BrailleTouch is finally released
Contributed by Joel Zimba, Technology Outreach Specialist, MDTAP
About six months ago, we wrote about a Braille entry app for the iPhone called BrailleTouch. As of this morning, BrailleTouch is live in the iOS App Store. It is free to download, but if you want to do anything other than write text and read it in the app itself, you’ll have to upgrade.
The hardest part about BrailleTouch is orienting the iPhone properly for Braille entry. When starting the app for the first time, the screen goes into landscape mode. Put the “home” button on the right. Now, face the glass front of the phone away from you. Place your fingers on what are now the left and right edges of the phone, meaning the top and bottom of the phone in normal orientation. I had best results using the falls of my fingers to support the phone while my fingers were free to touch the screen where the typing action happens.
After a brief description, BrailleTouch is ready for action. In order for VoiceOver to get out of the way and let the app have direct access to the screen, you have to touch the screen once. Now, Braille entry can begin. Typing is going to be quite familiar to anyone who has used a Perkins style Braille keyboard. The left hand will type dots 1, 2 and 3 while the right will type 4, 5 and 6. It’s that easy.
With a bit of poking around, I discovered that flicking right with one finger will type a “space” character and flicking left will delete a character. In order to activate the menu, flick left with two fingers. Remember the orientation in action here. So you’re flicking left in landscape mode.
BrailleTouch is fairly pointless without upgrading, but is a good way to practice Braille for a student perhaps. This is a nice addition to the growing list of ways of entering text on the iPhone. Most blind people I know will most likely stick with Fleksy. This may change as BrailleTouch improves. One of it’s biggest flaws at the moment is that text does not remain in the entry buffer if you leave the app and then return later. Perhaps this isn’t the case if you purchase the app. Grade #2 Braille would also be a welcome addition.
Any number of YouTube videos and podcasts will doubtless be dedicated to BrailleTouch in the near future. I call it a good start, but find it otherwise unremarkable. Stay tuned.
