[NFB-Braille-Discussion] FW: [BDU] My Braille guide has been updated on AppleVis for iOS 26

Fri Oct 10 23:54:18 UTC 2025

From: braille-display-users at groups.io <braille-display-users at groups.io> On Behalf Of Scott Davert via groups.io
Sent: Friday, October 10, 2025 4:15 PM
To: braille-display-users <braille-display-users at groups.io>
Subject: [BDU] My Braille guide has been updated on AppleVis for iOS 26

Hi all.

Just a quick note to let you know I have updated my guide on AppleVis. This is a project that has been maintained since 2011 and was just updated. I've pasted the sections covering Braille Access below. I have also updated the guide to reflect some changes to iOS 26 and have also removed some obsolete information.  I hope this info proves helpful! You can find the complete guide at:

https://www.applevis.com/guides/using-braille-display-ios-introduction

Here's the Braille Access info.

What is this Braille Access Thing Anyway?
Braille Access is Apple's attempt to address the experience of using a Braille notetaker on iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and VisionOS by providing a custom interface
for common functions of standalone braille notetakers. With Braille Access, you can take notes in a braille user friendly way, can perform calculations
using Nemeth code or Unified English Braille, can open Braille Ready Format (BRF) files directly, can access Live Captions of one's environment, and can
watch the time in seconds on demand. Each feature will be discussed below. Note that Launching apps and the Item Chooser are still options for Braille
Screen Input users, but that BSI has not been developed for the other aspects of Braille Access.
The Basics
To activate Braille Access, press dots 7 and 8 together on a Perkins-Style keyboard. For users of QWERTY keyboards, pressing VoiceOver Modifier Shift Y
should enable Braille Access. pressing VoiceOver Modifier with y will enable braille keyboard input, which will be required to interact with some of the
features listed below such as Braille Notes. The user can then move through the menu with standard navigation options. To launch any form of context menu
where available, users can press dot 7. Activating items is done with dot 8. Exiting Braille Access can be done by pressing dots 7 and 8 together, by pressing
space with dots 1-2-5, space with dots 1-2, or VoiceOver Modifier Shift and Y. Note that space with 1-2 (b) also functions as a back button.
Launching apps
Ever since 
iOS 17,
 braille display users have been able to quickly launch apps using dot 8, or space with dot 8 when in 8 dot mode. Then type the app they are looking for
and launch it. While this ability still exists in iOS 26, accessing it has changed. To do so, press dots 7 and 8 to launch Braille Access. You can also
press this command to exit Braille Access. The user will notice the first option "launch app" appears with a blinking cursor at the end. Begin typing the
name of the app desired, and press enter to pull up a list of matches, or to automatically launch the app if only 1 match is found. What has improved with
this option is that it was only possible to launch apps from the home screen in iOS 17 and 18, but this option can be utilized even from within other applications,
so there is no longer a need to go back to the home screen before going to another app.
Item Chooser
The second item under Braille Access is Item Chooser. The Item Chooser allows a VoiceOver user another way to navigate. Instead of exploring by touch or
swiping repeatedly, you can use the Item Chooser to jump directly to what you want. It’s also possible to filter by typing the name of the item you’re
looking for and the list narrows down in real time, making it much faster to locate what you are looking for more quickly. Once you select an item from
the list, VoiceOver takes you directly to it on the screen, ready for interaction. In terms of Braille Access specifically, like the Launch App feature,
Item Chooser has a blinking cursor located at the end of the menu option. A user can type what they are looking for followed by dot 8 and VoiceOver will
jump directly to that element on screen. I personally tend to use the VoiceOver Find function, but having another way to effectively navigate is always
a good thing.
Braille Notes
Though many braille displays on the market have their internal notetaking features, this is a huge leap forward specifically for users of the 
NLS eReader.
 Though this device is distributed to patrons of NLS services freely, it does not have a notetaking application. Whatever code a person throws at it will
see it sent back to them. iOS is recording dot combinations inside these files instead of attempting to interpret them. For example, I wrote out a note
half in mixed contracted and uncontracted braille, and reading it back yielded the same result. Typing in Spanish braille, which has some different symbols
also read exactly as I had written it. Translation only happens if the user wishes to send that composed note to something or somewhere else, such as a
text field outside of Braille Access. Notes are saved on iCloud, though the syncing between other devices on my iCloud account seemed to take much longer
than when composing a note within the standard Notes application. Sometimes, I have also found that notes do not become available on other devices at all.
One of the neat things about this set of features is that the user can also utilize VoiceOver while, for example, taking notes. This requires that the
user can hear, but it allows a user to do research on their iOS Device while also taking notes. Many of the standard commands apply when editing a note.
If the user wishes to send their note to, say, a text field on iOS, this is also possible but will need to be translated. One way to get these notes from
your device to a text field is by copying and pasting them. To do this, while in a braille note, press space with dots 2-3-5-6 to select all of the text.
