Speaker: Anne Wilkins

Braille On Display Launch Event (Episode 63)

We are excited to announce the launch of a new eBook!

Whether you’re new to braille or you’ve been using braille technology for decades, choosing your braille display can be daunting. They’re so expensive, there’s so much to consider, and just when you thought you’d investigated all your options, you come across another one you hadn’t heard of before!

Braille On Display has been helping prospective users choose the braille display which best meets their individual needs since 2016, and to celebrate National Braille Week and World Sight Day, we are delighted to unveil the third edition of this comprehensive compendium.

At a special launch event on Thursday 10 October, we heard first hand from its author, Jackie Brown, about what this publication has to offer and what has been added in this brand new edition. Jackie was joined by Jonathan Mosen, an esteemed ambassador from the assistive technology industry, who added his own commentary on the book, and we heard from Braillists Chairman Dave Williams and Trustee Stuart Lawler.

We also revealed details of how you can obtain your own copy of the book, and there was a meet and greet session with Jackie towards the end of the event.

Loading
/

Braille Screen Input: What’s New in iOS and iPad OS 18? (Extra 77)

Braille Screen Input has been overhauled!

iOS and iPad OS 18, released on Monday 16 September, include the biggest refresh of Braille Screen Input since the feature was first introduced in iOS 8. Although you can, for the most part, still use Braille Screen Input as you always have done, the new functionality in Apple’s latest flagship operating systems is a source of much excitement throughout the blind community and will almost certainly take your Braille Screen Input experience to the next level.

Join us in this episode as Matthew Horspool talks us through what’s new.

Summary of New Features

  • New gestures for entering and exiting: double tap the far edges of the screen with two fingers to enter. To exit, pinch outwards or inwards, or perform a two finger scrub. BSI is also still available in the rotor and if this is enabled, the rotor gesture still works to exit, but it does not work if BSI is removed from the rotor.
  • You can now braille a for sign.
  • There are keyboard clicks and haptics during text entry, the same as those for the QWERTY on-screen keyboard.
  • When searching for apps on the home screen, you can now use grade 2.
  • You now have access to a Braille Item Chooser from within Braille Screen Input. It works in a similar way to searching for apps on the home screen, but functions within apps.
  • You can now enter Braille Screen Input automatically when encountering a text field.
  • Braille Screen Input now uses the Braille Table options in Settings, Accessibility, VoiceOver, Braille to determine whether input is contracted, uncontracted etc. Swipe up with two fingers to change braille table.
  • There is a new Command Mode, accessible via a three finger swipe left or right from within Braille Screen Input, or a tripple tap with two fingers at the far edges of the screen from elsewhere. Gestures in Command Mode are akin to braille display commands with the space bar held down, e.g. type the letter h in Command Mode to go to the home screen. You can also move the cursor and perform text selection with one finger and two finger swipe gestures.
  • When using the Braille Item Chooser or searching for apps on the home screen using Braille Screen Input, you can opt to remain in Command Mode when swiping right with two fingers rather than exiting Braille Screen Input altogether.
  • When in Command Mode, if the setting to enter Braille Screen Input when encountering a text box is enabled, VoiceOver will automatically switch from Command Mode to Braille Entry Mode when a text box is encountered.
  • There are new sounds for entering and exiting Braille Screen Input, calibrating the dots and changing between Command Mode and Braille Entry Mode.
  • There is now a setting to determine whether translated text appears on the screen whilst Braille Screen Input is active.
  • All Braille Screen Input gesture assignments, plus the assignments for entering Braille Screen Input, can be customised.
  • Braille Screen Input now supports Japanese braille.

N.B. if the master toggle for VoiceOver sounds is switched off in Settings, Accessibility, VoiceOver, Sounds and Haptics, the new Braille Screen Input sounds will not play.

Supported Devices

  • iPhone 16, 16 Plus, 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max, 2024
  • iPad Pro (M4), 2024
  • iPad Air (M2), 2024
  • iPad Pro 11-inch 5th generation, 2024
  • iPad Air 6th generation, 2024
  • iPhone 15, 15 Plus, 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max, 2023
  • iPhone 14, 14 Plus, 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max, 2022
  • iPad Pro 12.9-inch 6th generation, 2022
  • iPad Pro 11-inch 4th generation, 2022
  • iPad Air 5th generation, 2022
  • iPad 10th generation, 2022
  • iPhone SE 3rd generation, 2022
  • iPhone 13, 13 mini, 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max, 2021
  • iPad Pro 12.9-inch 5th generation, 2021
  • iPad Pro 11-inch 3rd generation, 2021
  • iPad 9th generation, 2021
  • iPad mini 6th generation, 2021
  • iPhone 12, 12 mini, 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max, 2020
  • iPad Pro 12.9-inch 4th generation, 2020
  • iPad Pro 11-inch 2nd generation, 2020
  • iPad Air 4th generation, 2020
  • iPad 8th generation, 2020
  • iPhone SE 2nd generation, 2020
  • iPad 7th generation, 2019
  • iPhone 11, 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max, 2019
  • iPad Air 3rd generation, 2019
  • iPad mini 5th generation, 2019
  • iPad Pro 12.9-inch 3rd generation, 2018
  • iPad Pro 11-inch 1st generation, 2018
  • iPhone XS, XS Max and XR, 2018

Apple Support Articles

Loading
/

Everything you Ever Wanted to Know about Teaching Braille but were Too Scared to Ask (Episode 29)

“Most of us who know braille were taught it.” It sounds like such an obvious statement – so obvious, in fact, that it seems appropriate to conclude that the world has an abundance of braille teachers, and the methods and techniques that they use are mature, uniform and understood by everyone working in the field. Presumably, approaches that work well have been iterated over time, those that haven’t worked so well have been abandoned, and the entire process has been well-documented so that future teachers can learn from the mistakes of the past.

The reality is less clearly defined, although certain concepts which have withstood the test of time especially well have become accepted as common knowledge. Pre-braille skills, for instance, feature regularly in discussions about teaching braille, as do the differences between learning braille by touch and by sight and teaching braille to children and adults.

On Tuesday 29 June 2021, we explored this topic in more detail in a live panel discussion with three braille teachers:

  • Kirsten Roberts is a life-long braille user, a Qualified Teacher of the Visually Impaired (QTVI), and Deputy Braille Tutor for the Mandatory Qualification for Teachers of Children and Young People with Vision Impairments offered at the University of Birmingham. In addition to her university work, she regularly teaches braille to both primary and secondary-aged children.
  • Christine Williams recently retired from Exhall Grange Specialist School and Science College in Coventry, where she held the post of Lead Teacher of the Visually Impaired. In that capacity, she taught braille not only to the pupils at Exhall Grange, but also peripatetically to pupils of all ages in mainstream schools throughout Warwickshire (via the Vision Support Service). Prior to this, she taught French at Exhall Grange for a number of years, where braille also played a significant role. In her retirement, she teaches braille voluntarily at Coventry Resource Centre for the Blind, predominantly to adults who are losing or in danger of losing their sight.
  • Melanie Pritchard has an extensive background in teaching braille to adults, either with visual impairments themselves or who are sighted friends or relatives of people with a visual impairment. Most recently, she taught the Braille For Beginners course remotely for the Braillists Foundation.

Resources Mentioned in this Episode

Loading
/