Accessibility to LG K10

Thursday, 27 October, 2016

By Amóvil

The LG K10 in black

The LG K10 is mid-range affordable smartphone manufactured that is accessible to people with deafness and poor dexterity skill. We were able to review this device thanks to the collaboration of Telefonica Movistar and LG.

Features and specifications

This handset is powered by Android 6 (Marshmallows) and runs on a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor at 1.2 GHz.

Its case is quite elegant, and has dimensions of 146 x 74.8 x 8.8 mm and a weight of 142 grams. It includes a 5.3 inches IPS LCD display with 720 x 1280 pixels resolution protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3.

This smartphone is also equiped with two cameras. The rear facing camera has 13 megapixels. It includes autofocus and LED flash. The front facing camera has 5 megapixels and allows videocalls.

It has an internal memory of 16 GB, expandable up to 32 GB with microSD card and 1.5 GB of RAM. In addition, it includes Wi-Fi direct, assisted GPS (A-GPS) and Bluetooth 4.1.

Accessibility review

When users turn the K10 the first time, they will find an accessibility shortcut that will allow setting the device to their needs and complete the initial configuration process on their own. Those depending on assistive devices such as screen readers have the opportunity to do it without somebody else’s help.

The accessibility menu is quite intuitive. Available accessibility functions are divided by type of disability, which makes it easier for users to select the ones they need.

Vision

The K10 comes with a version of TalkBack that works quite well. It reads aloud most of the available visual content. However, the volume and power key can be hard to handle for some users.

These keys are placed on the backside of the device, just below the camera lens. The power key sits right between the volume up and down keys. When blind people explore this surface by touch, they can tell there is something there. However, they will not be able to readily know what it is. While most can use it once they know what it is, it still might be uncomfortable to handle for some as it is easy to confuse the camera lens with the power key. This is especially true for entry level users.

This device is also unsuitable for users with low vision. The main barrier observed is that size of the text under the icons is too small and can be completely unperceivable for some users. The increase font size functionality does make it any bigger.

However, there are a few other features that might improve the experience of people with low vision. The Touch Zoom for instance allows them to zoom in or out the content by triple tapping the display. They will also be able to adjust the screen brightness to their needs.

There is also an option to invert screen colors. When activated, elements that come by default with a dark background will turn a shade of white that allows reading the text without problems.

Other features available are Color adjustment and Color filter. The first one adds more contrast to screen colors and allows reinforcing yellow, blue and red shades. The latter, lets users with color blindness personalize screen colors to their needs.

Hearing

The K10 is not hearing aid compatible, so we are unable to recommend it to hearing impaired users that wear hearing aids or cochlear implants for they will be unable to use the T setting.

Notwithstanding, it has several features that may contribute to increase the experience of people with profound deafness or of those who do not wear hearing prosthetics. Among the functionalities available are captions for multimedia content, silent mode, mono or stereo sound and sound balance. These users can also set the camera flash to blink when a text message or a phone call is received.

Dexterity

This Smartphone complies with the basic accessibility requirements for people with poor dexterity skills. They can use a widget to pin frequent contact to the home screen. In addition, the backside of the case has a rugged surface that makes easier holding and grasping this handset.

However, these users may also have trouble handling the volume and power keys which, as mentioned earlier, sits on the backside of the handset just below the camera lens and is separated by the power button. People with little strength in the hands or with tremors may have a hard time controlling the volume during a phone call.

The K10 includes several features designed for people with dexterity disabilities. Touch Assistant, for instance, that provides an alternative menu to enable controlling the device with writing sticks.

However, Google Now the voice recognition system that comes preinstalled is not adequate for these users for it does not perform certain voice commands well. When commanding the app to make a phone call, it launches the phone apps but does not open the required contacts forcing users to touch the screen.

Comprehension

We cannot recommend the K10 to users with comprehension users due to a cognitive or a learning disability.

The navigation keys on the bottom of the display have a design that does not comply with accessibility standards.

In addition, some added features designed to improve the experience of these users are not intuitive such as the Touch control area. To activate it, the user must press the volume down key and hold down the Home button simultaneously. This can be difficult to do for some. Having two press more than one key or button at once is not adequate for certain people with disabilities.

However, these users can benefit from the Easy Home mode that offers a simple version of the home screen with larger icons.

For more information about the accessibility of this device, please consult our full report.

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