Speaker: Dave Williams

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.

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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

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The Braille You Need, When You Need It: A Special Event for World Braille Day (Episode 58)

Braille isn’t just for books! It can also be found on household products and signs; in restaurants, museums and theatres; and your personal and confidential documents can also be sent to you in braille. So how do you find it? Who do you ask? And if you think the braille you’ve found could be improved, how do you make your case without upsetting people?

In this special event for World Braille Day, we were joined by a panel of braille advocates to explore these questions and more. We examined when companies are legally required to provide braille, discussed how to encourage the provision of braille and considered how best to respond when braille is not available.

On the panel:

  • Connor Scott-Gardner (@catchthesewords)
  • Paul Hopkins (@vipodcasting)
  • Siobhan Meade (@blindgirlvlogs)
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An Introduction To Arabic Braille (Extra 75)

This session, presented by Saima Akhtar, is designed to give you a Whistlestop tour of the fundamentals of Arabic braille. Rest assured, it’s not nearly as complicated as you think. By the end of the session, you will have more insight into the following areas:

  • The origins of Arabic braille
  • Common misconceptions around the structure and layout of Arabic braille
  • How the Arabic alphabet is constructed (here we will tackle the puzzling conundrum surrounding how to identify consonants and vowels)
  • Next steps for anybody looking to learn more after the session

Please note, it will be much easier to follow along if you have a grasp of grade one English braille as Saima will refer to similarities between English and Arabic braille throughout the session.

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The Best SD Card for Your Braille Display (Extra 74)

Many braille displays include an SD or Micro SD card slot. However, when it comes to purchasing a suitable card, there are so many options! Which is best, and which work with your braille display?

In this session, we were joined by friend of the Braillists Ben Mustill-Rose to help make sense of them. He covered:

  • Technical terms – SD, Micro SD, SD HC, SD XC and card classes
  • How much capacity you need
  • Card readers and adapters
  • Avoiding poor quality cards
  • Unpacking and setting up your new card, including formatting and write protection
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Introducing BrailleBlaster (Extra 73)

According to its website, “BrailleBlaster™ is a braille transcription program developed by the American Printing House for the Blind to help transcribers provide blind students with braille textbooks on the first day of class.” It uses markup from source documents to automate formatting, and provides “tools to make advanced tasks quicker and easier.”

Although it is “Designed primarily for editing textbooks that meet the specifications published by the Braille Authority of North America,” the adoption of Unified English Braile in most English-speaking countries makes it suitable for use in a wide variety of applications in many parts of the world. It is free of charge and compatible with virtually all braille embossers.

On Tuesday 20 February 2024, we were delighted to be joined by two representatives from APH to introduce us to BrailleBlaster and demonstrate some of its features:

  • Willow Free is the Tactile Technology Product Manager and based in the United States
  • Michael Whapples is the Lead Developer of BrailleBlaster and based in the United Kingdom
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Fully Automated Braille Translation with RoboBraille (Extra 72)

Sometimes, you just need a BRF file with no fuss, even though you know it might have the occasional error or won’t be formatted quite as you’d like.

RoboBraille is one solution to this problem. It works with a large variety of file formats including PDF, Microsoft Word and plain text, and converts them to braille within a matter of minutes. Best of all, it’s entirely online, so you don’t need to install anything. You can use it on computers even if you don’t have admin rights, smartphones, tablets and even braille notetakers.

Join us in this episode to find out:

  • When is fully automated translation appropriate (and when is it not)?
  • Translating files through the robobraille.org website
  • Translating files by emailing RoboBraille
  • How to evaluate the output
  • Where to find help
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Cheers Volunteers 2024 (Extra 70)

A message from our Chairman, Dave Williams, to thank our many volunteers this National Volunteers Week.

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Adding Your Own Contractions to Your Screen Reader Using Liblouis (Extra 65)

Many screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA, make use of the popular, open source Liblouis braille translation engine as part of their braille display support. In this session, we explained and demonstrated how to harness the power of Liblouis braille tables to implement additional contractions in your screen reader of choice.

If you use a long word regularly and find it is taking up too much space on your braille display, this is the session for you! It also serves as a brief introduction to Liblouis translation tables in general.

The session was presented by James Bowden. In addition to his work as Braille Technical Officer at RNIB, James is also the Chair of the Braille Technology Committee of the International Council on English Braille, and is the primary developer of the default UEB translation table in Liblouis. Over many years, he has not only added new symbols to the UEB tables, but has also corrected numerous errors with existing contractions, and he actively contributes to discussions about the future development of Liblouis.

Please note: although we did our best to present the concepts in this session in as simple and straightforward a way as possible, modifying Liblouis tables involves advanced file and folder manipulation, administration rights and working with computer code in a text editor. You do not need to be a computer programmer in order to benefit from this session, but it is best suited to people with intermediate to advanced computer knowledge.



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The New Braille Features in iOS 16 and 17 (Extra 63)

iOS 17 was released last September, bosting a number of significant braille enhancements. In this Masterclass, we were joined by Scott Davert to find out more.

Scott is well regarded in the blind community as an expert in braille on iOS. He regularly contributes braille-related content to the AppleVis website, and presented a series of three Masterclasses introducing us to braille on iOS in 2022.

This was an extensive presentation followed by your questions. We also covered some of the new braille features in iOS 16 which have not been covered in other sessions.

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