Equal Access to Speech and Touch Input

A system for providing input access, the system comprising:

• a memory storage;
• and
• a processing unit coupled to the memory storage, wherein the processing unit is operable to:
• display a user interface,
• receive a selection of an element of the user interface,
• activate a plurality of input receiving modes,
• receive an input via a first input receiving mode of the plurality of input receiving modes, and
• deactivate at least one second input receiving mode of the plurality of input receiving modes.

A computer-readable medium which stores a set of instructions which when executed performs a method for providing input access, the method executed by the set of instructions comprising:

• receiving a selection of at least one first element of a plurality of user interface elements displayed on a user device wherein the user device is operative to receive the selection via at least one of a plurality of input modes comprising at least one of the following:
• a keyboard, a stylus, a mouse, a touchscreen, and a microphone;
• identifying a first type of the at least one first element of the plurality of user interface elements;
• activating at least a first subset of a plurality of input modes according to the first type, wherein the first subset of the plurality of input modes comprise at least a speech input mode and a keyboard input mode;
• displaying at least one example input according to the first type;
• receiving a spoken input to the at least one first element of the plurality of user interface elements via the speech input mode;
• de-activating at least the keyboard input mode;
• displaying an indicator that the speech input mode is receiving the spoken input;
• removing the display of the at least one example input from the user interface;
• providing the spoken input to a speech recognizer, wherein the speech recognizer is optimized according to the first type of the at least one first element;
• receiving a recognized input from the speech recognizer;
• populating the user interface element with the recognized input;
• receiving a selection of at least one second element of the plurality of user interface elements;
• identifying a second type of the at least one first element of the plurality of user interface elements;
• and
• activating at least a second subset of the plurality of input modes according to the second type for the at least one second element.