The Galaxy A3 is a mid-range Smartphone, belonging to Samsung’s Galaxy Alpha series. It includes several state of the art features, and is accessible to people with profound deafness, vision impairments, dexterity disabilities and limited comprehension skills. Amóvil has been able to review this device, thanks to a loan by Samsung Spain.

General features and specifications

The Galaxy A3 weighs 110 grams and is housed in an elegant unibody casing made of glass and metal that measures 130.1 x 65.5 x 6.9 mm. The display is a 4.5 inches Super AMOLED panel with 540 x 960 pixels resolution protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 4.

Powered by Android 4.4 KitKat, this handset runs on a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor at 1.2 GHz. It is also equipped with two cameras: one located on the rear side with 8 megapixels, and another on the front with 5 megapixels.

Regarding connectivity, it includes NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, and Wi-Fi support, among others. Additionally, it comes with A-GPS and Beidou, a satellite-based navigation system.

Accessibility review

Accessibility menu

Upon powering up the A3 for the first time, a shortcut to the accessibility menu will appear on the screen. Such menu is divided into types of disability which are: vision, hearing, dexterity and interaction, and more settings. An interesting option included under “more settings” is Manage accessibility that allows users to import their own settings or share them with other devices.

Vision

The Galaxy A3 ships with a version of TalkBack that reads blind users through the entire visual content. However, a minor problem observed is that it fails to convert abbreviations into full words. Instead, it reads them as they are which may render the text confusing to some blind users.

Hoowever, a feature that may improve the experience of blind people is the possibility to keep the screen turned off at all times. They will also be able to configure the keyboard in order to enter the text by tapping the keys once instead of double tapping.

The Galaxy A3 is also accessible to people with low vision. It allows to change the size of the text and to customize the screen brightness. Besides including a screen magnifier, it comes with a magnifier window that can easily be moved around the display with one finger. Users can also set the zoom percentage that suits them best.

In addition, the screen can be converted into grayscale and negative modes. The negative mode reverses background and foreground colors to improve legibility for users who are color blind or have a high sensitivity to light. This feature works in external website as well.

Another interesting feature is color adjustment that changes the colors of the display into more recognizable colors. For this feature to work users must take a short test after activating it in the accessibility menu. Depending on results, the device will decide whether the colors should be adjusted.

Hearing

Samsung provides no information on the Galaxy A3’s Hearing Aid Compatibility Rating, so Amóvil is unable to recommend it to hearing aid and cochlear implant users. However, it is suitable for Deaf or hard of hearing persons that do not wear hearing prosthetics. The smartphone supports instant messaging and videocalls.

The handset can be muted with one single tap and the camera flash can be set to blink when a new notification or call enter. These users will also be able to activate subtitles when watching videos, adjust the sound balance when using headphones and activate the auto haptic to set the phone to vibrate when listening to music, watching videos or playing games.

An additional feature included designed improve the lives of people with hearing impairments is sound detector. This feature sets the device to vibrate when a baby cries or the doorbell rings. However, for this feature to work correctly the device must be placed in a silent environment. A common problem among people with hearing disabilities, particularly among those who are hard of hearing, is the inability to tell one sound from another when they are in noisy environments. So, it would be more beneficial for them if this feature were capable of detecting the cry of a baby or the doorbell when background noises are present.

Dexterity

The Galaxy A3 is suitable for users with dexterity disabilities. It is rather lightweight and easy to hold. Also, physical buttons are easy to press and cables can be plugged and unplugged without much effort.

However, inserting the SIM and the SD card may be a task nearly impossible to do for some people, particularly those with tremors in the upper limbs or with vision impairments for it requires using a special tool that must be inserted into a tiny hole.

Samsung’s voice recognition system, the S Voice, meets the basic accessibility requirements. However, while users can use voice commands to launch some system features and menus, they will not be able to control the device completely hands-free. For instance, they will not be able to launch specific accessibility options through S Voice.

Other options designed to improve the experience of people with dexterity disability are the following:

• Assistant Menu - this feature allows controlling the phone using hardware buttons or assistive devices such as styluses, mouth sticks or head wands. When activated, a floating icon will appear on the right side of the screen providing an alternative way to interact with the touchscreen.
• Universal Switch – it scans and highlights the icons in the display and then reads them aloud. It also offers an option to control the touchscreen making head movement. Although this feature is quite interesting and can improve the experience of users with severe dexterity disabilities, it didn’t work as expected during the tests.
• Gesture wake-up – it turns the screen with the movement of a hand above the display.

Comprehension

The Galaxy A3 is accessible to people with limited comprehension skills and cognitive disabilities. Icons comply with accessibility standards. In addition, the device provides an option to simplify the Home screen by selecting the Easy mode. The screen will display a simpler layout and bigger icons.

People with concentration issues can activate the interaction control mode that turns off alerts, notifications and other inputs while using apps.

A downside, however, is the fact that the A3 does not include an assistant that will guide users through the configuration process and teach them how to make common gestures, such as swiping or sliding.

For more information on the Galaxy A3 accessibility features, please consult the full accessibility report.