[Pibe-division] Reading iBooks on an Apex Braille Display Follow Up (was: iPad Beginner Question)

[DrV]

Firstly – Thanks to those of you who offered suggestions & insights.

Posed Questions:

1.     Can iBooks be read with fingers on an Apex used as a braille display?

2.     Can any of you explain how to advance pages forward in iBooks using
the Apex as a braille display? (We can move backwards a page, but the "O"
chord on the Apex opens up the BrailleNote Options Menu.)

Answers: In this instance, we ran into a device-specific issue: On an Apex
the "O" Chord (space-O) is a device-specific command function that opens up
the BrailleNote Options Menu.

We’ve learned that the solution is to use a “pass-through command”, that is
– in order to enter space-o, space-e, or other Keysoft commands that work
for other braille display devices, on an Apex you must first press
“enter-4-5-6” to tell Keysoft to ignore the next keystroke. Thus to advance
pages in iBooks on an Apex you need to first press 4+5+6+enter & then the
O-space chord. It works :-)

So far quite a few books including "Brave New World," "Siddhartha," & a
bunch of others are readable on the braille display with VoiceOver program
on (my kids prefer with the sound muted). Some of the younger kid’s books
are pretty cool and have great audio-descriptions of the pictures (ie:
“Reach for the Stars” by Serge Bloch). In other books,
pictures/illustrations are described at the level of “image.” :-(

*** Interestingly, the Spanish version of the iBook “Matilda” by Roald Dahl
reads aloud fine using the Spanish VoiceOver, but appears kind of
gibberishy on the Braille display, yet it reads fine on the braille display
if the regular USA English VoiceOver is on (go figure!)

Pairing comment: Conceptually, pairing is as simple as adding the Apex or
other braille display to the iPad/iPhone/iPod as a bluetooth device.
Practically, however, the initial pairing process can be a bit
tricky/finicky/frustrating, but once the devices have been paired once, the
subsequent pairings are pretty easy.

Observation: A lot the VoiceOver handouts & YouTube videos focus on low
vision interface & applications, & unfortunately aren’t real helpful for us
since my kids have no vision.

We’re going through a learning curve now – the learning curve is steep, but
the kids are finding it exciting (I’m enjoying it too).

For parents & teachers, my suggestion is to start by watching the Apple
VoiceOver Videos, then practice using VoiceOver hand gestures on an iPad,
iPhone, or iPod – it takes some getting used to. Once you have that down,
you can try pairing it with a braille display.

Have fun!

Respectfully,

EricV
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