We wanted to find a way to provide greater access to the digital world for non-verbal people. There are people today who rely on Morse code to express themselves. We believed there was an even larger group of people who could find their voice through Morse but are unable to because Morse keyboards aren’t readily available and can be prohibitively expensive.

Big companies don’t usually build these kinds of technologies because they build for many people, but as Tania Finlayson explains, this technology is the difference between a child relying on the 20 words on a word board, and a child who can communicate and express themselves freely. At Google, we knew it was important to build a Morse keyboard because we uniquely could reach mass scale, instantly. By putting the keyboard on the device’s people already have in their pockets - their smartphones, and removing the need to seek customized solutions.

And since there’s a misconception that learning Morse code is difficult, we created a free novel game that makes it fun and easy to learn Morse code (in under an hour!)

Our main priority was to offer solutions to those who truly need it.

Tania, who has Cerebral Palsy and is nonverbal, said that as technology moves forward, it tends to leave her behind. Currently, people with disabilities aren’t seen in society as the true inventors, thinkers, and designers they are. And accessibility is often a checkmark for products, rather than an active consideration from the beginning. We wanted “Hello Morse” to set a new industry standard for inclusivity. Not just by being accessible for people with motor impairments, but by championing a new way of bringing in members of the community and designing with them, rather than for them.

Tania built the product, and Tania’s story is the one we highlight in all our communications. Before, Morse code was not top-of-mind as a viable means for non-verbal people to communicate because Morse code devices were expensive and hard to come by. Families would have to invest time and money just to see if Morse code worked for them. “Hello Morse” brings immediate access to Morse code by enabling it to be in everyone’s pocket.

We knew Morse had the power to transform lives; we just needed to help more people discover it. Tania’s story spreads the word. This product made it accessible.

“Hello Morse” brings a 200-year-old binary alphabet to smartphone keyboards everywhere, providing greater access to the digital world for non-verbal people.

The product is a simple, two-button keyboard that allows users to input dots and dashes to type the alphabet and select helpful text predictions and suggestions. As a result, we’re making typing faster and smarter for people who can truly benefit from the shortcuts this technology enables.

We also wanted to make sure users could customize the keyboard to their unique needs. We decided we would work in tandem with Android Accessibility features like Switch Access and Point Scan. This would provide access to Gboard's AI driven predictions and suggestions, while also acting as an entry point to AI-powered products, like the Google Assistant. The result is an easy and immediate way to try Morse code as a means of assistive communication.

To solve for these challenges, and continue unearthing insights, we realized that instead of falling back on the typical and often short-sighted approach of designing FOR the community, we should design WITH a member and expert within the community. As a result, the project was well received by the accessible tech community who appreciated the “design with” approach and championing.

We continued discovering insights, like the need for settings that allow users to customize the keyboard to their unique needs. We also discovered learning Morse code is a laborious barrier to entry. So, we designed a set of pictograms and a Morse trainer game to make the process easy, fun, and doable.

Morse code changed Tania's life. With the hope that the launch of Hello Morse would elicit similar life-changing moments, we decided that prioritizing individual use cases would ensure the greatest impact and most effective product.

In order to amplify the power of Morse Code, we collaborated with Tania to get immediate feedback and direction as to how to make the keyboard more useful to more people.

Tania emphasized the two main barriers to entry: 1) access to a Morse keyboard and 2) knowing Morse code. Making the keyboard accessible on any Android and iPhone, we could solve the first problem.

In order to address the second problem, we created a set of pictographs for the letters, and then built those into a typing trainer game. With the keyboard and a way to learn - we have the beginnings of an ecosystem, a platform that others could build off of.

Since launching, we’ve been excited to see our partner, Adaptive Design, run a game jam out of which five new games based on Morse code were created for children with disabilities.

Gboard reaches as many as 2B+ Android phones in the world. Gboard for iOS can reach 700M+ iPhones globally.

As TechCrunch wrote in Google adds Morse code input to Gboard, “As with all accessibility features, the more input methods the better. Everything that makes technology more accessible is a good thing.” We reached our scale goals, which were to be easily and freely available on every Android and iPhone around the world, so anyone who wants to be able to try Morse code can.

We’re currently working with organizations in the accessible tech and disability spaces to share the new input method with the people they support and increasing the reach by building a platform to inspire the developer community to build for Morse: from small, fun games and new teaching tools, to fully fledged communication apps based on the ML-driven WaveNet starter code.