Who can benefit from touchscreens as assistive technology
Touchscreen devices are particularly useful for:
- Staff with visual impairments who benefit from pinch-to-zoom and screen magnification, where the standard online settings have not been useful.
- Individuals with physical or ergonomic needs that make traditional input methods difficult.
How to Use a Touchscreen Device
A touchscreen will support a range of gestures and interactions:
- Tap: Select items, open apps, or activate buttons by tapping the screen over the item you want to click. You usually only need to tap once, but some items might need a double tap.
- Swipe: Use a swipe motion to scroll up or down through pages, switch between apps (by swiping up from the bottom middle of the screen), or dismiss notifications.
- Pinch to Zoom: Use two fingers in a pinching motion to zoom in or out on documents, images, or webpages
- Drag: Lightly press and hold your finger on the screen, then sliding your finger to the location you want to move the item to and let go
- Long Press: Access context menus or additional options by pressing and holding your finger on the screen
- Handwriting Input: Use a stylus or finger to write directly into supported apps like OneNote or Word. What you have written will be converted to text.
- Touch Keyboard: Tap the keyboard icon in the taskbar to type using the on-screen keyboard. For some items a keyboard will appear automatically, where text input is required.
These features can improve comfort, speed, and accessibility – especially for users who find traditional input methods challenging.