Blind Accessibility Keyboard (BAK) is an Android keyboard for blind and low-vision users. Refined over many years together with blind users, it was rebuilt from the ground up in summer 2026: modern, faster, and adjustable in great detail.
Two ways to type, both letting you check a key before it is sent:
- Lift to Type: slide your finger over the keys, hear each one, and commit by lifting it
- Double Tap to Type: the first tap reads the key, a second tap confirms it
1. Setup and settings:
Setup is guided step by step and confirms out loud when the keyboard is enabled and selected.
The settings screen is made for TalkBack: a switch and its label are read as one element, and sections announced with a "Section:" prefix.
Settings can be saved to a file and restored later. A session log can be exported or e-mailed if you need help.
2. Keyboard layouts:
264 layouts are included. For most languages you can choose between Simple (four rows), Fluent Flow (five rows with numbers), Fluent Flow with Cursor (plus cursor keys), PC (Ctrl, Alt and function keys), PC with Num Pad, and Robo Gear (familiar from standard smartphone keyboards).
Hold the space bar for the Quick Menu to switch layouts. The full list of languages is at the end of this text.
The app itself is translated into 30 languages, including Finnish, Malay and Urdu.
3. What you hear:
- Adjustable speed and pitch, with upper and lower case told apart by pitch
- Choice of speech engine, with language, country and voice
- Optional NATO alphabet, so "B" and "D" are never confused
- Spoken names for punctuation, symbols and emoji
- Announcements when the keyboard opens or closes, when you move between letters, numbers, symbols and emoji, and on Shift, Alt or Ctrl changes
- Key click sounds in three styles, with adjustable volume
- Vibration when typing and on gestures, each switchable separately
4. Voice input:
Start dictation with the microphone key or the Quick Menu, and choose between:
- Your device's own dictation
- A model running on your device: no account needed, works offline, though less accurate than the online options
- Popular AI services, using your own API key, stored encrypted on your device only
5. Typing support:
- Auto-correct for many of the supported languages. One Backspace restores the original word. Never runs in password fields.
- Text shortcuts: "brt" becomes "Best regards, Tom". One Backspace undoes it.
- Clipboard history above the keys. Tap an entry to insert it.
- Your own keys for text you often need, such as your e-mail address
- Optional capital letter at the start of a sentence
- Adjustable delay and repeat speed when holding Delete or Backspace
6. Subscription:
BAK is funded by a small subscription. It costs less than the equivalent of one US dollar per month, and follows the local price level, so in many countries it is lower.
It pays for ongoing work: fixing bugs, keeping up with new Android versions, and adding features.
Before subscribing, you can try the keyboard in the test field on the app's home screen. A subscription is needed to use it in other apps.
7. Help and contact:
- https://bright-side.de/bak/
- bak@bright-side.de
The Help section in the app has the documentation, the mailing list, and a way to e-mail the developer.
8. Layouts for your language:
Arabic (also with French), Belarusian, Bengali, Bulgarian (Cyrillic, Latin, Phonetic), Canadian (also French, Multilingual), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English (UK, USA), French (France, Switzerland), German (Germany, Switzerland), Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi (also InScript), Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian (Italy, Switzerland), Kannada, Marathi, Norwegian, Persian, Polish (also programmer), Portuguese (also Brazilian ABNT), Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Spanish (Spain, Latin America), Swedish, Tamil, Telugu, Turkish (F and Q), Ukrainian, Vietnamese.
The keyboard for blind and visually impaired people.