and is completely free (and open source as well). It is a full featured 5 row keyboard with many features for power users. You might want to give this a try also. – ce4 Jul 06 '12 at 12:45
That's a nice keyboard, useful for faffing around Terminal, but the arrow keys are a bit cumbersome on 7" tablet. In fact, what size it the tablet in question the OP asked...? – t0mm13b Jul 06 '12 at 17:06
you can resize the keys by the way – ce4 Jul 06 '12 at 17:16
@ce4 ahhhh..... :) thought it was fixed... meh :P – t0mm13b Jul 06 '12 at 17:28

score 6 · Answer 2 · edited Jul 08 '12 at 12:09

You haven't mentioned you Vizio Table version, but assuming that it is Vizio 8 (VTAB1008), I've contacted their support team, through the Live Chat:

Conversation log:

Evan: Thank you for contacting VIZIO Live Chat, the home of Entertainment Freedom for All. This is Evan in South Dakota. Have you ever contacted us before?

Salustiano Silva: Nope!

Evan: To better assist you, I would like to get you registered for technical support so I can log this case. Could I start off by first getting your full address including City, State and zip code (physical address, not PO Box), and then could you give me your serial number, date of purchase, purchase location, and price please?

Salustiano Silva: I don't know if my message was clear, but the VTAB1008 isn't mine, I'm just trying to help out be asking you is such device support any sort of usb keypad devices...

Evan: there is a wireless android based keyboard that Walmart carries

Salustiano Silva: Nice, a light at the end of the tunnel, can you point me in the right direction?

Salustiano Silva: I mean, there's many there... don't know the right one that actually works with the VTAB1008!

Evan: Let me check on this for you.

Salustiano Silva: Thank you very much!

Evan: You are welcome

Evan: Logitech Bluetooth Tablet Keyboard for Android

Model#: 920-003390

Salustiano Silva: Checking it now... As per a more technical issue, using the wireless keyboard, the on-screen keyboard doesn't appear right? Also, ussing arrow keys, we can scroll what's on-screen, am I correct?

Evan: That is correct.

Salustiano Silva: Thank you for your help! I'll go along and pass the message.

Evan: Is there anything else that I can assist you with today?

Salustiano Silva: Believe not! If this works, its all good :) Tks!

Evan: Thank you for contacting VIZIO Chat Support! If you need our assistance again in the future you can contact us by Chat, Email, and Phone service. That information is found on http://www.vizio.com. Case number is 2293020. Have a great day!

Evan has disconnected.

The product recommended is the Logitech Bluetooth Tablet Keyboard for Android:

enter image description here

Can be found at:

Reviews:

As per the chat I'm told that:

the arrow keys can be used to scroll documents, web pages, etc;
the suggested wireless keyboard replaces the on-screen keyboard, thus allowing you to work with it on all the necessary input actions.

I hope this helps you out!

After a large search, I'm really amazed that close to no solutions are found to help physically disabled persons. :( That's when it occurred to me... the Vizio customer support might help...but when the support guy asked for a registration, I was fearing that I wouldn't be able to help out. :) — Zuul, Jul 07 '12 at 20:04
Yeah, its sort of crappy that they ask, name, age, state, code, zip code, registration number, serial number, what-not numbers... it can be enough to drive you up the walls! :D — t0mm13b, Jul 07 '12 at 20:07
but yeah, I am amazed too, I developed a soft keyboard on Android for a mate who is dyslexic, and loved doing that hence my answer below... in fact am putting finishing touches to the source and will be uploading to github for anyone to try :) — t0mm13b, Jul 07 '12 at 20:08
Hard to believe, I did think about text to actions thing, similar to what's already there TTS service (its in accessibility in there in the settings)... — t0mm13b, Jul 07 '12 at 20:09
My email address is on my profile, send the github link when available! I'm interested and curious :) — Zuul, Jul 07 '12 at 20:34

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 06 '12 at 13:53

I have a Targus bluetooth keypad that I can connect to my Tablet/Phone and use it as a number pad. It has a Num Lock switch so it can also be used to input up/down/right/left and PageUp/PageDown.

It however depends on your device if your onscreen keyboard vanishes when you connect to a bluetooth device or not (my ICS CyanogenMod9 does hide the onscreen keyboard).

Price is OK, I got that for around 15EURO. Not sure how the availability is at your place. Just search amazon, et al. but be sure you get a bluetooth model and not one with a USB wireless adapter (like most Logitech accessory).

PS: The media keys also work nicely.

Targus Bluetooth Keypad

t0mm13b · Answer 4 · 2012-07-08T14:44:03.487

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What you're looking for is an overlay with buttons to do the job, from what I can find here, is this, over on XDA. Button Key Saviour. (One Caveat Emptor - you need root - but that's XDA for you)

If this does not do the job for you - please do let me know and I can program up an app that will show the page up/page down keys.

So feel free to contact me anytime :)

Edit: I have amended this answer to include the github linky to the source.

edited Jul 08 '12 at 14:44

answered Jul 06 '12 at 18:33

t0mm13b

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Have cobbled together an app to do it, but there's no way of directing/injecting scroll events into a top-most active window that is currently shown due to the way Android was developed. That is a good thing - to prevent a malware-jinxed app from hi-jacking an app outside of it. But I have the source if anyone is interested in trying to work it out :) – t0mm13b Jul 06 '12 at 23:46

mrYoussef135 · Answer 5 · 2014-12-09T22:15:46.357

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If you are using an Android device , you may check my app "Smart Scroll Tools" , which brings the possibility to start scrolling by a simple click (stylus) on a button; the scrolling continues until you touch (stylus) the screen again, and all directions are supported. Once you install the app , this feature will be available as a system-wide functionality.

Here is the link Smart Scroll Tools

edited Dec 09 '14 at 22:15

answered Dec 09 '14 at 22:10

mrYoussef135

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Can't scroll using hands - Are there other options?

5 Answers5