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

Wed Mar 5 16:14:35 UTC 2014

Great article, Scott!!  Good to see you here!

(smile)
Darlene

-----Original Message-----
From: nfb-db [mailto:nfb-db-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Scott Davert
Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2014 11:06 AM
To: NFB Deaf-Blind Division Mailing List
Subject: [nfb-db] article: 10 useful tips for braille users of iDevices

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.

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