Talkback and JW Library

Since I wrote a thorough guide to using JW Library with VoiceOver, I thought it might be useful to write my observations about using it with Talkback. I just hope this page will be findable with a Google search since currently no information about JW Library and Talkback can be found that way.

I am an Apple iOS VoiceOver expert not an Android Talkback one, but I have been experimenting with using Talkback on a Google Pixel phone. Talkback has been improving by leaps and bounds in the last couple years, so I no longer find it a useless screenreader. Many tasks you may want to do as a blind person will work quite well on an Android device. It's very good for text, money, and other camera related recognition tasks. It is superior to iOS for NFC tag identification. But this is about using JW Library with Talkback and what I have to say below will quickly show you why I can't recommend it.

This will not be a complete guide or tutorial to using Talkback with JW Library. That is mostly because Talkback doesn't actually work well enough with JW library for anyone wanting to really get the most out of study to be satisfied with it. I am sorry if you are stuck in this situation. I will explain the few useful tricks I have found. It is important to know that I am using Talkback version 15 and have only very limited experience with previous versions.

You can use Talkback to download and read all publications in JW Library. Navigating inside the publications using headings and links works well and all image descriptions are read out.

Talkback doesn't get stuck on the heading at the top of the Daily text as Voiceover has been doing lately. A 2 finger triple tap will read everything as it is supposed to.

Both screenreaders read punctuation that is around links that you'd rather not hear, but that is the nature of the way most screenreaders work.

It is unfortunate that Talkback does not have a verbosity feature to make a sound instead of saying link. I very much appreciate that VoiceOver feature.

The 1 thing that works in JW Library with Talkback that doesn't work with VoiceOver is deleting bookmarks. That is a feature I believe we should all be able to use, so take advantage of it Talkback users.

Serious Talkback Problems in JW Library

The really big problem with Talkback in JW Library is that double tapping a link that opens a scripture or publication reference in the Study Pane is pretty useless. That is because scriptures and excerpts from articles displayed in the Study Pane are all read one word at a time by Talkback. I simply can't comprehend anything read that badly, and I doubt there are many others that could either. I confirmed that this is an issue for all Talkback users, and complained to the JW Blind Helpdesk about it. And Yes, the Study Pane works perfectly fine for VoiceOver users on Apple devices.

It kind of works to use the link at the top of the Study Pane to open the referenced scripture, article, or song in the main window. Unfortunately, when doing that with a scripture focus usually isn't on the correct verse, so it's basically a time-consuming pain to find and read it. It also means you can't hear the scripture read nicely without all the marginal reference letters.

If it is a reference to an article, you usually have to download the entire publication, which isn't necessary if you could only read the excerpt in the Study Pane.

Serious frustration number 2. When you double tap on a verse number in the Study Bible it brings up the context menu with several buttons. They include: Display Study Pane, Parallel Translations, Add Note, Bookmark, Share and a More button. The problem is that Talkback's focus is not placed in that list of buttons. The menu just appears just above the place you double tapped. It tends to be somewhat to the left side of the screen. Sometimes I can find it by finding the verse number I activated and then slightly rolling my finger up from there. It is difficult so it doesn't always work. Again, this procedure is no problem what so ever on my Apple devices with VoiceOver. When the context menu opens VoiceOver focus is placed in it. It even has the words "Study Content" instead of "Display Study Pane" so it is obvious that that is the button to get information on that verse instead of the button that opens the generic Study pane like that button that is alway present at the bottom right of the screen.

Find the Context Menu

I have found a work-around that often, but not always, works for finding the context menu with Talkback. I believe it will only work with recent versions of Talkback.

After opening JW Library and activating the Bible tab, touch the screen with 3 fingers and hold for a couple seconds.

Talkback should say: "Showing English US QWERTY, Screen Search."

Type in the word parallel.

Double tap Search on the right side of the on-screen keyboard.

No results will be present, but that's okay.

Swipe up with 3 fingers to move TalkBack focus to the top of the search dialog..

Double tap the close button.

