Switch Access Settings

Help

Help & Feedback

From the Help & Feedback tab you will see a list of written tutorials and steps to set up, use, and customize your Switch Access experience.

Open Setup guide

Before you continue with the set up guide you must first turn on Switch Access.

From here you will have three options to Choose Switch Type:

• USB Switch

  • Choose this option if  you have a switch device that connects to your phone using a USB Cable (usually the cable you use to charge your phone with).

• Bluetooth Switch

  • With a bluetooth enabled switch you can connect your switch to your phone wirelessly using Bluetooth.

• Camera Switch

  • Using Camera Switch will enable you to use facial expressions as a switch for your phone using your Pixels camera.

Camera Switch/Camera Switch Settings

To turn on Camera Switch, turn on the switch next to where it says Use Camera Switches.

Face Gesture Settings

To use Camera Switch you will be able to use and customize the following face gestures which will all start and end with your resting face:

• Open Mouth

  • Open your mouth then back to your resting face.

• Smile

  • Smile then back to your resting face.

• Raise Eyebrows

  • Raise both of your eyebrows then back to your resting face.

• Look Left

  • Look left off the screen then back again.

• Look Right

  • Look right off the screen then back again.

• Look Up

  • Look up off the screen then back again.

When you tap on any of these gestures you can then customize specifications for each gesture. You can also test out your customized facial expression gesture with the test area at the top of each gesture screen. You must have Camera Switches enabled to test your gestures.

Gesture Size

From here you can adjust how big or small your gesture is before your camera recognizes your facial expression.

To adjust the size of your gesture, simply drag the slider left for a smaller gesture or right for a bigger gesture. You can also click on the tabs that say Smaller and Bigger. 

Gesture Duration

Gesture duration will dictate how long you’ll need to hold the facial gesture for your camera to recognize your gesture to perform an action. If you continue to hold the gesture, the action will be repeated unless you choose the Shortest Hold option below.

• Shortest Hold
  • This will be the shortest amount of time that you need to hold a gesture before it is recognized which is very short, less than a tenth of a second.
• 0.10 Seconds
• 0.25 Seconds
• 0.50 Seconds
• 1.00 Seconds
• 2.00 Seconds
• 0.25 Seconds
• Enter Custom Time

Set Assignment

This will set a new action for this gesture. The following actions you have to choose from are:

• None
• Pause Camera Switch
• Auto-Scan
• Reverse Auto-Scan
• Select
• Next
• Previous
• Touch & Hold
• Scroll Forward
• Scroll Backward
• Home
• Back

Then click on Save when you’ve chosen an action for this gesture.

Additional Settings For Camera Switch

These are some more settings that may enhance your experience with Camera Switch.

Enhanced Visual Feedback

With enhanced visual feedback you will get a visual indication of how long you have held a gesture.

Enhanced Audio Feedback

This will play a sound when something on your phone screen changes in response to a gesture.

Keep Screen On

This will keep your screen on when Camera Switches is enabled. Camera Switches cannot unlock the screen if it turns off.

Ignore Repeated Camera Switch Triggers

From here you can customize the duration of time that your phone will ignore gestures.

Assign Switches

From here you can choose which switches or keyboard keys perform each action. You can change your switch assignments at any time. You can assign actions for both camera and external switches for all of the following categories with the exception of Pause Camera Switch which is specific to Camera Switches.

Assign Switches For Scanning

Camera Switches Specific

• Pause Camera Switch

Movement & Selection

• Auto-Scan
• Reverse Auto-Scan
• Select
• Next
• Previous

Actions On Highlighted Items

• Touch & Hold
• Scroll Forward
• Scroll Backward

Then to set an action for a switch follow these instructions:

• On the Switch Access settings screen, select Assign switches for scanning.
• Select the action that you’d like to assign. The dialog displays the switches already assigned to the action.
• To add or remove a switch, press it.

Assign Switches For Global Actions

Camera Switches Specific

• Pause Camera Switch

Global Action

• Back
• Home
• Notifications
• Quick Settings
• Overview

Then to set an action for a switch follow these instructions:

• On the Switch Access settings screen, select Assign switches for scanning.
• Select the action that you’d like to assign. The dialog displays the switches already assigned to the action.
• To add or remove a switch, press it.

Assign Switches To Shortcuts

Once you have set up your Switch device you can set up and record your own shortcuts to make navigation on your phone easier.

Additional Help

You will not see this section in your phone. I just thought I’d add it as it may provide a little extra help.

Assign multiple switches to an action

You can press multiple keys or switches to assign all of them to an action. This option can be helpful if you use a standard keyboard as your switch and you want the entire keyboard to act as a single switch.

Assign a Previous switch

A Previous key or switch reverses your last scanning choice. It only affects the highlight of items on the screen. If you use step scanning, Previous moves your highlighting in the opposite direction from Next. If you use group selection, Previous will undo your last highlighted choice.

