If you have a braille display with a Perkins style keyboard, you can control your iOS device by entering certain key combinations. I will include a list of these braille keyboard commands. While some of them will work with iOS 10 as well, iOS 11 will allow you to assign keyboard commands where none currently exist, and also change existing keyboard commands.
To assign a keyboard command where none exists, or change an existing keyboard command, go to Settings\General\Accessibility\VoiceOver\Braille.
From there, select more info next to the braille display that you have paired to your device, and then select Braille Commands. Now you will see a list of buttons like Braille, Device, Interaction, Keyboard, ETC. Each one has a list of braille commands that you can see when you click on one. I have included the complete list below; to make it easier to find the command you are looking for.
Customizable Control Center on iOS 11 Beta
In this podcast, James Oates takes a look at the new customizable control center in iOS 11. He shows us how to add items to the control center, and tries out some of the more interesting additions that are now available.
Enhanced Siri on iOS 11 Beta
In this podcast, James Oates takes a listen to the new enhanced Siri voice on iOS 11. He also checks out Siri’s ability to translate phrases into other languages. He then tests out the new type to Siri feature, and talks about Siri suggestions.
VIP: Recapping Apple’s 2017 World Wide Developers Conference
In this special VIP, James Oates, Joel Ramos, Tamas Geczy, and Jessica Rickards get together to go over all of the many announcements coming out of this year’s WWDC.
Listen in to find out everything new that is coming to iOS, MacOS, and Watch OS. There might also be some new hardware announcements as well.
What’s New in Accessibility at WWDC 2017!
Apple conducts several accessibility lectures at WWDC for developers who need to learn the new accessibility features coming up this year, and also for those developers who are not aware of how important accessibility is for the nearly one billion users who have some type of disability.
In this session, “What’s new in Accessibility”, Apple covered several topics.
Spotlight with Brad Turner: VP of Global Literacy at Benetech
In this Spotlight Interview, James Oates sits down with Brad Turner, the vice president of global literacy at Benetech. They discuss:
Samsung SoundAssistant: Customize and Control Sound Output on Your Device.
The Samsung SoundAssistant is an app that allows the user to customize and control the sound output of their Samsung Galaxy phone. You can change the default function of the volume buttons: for example, from ring tone to media volume. You can set specific volumes for each application: for example, your music app can be set to a higher volume than your news media app. The coolest feature is only for the Galaxy S8 for now. It allows you to set different speaker outputs for each app; for example, you can set your music app to play through a Bluetooth speaker, while setting your game app to play through the phone’s speaker.
You can download the free app from the Play Store here.
Out of Sight Games: Fantasy RPG for Blind and Sighted Gamers.
A Hero’s Call is a fantasy RPG developed by two blind people who had a love for gaming before losing their sight. They wanted to be able to play the same kind of games that they use to; so they created Out of Sight Games, which has the goal of developing games that can be played both by blind and sighted people. This makes it possible for blind people to still enjoy games without being isolated from other sighted players. Their first game is called A Hero’s Call. Out of Sight Games is currently running a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for the game’s voice actors.
The Read Read: An Interactive Tool That Makes Learning Braille Easy.
Alex Tavares has developed an interactive device that helps anyone learn braille. Working at Harvard’s Innovation Lab, Alex created a device that uses tiles with braille letters on each tile. When touching the tile, it responds exactly like a touch screen device. The Read Read will speak the braille letter, speak the dots used to create the letter, and even phonetically read back entire words. The Read Read was tested at the Perkins School for the Blind in Massachusetts with very positive results.
I believe this is the first device that allows a child or first time braille user the ability to learn braille in an interactive way without a specialized instructor present.
Android O: New Accessibility Features in TalkBack 6.0.0.
The over the air update for the Android O developer preview has arrived, and there are some very interesting new features for those of us who use TalkBack.
Listen to this podcast to find out what accessibility improvements are on the way.
If you are considering installing the developer preview of Android O, make sure that you backup your device before enrolling in the Android Beta program, and downloading the update. Listen to this podcast on how too backup and enroll an Android device in the Beta program, if you need a step by step guide on how to do it.
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