[nfb-db] article: 10 useful tips for braille users of iDevices

[Scott Davert]

Last updated on 5 March, 2014 - 09:39. Originally submitted by Scott
Davert on 25 February 2014.

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

Introduction

This post was partially inspired by  This article and others like it
which give general advice about seemingly less known features of an
iDevice. You will also find blog entries on other tech topics
scattered throughout the internet which have similar tips for pretty
much any mainstream type of technology. TO add to this body of
literature, I have compiled 10 useful tips for braille users of the
iPod, iPhone, and iPad below. This article was written with the intent
to provide those who are both new, and more advanced braille users,
with some new and helpful tidbits of information. These tips come from
my knowledge as a braille user of iDevices, as well as from my work in
the field with other individuals who are deaf-blind who also use
braille with their iDevices.

improving the connection process

If bluetooth is enabled, each time you press the Home key on your
iDevice, it will search for other bluetooth devices which it can
connect to. This includes braille displays that have already been
paired. SO to have a greater chance of getting your iDevice and
braille display to start communicating immediately, it is a good idea
to have your braille display on and in discoverable or Terminal for
Screen Reader mode before unlocking your iDevice. As long as the 2
have been previously paired, and that braille display is the chosen
one in VoiceOver, the pairing process should commence very quickly. It
is true that you can sometimes get the braille display to connect
while turning it on with your iDevice already unlocked, but this will
not always be successful.

What's with the funky symbols in iOS 7?

If you are a braille user living in the US, Canada, UK, or any other
country which has not officially adopted  Unified English Braille yet,
you may be wondering what the deal is with some of the braille
translation. The issue is that iOS 7 automatically uses the Unified
English Braille table, no matter how your regional and language
settings are configured. This includes if you had previously
configured a different translation table in English prior to upgrading
to iOS 7. If you wish to switch back to US or UK braille, go in to
Settings, General, Accessibility, VoiceOver, Braille, and then select
Translation table. Select 1 of the 3 choices, and your braille will
switch to that translation table.

Noisy VoiceOver, quiet display

In iOS 7, you can turn off VoiceOver sounds without impacting system
sounds. This is useful if you wish to receive sound alerts about
notifications, but find the clicks and beeps of VoiceOver to be
annoying. There are two ways of doing this. You can either add it in
to your rotor settings with VoiceOver or go to Settings, General,
Accessibility, VoiceOver, and then turn the "sounds" off.

What was that again?

Sometimes, VoiceOver gives you a result or displays information which
flashes up in braille and then disappears. One example of this is with
the  Looktel Money Reader app, another when getting a result with
TapTapSee, and a 3rd in certain hints with  Dice World. Fortunately,
starting with iOS 6, you can read it again if you didn't catch it the
first time. TO do so, press Space with N and you can then review a
history of the last few things VoiceOver sent to the braille display
at your own pace. TO go to the previous item, press space with dot 1,
and press space with dot 4 to advance through the history. When you're
done reviewing these messages, press space with N again to return to
wherever you were in iOS. Note that while you are reviewing these
messages, pressing space with dot 1 or dot 4 will still move the
VoiceOver cursor, so once you press space with N the second time, you
may be returned to a different point on the screen.

Dude, where's my battery life?

Anyone who uses external hardware that connects through bluetooth can
attest to the fact that it is quite the battery hog. Whether that's an
external GPS receiver, headset, keyboard, or braille display. While
logic may dictate that using the Screen Curtain will help save
battery, since it makes the screen go dark, this is not true. The
screen Curtain is, quite literally, a curtain that goes over your
screen and is a VoiceOver specific function. You can verify this by
turning your screen brightness up to 100 percent while the Screen
Curtain is enabled and watching your battery do a downward spiral. You
can also feel heat around the edges of the screen after using your
device with the brightness set this high after several minutes.
Instead, you may have guessed it, set your screen brightness to 0
percent. Just remember to bring the screen brightness back up some
when you wish for a sighted user to see your screen clearly. You can
do this by going in to the Control Center in iOS 7. With earlier
versions of iOS, you can also adjust the screen brightness by going in
to Settings, Brightness and Wallpaper, and then making the adjustment
this way. For even more practical ways to conserve battery power,
please see David Goodwin's article called  Tips For Improving Battery
Life in iOS 7

Hey, what's this button do?