Tip: Previous does not undo actions, such as opening an app.

Assign a Reverse auto-scan switch

If you use auto-scan and you want to add a second switch to change the direction of the scan, set up Reverse auto-scan.

Assign switches for actions on the highlighted item

Actions on the highlighted item include Scroll forward, Scroll backward, and Touch & hold.

Tip: If you use group selection with more than 2 switches, these actions don’t work consistently because multiple items can be highlighted at once.

Menu Customization

Enable Menu Customization

When you Enable Menu Customization, it allows you to change what appears in the Switch Access global menu. If the toggle is off, your changes don’t update in the global menu.

Revert To Default Menu

If Enable Menu Customization is toggled to “on,” then the items in the Switch Access global menu might’ve been moved or hidden from their default positions. To undo these changes and restore the global menu to its default state, select Revert to Default Menu.

Customize Scanning

Your scanning method is the way Switch Access moves the highlight across your screen. You can choose from the following options. 

Auto-scan

Auto-scan automatically moves the highlight through the items on the screen until you make a selection. To start the scan, press the switch twice to select the highlighted item.

Auto-scan settings include the following:

• Auto-scan time

  • Choose how many seconds the highlight stays on each item.
  • Delay on first item

• Delay on first item

  • Choose an additional time delay to wait on the first item before you move the highlight. This delay is added to your auto-scan time. A longer delay can help you get oriented on a new screen before the scan starts.

Note: The changes made in this setting will change the same setting under “Point scan.”

• Number of scans

  • Choose how many times auto-scan repeats.

Scanning Method

With scanning method you can choose from a few options to scan your screen.

• Linear Scanning (Except Keyboard)

  • This is the default scan method. The highlight moves through items on the screen one at time.

Tip: If you choose this option, row-column scanning is used for keyboards.

• Row-Column

  • The highlight moves through the screen one row at a time, until you select a row. Then the highlight moves through each row item at a time. This method is often faster than linear scanning.

• Group Selection (Advanced)

  • This option is only available if Auto-scan is off.

Note: On some devices this is called “Option scanning.”

Point scan

Point scan lets you choose a specific place on the screen to tap, swipe, or zoom, if applicable. Lines move across your screen to let you specify a horizontal and vertical location. Point scan settings include the following:

• Line Speed

  • This setting only applies to Point Scan, and this will determine the speed at which the scanning lines move. Enter a speed in density-independent pixels (dp) per millisecond.

• Delay On First Item

  • This option will allow you to choose how many seconds to wait on the first item before starting scanning. A longer delay can help you get oriented on a new screen before scanning starts.

Note: The changes made to this setting will change the same setting under “Auto-scan.”

• Number Of Scans

  • Choose how many times the point scan repeats.

Note: The changes made to this setting will change the same setting under “Auto-scan.”

• Vertical Scans

  • Vertical scan will start from the top of your device and scan down to the bottom of the screen.

• Horizontal Scan 

  • Horizontal scan will start from the left side of your device and scan to the right.

Automatically Start Scanning

When this is toggled on, you don’t have to press a switch button to start scanning. Toggle this off if you would prefer to use a switch.

Auto-Select

When this is toggled on, the highlighted item will automatically be selected. When this is toggled off you will be given a menu with available actions.

Display & Sound

Scanning Highlight Style

From here you can customize the highlighted part of your screen to gear it to your needs and preferences.

• Highlight Color

  • You can choose the color of the highlighted box. The colors you can choose from are Green, Orange, Red, Blue, and White.

• Highlight Line Style

  • Thin Solid Line
  • Medium Solid Line
  • Thick Solid Line

Speech Sound And Vibration

From this tab you can activate spoken feedback with items that have available actions and descriptive texts. You can also alter some sound and vibration settings from here.

Spoken Feedback

Spoken feedback will read aloud content on the screen. Toggle the switch for spoken feedback on to change that following settings.

Speak Descriptive Text

When this is toggled on you will hear spoken feedback for items with available actions and descriptive text.

Verbosity

From here you will see some quick settings for Verbosity that you can use with Switch Access. Click on the link to learn more about Verbosity and TalkBack.

• Keyboard Echo
• Speak Selected Item Or Group
• Speak First And Last Item
• Speak The Number of Items
• Speak All Highlighted Items

Text-To-Speech Output

For more on Text-To-Speech click on the Link.

Auto-Scan

Here are  a few of the Auto-Scan settings.

Finish Speech Before Moving

When this is on, the entire descriptive text will be spoken before your phone continues scanning.

Maximum Spoken Time Per Item

From here you can change the amount of time spoken feedback will describe an item before moving on the the next one.

Other Feedback

See Sound & Vibration for more about these settings.

Switch Accommodation

Ignore Repeated Presses

This will allow your phone to disregard taps after the initial tap and you can set a limit on how long they are ignored.

Release To Perform Action

When this is on an action will be performed when the switch is released instead of when the switch is pressed.