Configuring your Samsung Galaxy S3 for Blind Users – Part 1 – Getting rid of the samsung keyboard in favor of the android stock one

Over the next few weeks I will be documenting some of the changes that every blind
Samsung Galaxy S3 user should consider doing to improve their experience. These include
changing the default input method, installing nova launcher and configuring a number of
other settings on the phone.

First out of the gate is to get rid of the barely functional
samsung on-screen keyboard and replacing it with the stock 1 that comes from google. Unfortunately, Samsung hasn’t made this as easy as they could
because they haven’t left the google input method on the phone. However, this isn’t a complete roadblock, we will download a copy of it and re-install it into the phone.
I am doing this on a samsung galaxy S3 with jellybean installed. If you haven't already
upgraded to jellybean on your S3, do that before continuing

Here are the instructions for changing your keyboard on the
S3 running JellyBean

1. Download the android keyboard file
2. Connect your S3 and copy the apk file to your downloads folder
3. Go to my files,sd card, downloads and double
   tap the LatinImeGoogle_signed.apk file
4. if you haven’t enabled install unsigned
   apps, a dialog will pop up and you need to do the following: click settings, scroll down to
   on the security screen to check “enable unknown apps” and than hit back until
   you get to the LatinImeGoogle_signed.apk file again; and double tap,
5. tap the install
6. when install is done, go to settings, language and input
7. Check the “ android keyboard, english US
8. click default and set this as your default keyboard

Voila, a much
more screen reader friendly keyboard on your S3