Now, press space with dots 1-4 to copy it. Unfortunately, there is no confirmation that the text has been copied. Then, press dots 7 and 8 to exit Braille
Access and return to iOS. Find the text field you'd like to paste the text from the note in and then press space with dots 1-2-3-6 to paste the text. It
will translate the note based on your iOS Device's braille input settings. One note, it has been my experience under iOS 26.0 and26.0.1 that to copy and
paste, the setting called "open to last Position" must be turned off prior to starting the copy and pasting process.
BRF Files
One of the challenges with BRF files is that they are designed specifically for braille users to be consumed on braille-first devices. When a user gets
a BRF file and would like to read it on a mainstream device such as an iPhone, it has required workarounds. Either the user must convert the file to a
more usable format on iOS, or use an app which requires other settings to be changed. iOS 26 brings the readability and writability of BRF content to iOS.
To create a BRF file, after launching the feature, press dot 8 or a cursor routing button on "new...". From here, a new file or folder can be created by
selecting file name and then pressing dot 8. Then, the user can type their file. When done, simply press space with dots 1-2 to save the file. It will
then be available after the "new...." option. Pressing dot 8 on a selected file will open the file in a read-only mode. To access the context menu for
any given file, press dot 7 while it is selected. This gives the user options to edit, move, delete, or rename the file. At the moment, the move option
does not work unless the user first creates a folder, based on my testing of 2 different devices, but files can still be moved with the Files app. When
the user presses dots 7 and 8 together to launch Braille Access, a folder will be created on that user's iCloud account called "BRF files.". Any BRF files
put in this folder can then be accessed with the BRF files feature inside of Braille Access. This includes files you have created in Braille Access, but
also those which you move to the BRF Files iCloud folder. I moved 
On the air: the encyclopedia of old time radio
 into the BRF files folder from my Dropbox and was able to load it on my iPhone in approximately 3 seconds. This is quite impressive, as the book is 3.3
megabytes in size. When I left Braille Access and returned an hour later, it had retained my position in the content. Space with f for find works well
and is able to search through large amounts of content quite quickly. While a file is open, dot 7 launches a menu. Options are available to find again
and also to create a bookmark. Note that it is also possible to create multiple bookmarks in the same file.
Nemeth Calculator
Braille Access also has a Calculator which can display Nemeth or UEB math codes. Not only can basic arithmetic be used, but it's also possible to type
a math expression in Nemeth or UEB and see the computed result. For example, the user can use parentheses, fractions, radicals, exponents, constants like
e and pi, and functions such as sin, log, etc. Like with Braille Notes and BRF Files, it's possible to copy the result. The visual interface will render
the math expression you typed in Nemeth or UEB as a visual math formula.
Live Captions
Some may be wondering why there is a specific feature for Live Captions when one already exists in iOS. The reason is that the Live captions function that
has been available previously was not one that suited braille users. IN part, this is due to the fact that each time new text arrives and the individual
is still reading previous captioning, the new text would force the braille display to jump back to the beginning of what they were reading. For example,
if the reader was accessing the 3rd sentence of what someone had said, and then a 4th sentence was added, the user would be sent back to the top of the
text. They would then need to pan all the way back to the sentence they were reading. Meanwhile, if more captions arrive, they would again be sent back
to the beginning of the text. The Live Captions feature within Braille Access, like the rest of this suite of tools, is a braille first environment. After
Launching Live Captions from the Braille Access menu, the user will encounter captions already in progress or "listening". When captions begin arriving,
pan forward or backwards as normal to read captioning. If more captions have arrived after what the user is reading, an 8 dot full cell will be located
at each end of the braille display. Pressing a Cursor Routing button when the 8-dot cell indicators are present will move focus to the end of the captions.
Pressing dot 7 here will also launch a menu giving the user several options. These include pausing/resume, the toggle of listening to the microphone or
device's internal audio, and for those on iPhone 15 or later, the ability to summarize the captions received. Pressing dot 8 while captions are in progress
will give the user the option to make use of the Live Speech function. It's good first step with captioning, but the internal audio captioning does not
seem to be supported in many places. making phone calls, Face Time audio or video calls, participating in Zoom conferenced or Teams meeting and so on will
not permit the Braille Access version of Live Captions to work. The assumption is that they will, since the main Live Captions feature already developed
for non-braille users support these methods as best as I can tell. So there is hope that this version of Live Captions will soon support these mediums
as well.
Time in Realtime
The final feature of Braille Access is displaying the time in seconds. Like I wrote above, it's also possible to leave your braille device in Braille Access
while using VoiceOver's speech to carry out other tasks.

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