While most modern day braille displays have a Perkins style keyboard
and cursor router buttons, they also have some buttons which make them
unique. They are configured to help make your life easier in various
ways. For example, they may scroll in a certain direction and be
located in such a way that you can operate them while not having to
take your hands off of the display. While the manual, or the various
commands listed on apple.com are great, it's not always convenient to
pull up such a list. Fortunately, iOS has you covered. From anywhere
in iOS, press space with K to activate VoiceOver help. This will allow
you to not only press buttons and keyboard combinations to find out
what they do, but will also let you practice gestures and keyboard
commands that you may use if you have a bluetooth keyboard. These are
messages that flash up, so press space with N like I wrote earlier if
you miss them the first time. To exit keyboard help, press space with
B to activate the back button. You will be returned to where you were
before entering this mode. Note that when there is no message flashing
up, the braille display will still show the last thing that was on it
before you entered keyboard help. This is a known bug that has been
reported.

Hurry up, why don't you?

In iOS 7, there have been many changes to the user interface. While
most of these do not impact braille users directly, there is one that
can affect the performance of your device. This is called Reduced
Motion. Go in to settings, general, Accessibility, and under the
Vision heading, turn on "reduced motion". This will cause less battery
drain, as reported in David Goodwin's article linked above, but should
also speed up your device a bit more, as there is less demand on the
processor when this feature is turned on.

But can do? I don't think so!

Some people may be shrugging their shoulders at the title of this tip,
but anyone who knows contracted braille will not be. For some braille
users, they enjoy using contracted braille, but their typing speed for
inputting this method may be slower than the device likes. If you wait
too long between letters, for example, if you wanted to type out the
word float, you may end up with "fromlikeoathat". This is because
after a few seconds, the Apple braille driver assumes that when you
enter a single letter, you want that to be the one word equivalent. In
iOS 7, there is a feature which allows you to turn off this automatic
translation. GO in to Settings, General, Accessibility, VoiceOver,
Braille, and then turn this feature off. Doing this will make it so
that nothing is translated until you press either space or backspace.
The draw-back to this is that you cannot see words as you type them,
and editing becomes rather cumbersome since you must hit space with
4-5 in order to translate something without hitting the spacebar. So
while this may be a good feature for those who can keep track of what
they're writing, it's a feature I'd use only when writing a document.
You can always re-enable Automatic Braille Translation when you are
editing something if you wish, so it's just another option.
Alternatively, pressing space with G from anywhere within the
operating system will toggle between contracted and uncontracted
braille. While it may take slightly longer to type out uncontracted
braille, you may find that it actually saves you time in the long run
since you will not have to go back and correct all of those
mistranslations. Note that if you choose to type in uncontracted
braille, you will need to use the computer braille symbols for
punctuation marks and numbers such as the period (dots 4 an 6), the
question mark (dots 1-4-5-6), etc. Turning contracted braille on and
off is a feature with all versions of iOS that have braille support.

The braille Master is at the Controls

Also new in iOS 7 is the control center, which gives you easy access
to what Apple feels are essential controls that you need convenient
access to such as wifi, bluetooth, Do Not Disturb, and many others.
While touch screen users must tap the Status Bar and then swipe up
with 3 fingers, a braille user can simply press space with dots 2-5
from anywhere in iOS and be presented with the control Center. Hit a
cursor routing button above the toggles to change them instantly.
Press space with B to exit when you are done with the Control Center

Get notified

Similarly, touch screen only users will need to tap the Status Bar and
then swipe down with 3 fingers to pull up their Notifications Center.
As a braille user, you can instantly pull up your Notifications Center
by pressing space with dots 4-6. As before with the Control Center,
press space with B to exit the Notifications Center.