Android app for special needs user

April 11, 2011 5:13 PM

Hide/move taskbar persistently, like locking a phone from a baby? Is there an Android app for that? If not, who would I ask?

My best friend has a client who is a special needs young man. He is extremely limited in his range of motion and is intellectually at about an 8-12 month age level. Last weekend I introduced him to my Xoom tablet and he had a fantastic time playing Angry Birds and Leo the Lion. However, due to his lack of motor control, he exited the games many times and ended up in my email, wifi settings, etc., which upset him.

Is there an app I could use under Honeycomb that would shift the taskbar to the top or hide it and let me recall it with either the sleep button or volume buttons, universally, so he can play games that don't have it built in? I know some of the baby games have such built in, but most of them seem to assume the presence of hardware keys I don't have. I searched the market unsuccessfully.

If such an app doesn't exist, any ideas who I might appeal to about creating one out of the goodness of their hearts or for a nominal fee?

posted by notashroom to computers & internet (3 answers total)

I suspect you might be able to accomplish this using a custom launcher, assuming that the Honeycomb soft menu keys are a function of the launcher. I don't know of any custom launchers currently available for Honeycomb (it might be impossible or at least highly difficult until Google decides to release the Honeycomb source).

A much simpler (and currently available) option would be to use an iPad and simply cover the home button with something flat and hard to prevent the young man from exiting any of the applications he wants to use.
posted by strangecargo at 5:43 PM on April 11, 2011

ADW Launcher lets you hide the status bar.
posted by Burhanistan at 6:35 PM on April 11, 2011

I guess launchers may be my only option right now, aside from possibly using a cookbook holder as a kludgey fix. I'll look into them, thanks.

I appreciate your faith in my generosity, but I'm not going to spend hundreds of dollars on an I pad just so somebody else's kid can play a few games on weekends, even if he is a great kid.
posted by notashroom at 4:38 PM on April 12, 2011