MIUI 12.5 Accessible Touch: Barrier-free Touch
On December 30, MIUI’s official microblogging online released MIUI 12.5 Accessible Touch feature. Accessible touch is a new interaction method that delivers accurate information to accessible users through the phone’s linear vibration motor. That can effectively improve the operation efficiency of visually impaired users.
Xiaomi is the first cell phone manufacturer to successfully apply a barrier-free touch-sensitive design to an accessible interaction experience. Apple explored earlier in this field, and it is reported that there is no better solution for iPhone in this field.
According to the introduction, the new Accessible Haptics feature released in MIUI 12.5 system clusters interface elements according to the understanding of visually impaired users, giving different types of interface controls different texture metaphors and different intensity levels for easy understanding and memory.
The haptic feedback information can help visually impaired users identify different categories of controls, quickly target elements or key operations, know page jumps, and effectively prevent operation errors, as well as trigger vibrating chimes by double-clicking the lock screen time to facilitate efficient access to information for the visually impaired.
The barrier-free touch function makes the transmission of information more efficient, allows users to operate the system more accurately and conveniently, and brings them closer to the system. More importantly, it helps blind users to continue to complete the operations they want to perform when auditory information is not available. The release of this innovative feature, Accessible Touch, is no coincidence, as MIUI has already started its R&D investment in the field of accessibility as early as 2013, and is currently leading the Android system field.
At present, there are 338 million visually impaired people in the world. Xiaomi continues to continue its investment in accessibility features on MIUI 12.5. It is hoped that the release of the new accessibility touch function will enable the visually impaired people to access information efficiently and accurately, and make the phone also become warm.
It is understood that Xiaomi’s research and development of accessibility features originated from a visually impaired Mi fan’s request for help in the MIUI forum years ago. Subsequently, the Xiaomi MIUI team embarked on a seven-year-long road of accessibility optimization.
According to the official, MIUI 12.5 is lighter, faster, and more energy-efficient. system UI has rewritten, core scenario memory usage down 20%. The system UI has been rewritten and the memory consumption of core scenes has been reduced by 20%.