Now swipe either left or right repeatedly with 3 fingers until you hear "Screen Search." That will mean that TalkBack's navigation unit is set to screen search results.

Now you are ready to look up a scripture.

Once you've found a verse you want more information about, double tap on that verse.

You should hear a little click and thunk that means the menu appeared.

Now swipe up or down with 1 finger to find your previous screen search word, which should be parallel.

If swiping up causes Talkback to say, "No previous result on this page," then try swiping down.

If that causes, "No next result on this page," then everything failed and you should try double tapping on the verse again.

If you hear, "Parallel Translations button," swipe left to the Display Study Pane button and double tap it.

Obviously this method would be unreasonably time-consuming for getting the study content for 1 verse, but it becomes well worth the trouble if you want to look up info on several verses during one study session.

It is also useful if you are going to repeatedly use the context menu for other things like Sharing, Copying, Bookmarking, Etc. I have not found a reliable way to start playing audio at that verse. The Audio option is only present after activating the More button in the Context menu, but after double tapping it, focus on the menu is lost.

You could put Audio in the screen search but it more often than not only finds the Audio button at the top of the screen that plays the chapter from the beginning instead of the selected verse.

If your Talkback doesn't have Screen Search in the Reading Menu

The reading menu is the navigation options you cycle through by swiping left or right with 3 fingers?

You may be able to add that option by going to your Talkback settings.

Tap once quickly with 3 fingers.

When the Talkback menu appears swipe left until you find Talkback Settings and double tap.

Swipe left until you find Customize Menus and double tap it.

Swipe left until you hear Customize reading controls and double tap that.

Swipe through the options until you hear Screen Search and double tap it if it is not already checked.

Now go back several times until you are back in JW Library, and try swiping through the menu options with 3 fingers until you hear Screen Search.

Talkback 15.2

After writing the preceding complicated tip, my testing device updated. I don't know what version of Talkback I was using before, but Talkback 15.2 allowed me to find the Context menu in JW Library much more easily.

I used a 3 finger swipe right to set the reading unit to Controls. Then I found and double tapped the verse I wanted to research. After that I could simply use a 1 finger swipe down to find the Study Pane button. I confirmed it was the button in the context menu by swiping right to the Parallel Translations button and then swiping back left to the Study Pane button.

Believe me, I tried and tried to get that method to work in the past, because I thought it idiotic that Talkback couldn't navigate to a button that was there on the screen just because it was not in the web container. It never worked before.

This new feature did not really help much when it came to getting to the Audio button, however.

Media

The Media player in JW Library works well with talkback. When playing audio the 2 finger double tap gesture will play and pause successfully. Oddly, that gesture does not work to play/pause video. Sometimes Talkback focus ends up on the control that shows the progress of playback which causes it to blab continuously. Just swipe until you get focus on something harmless and quiet.

It is almost better to turn off Talkback while playing a video so that the 2 finger single tap gesture will play and pause it. When Talkback is off and the full-screen media player is openDouble tapping at the left side of the screen will rewind, and double tapping at the right side of the screen will fast-forward. Swiping up will speed-up, and swiping down will slow playback Oddly, swiping left will skip forward to the next chapter, and right back to the previous chapter. That seems backward.

When in lists of publications, especially videos, it can be very helpful to set the reading control to Containers. Swipe left or right with 3 fingers until you hear Containers. Now when you swipe down with 1 finger Talkback will often successfully move through the categories available. It will first say the category title, then the next swipe will go to the first item in that category. Swiping again will select the next category. It really only works well when swiping down not up.

Swipe left to go through the rest of the items in the category. If there are way to many to swipe through 1 by 1, remember that a 2 finger swipe left will scroll a page to the right and say how many there are and which are showing.

My experiments with a keyboard haven't given me any delightful results. I guess a keyboard just isn't as much of a superpower with Talkback and Android as it is with VoiceOver on iOS. My experiments with a Braille display have been even more dismal.

That's all I have to share for now, but I'll add things if I find anything else that seems useful.