Day 50: Refreshable Braille Displays

Published on 19 Jan 2019

• journal
• resources
• was
• assistive-tech

Today marks my halfway point in learning. 50 days down (total of 72 hours study time), 50 more to go! So far, I've managed to cover swaths of WCAG, ARIA, and ATAG documentation. Additionally, I've learned about JavaScript techniques to better support screen readers when it comes to custom widgets. During this time, I've also managed to experiment with some of the popular screen readers (VoiceOver, NVDA, and TalkBack).

On that note, I'm curious about braille output. I'm very familiar and comfortable with speech output from screen readers, but am less so with refreshable braille displays. Unfortunately, I don't currently have access to a refreshable braille display (not that I could read it, even if I did), but that won't stop me from learning about them online.

Watched on YouTube:

• Refreshable Braille Display and the iPad

• Use your refreshable braille display with Narrator on Windows 10

• What is REFRESHABLE BRAILLE DISPLAY? What does REFRESHABLE BRAILLE DISPLAY mean?

• Refreshable Braille Display

Read:

• Using Braille Displays (Apple)
• The State of Refreshable Braille Support (NFB)

• Refreshable braille displays come in many shapes and sizes, some with input options, too!
• Refreshable braille displays can be hooked up wirelessly, like to an iPad, but not all computers/devices support wireless connection.
• One-line braille displays can greatly limit how information is conveyed to a user; spatial information given in tables and charts can be especially challenging.
• Android support for Braille is BrailleBack.
• Braille comes in two forms: contracted and uncontracted. Contracted is more advanced and allows for shorthand, of sorts, like abbreviations and contractions.