Author: AccessAbility Smyles

Voice controlled devices have a powerful role to play in bringing Assistive Technology to mainstream public use. Although their functions are similar and overlap simultaneously they are different as well. For instance the Amazon Echo Dot coming from a media platform in Amazon is better at dealing with things like audiobooks and finding out skills you can use your device with. By contrast Google coming from a system operating system background is better at doing tasks like making a phone call, which the Echo Dot is not as good at ( though using Skype you can do similar things.) Both devices control smart appliances but this area has not been investigated by me yet.

In order to do a comparison between the devices I have laid out my findings in a question and answer format using tables for easy comparison. My conclusion is that both devices might be needed in certain circumstances eg for the totally blind. I am looking at both devices from the point of view of disability and how accessible they are. And I am always learning new things so this will be a growing resource as more is discovered. I have also included the TV control devices – for Google Home Mini the Chromecast device and for Amazon Echo Dot the Firestick TV device.

If you want this as a PDF click Google Home Mini v’s Amazon Echo Dot

So here is my comparison:-

1. How easy is it to setup the devices?

2. How extensive is the range of things you can do?

3. Are the things you can do free?

4. What about streaming TV?

5. How accessible for the blind is the streaming TV?

6. Can you make phone calls?

7. Can you email?

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8. How much are the various devices needed?

       9.What Smart Home Devices do they support?

9. Which is the best system for accessibility and function and why?

This past week I have managed to successfully connect up a Google Home Mini to make voice activated  calls to landlines and mobiles. I am still not sure how it does this but it did work for my client. The client has been waiting for Amazon to produce their Echo Connect. It was  going to be autumn this year but nothing has appeared. We are still waiting. So when I heard that only this week in the UK they had made Google Home able to make (apparently) free phone calls to landlines and mobiles I thought this would solve my blind clients problems. And I am pleased to say it did!

Although I did find it difficult to add contacts . None of the instructions tell you this in the app or on the website. But it is working through Google Contacts which is via your google account. What is so cool is that my client has a kind of Verbal Aphasia which means she doesn’t get the right sounds for the words she wants to use which makes a voice activated device really, really hard to use. But the beauty of the Google Home Mini is that it actually allows you to create a custom label for

contacts which  then connects via Google Search to actual real details of that person as listed by Google. Really neat, eh? And such a boom to those who may for various reasons such as Stroke or Parkinson’s cannot say the right word. Fascinating!

Here are some helpful notes which does explain how to make contacts, but also other useful things like showing your number to your caller so they know its you,

Google Home Mini helpsheet

Today I purchased a Google Chromecast so I could try the voice control of netflix. Using the command ” play the crown on netflix” gets the Chromecast to play the chosen item. Only some items have audio description and this has to be pre-activated by a sighted person to get it to speak in audio description. My client requested the menu to be spoken but the Chromecast and the Echo Dot both can’t do that. This would be a fantastic feature to add to the device, Still what do you expect for £30! So for less than £60.00 you can have a tool that makes phone calls and control and run movies, some with audio description,