Podcast: Braillecast

Introducing BUOC: Braille, User-Oriented Code (Extra 80)

The latest in our occasional series showcasing historical braille shorthand codes which you might still find useful today:

Braille, User-Oriented Code (BUOC) was a code written by the late Australian, Rebecca Maxwell, with the support of Australian Braille Literacy Action (ABLA), formerly the Australian Guild of Business and Professional Blind. It was last revised in 1998 and includes a number of useful devices for making braille shorter.

We were delighted to be joined by Jordie Howell, a great proponent of BUOC and a contemporary of its author. Jordie introduced us to the principals of BUOC, described how some common words and phrases can be shortened and explained how we can find out more about this grass roots code.

Find out more on the ICEB Shorthand Codes page

During the session, two books on grade 3 were also mentioned by way of comparison. These books are also available on the above web page in BRF format, and can be obtained from NLS in the US using these catalogue numbers:

  • BRA03950 The Braille Code A Guide to Grade Three Braille for First Year High School Students by Ruth Hayden
  • BRA18832 Key to Grade Three Braille by Lewis Rodenberg
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Untangling the Wires: Why Connecting and Charging your Braille Display with USB Doesn’t Always Work (Extra 79)

USB, or Universal Serial Bus, has been a feature of braille displays for over twenty years. Originally a standard for connectivity, it has evolved over time to also provide power and charging capabilities. However, if USB is supposed to be Universal, why are some chargers faster than others, and why won’t some chargers and cables work at all?

On Tuesday 29 October 2024, we unravelled the answer to this far from straightforward question. Along the way, we covered:

  • A brief history of USB
  • Common USB connecters and how to tell the difference between them
  • How and when the USB cable you use may impact performance
  • What happens behind the scenes when you connect your braille display to a USB charger
  • What to look for when buying replacement cables and chargers
  • Whether or not a power bank is a viable solution for charging your braille display on the go
  • Things to try if your braille display won’t charge

The session was presented by Mobeen Iqbal from Taira Technology, an independent provider of bespoke and specialist hardware, software and support solutions. Mo has over fifteen years’ experience working with hardware of all shapes and sizes, from custom-built desktop and laptop computers to TV set top boxes and remote controls, and has a passion for improving the ease of use of technology for blind and partially sighted people.

Links from Mo

Comments in the Chat from Andrew Flatres

There are trade offs with having replacements batteries. In addition most braille displays have to have a medical certification which also plays a big role on deciding a replacement battery.

EU parliament has voted on a law that will require User replaceable batteries. I believe this should be in force by 2027. From a HumanWare perspective, we want to ensure products have a good life battery span and made light. An approach like the BI 20x where the battery is replaceable but held with two Phillips screw. We also have to consider battery collaboration. To respond to the medical certification, I will try and get a response from our team on this. This is a really good discussion.

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Read Aloud With Confidence (Extra 78)

Reading aloud is a skill that is both terrifying and liberating. Adding braille to the mix presents unique challenges that can often get in the way of recognising significant progress. Along with reading speed and fluency, the one question we hear most often is: “How can I improve my ability to read aloud?”

Building on the topics from her popular masterclass, Revitalise Your Braille Reading Technique, Chantelle Griffiths returns to uncover some of the mystery and magic of reading aloud and to share some tips and tricks to help.

In this masterclass we explored:

  • How a six-year-old Chantelle connected the dots between elephants, cats and reading aloud, and the one word she learned that can help you, too.
  • What reading aloud is not, and why “not” helps a lot!
  • The surprising visual analogy that can improve your reading exponentially, if you choose to see it.
  • The three infuriating words that everyone hates to hear but loves to experience.
  • How moving on is not giving up, but levelling up.
  • The capital B mindset that resets your brain and your reading practice every time.
  • And so much more.

Why not bring along some familiar reading material, electronic or hardcopy, and try some of what you learn with us in real time.

Whether you’re new to reading aloud or you just want a fresh perspective, there’s something here for everyone.

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Braille On Display Launch Event (Episode 63)

We are excited to announce the launch of a new eBook!

Whether you’re new to braille or you’ve been using braille technology for decades, choosing your braille display can be daunting. They’re so expensive, there’s so much to consider, and just when you thought you’d investigated all your options, you come across another one you hadn’t heard of before!

Braille On Display has been helping prospective users choose the braille display which best meets their individual needs since 2016, and to celebrate National Braille Week and World Sight Day, we are delighted to unveil the third edition of this comprehensive compendium.

At a special launch event on Thursday 10 October, we heard first hand from its author, Jackie Brown, about what this publication has to offer and what has been added in this brand new edition. Jackie was joined by Jonathan Mosen, an esteemed ambassador from the assistive technology industry, who added his own commentary on the book, and we heard from Braillists Chairman Dave Williams and Trustee Stuart Lawler.

We also revealed details of how you can obtain your own copy of the book, and there was a meet and greet session with Jackie towards the end of the event.

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Braille Screen Input: What’s New in iOS and iPad OS 18? (Extra 77)

Braille Screen Input has been overhauled!

iOS and iPad OS 18, released on Monday 16 September, include the biggest refresh of Braille Screen Input since the feature was first introduced in iOS 8. Although you can, for the most part, still use Braille Screen Input as you always have done, the new functionality in Apple’s latest flagship operating systems is a source of much excitement throughout the blind community and will almost certainly take your Braille Screen Input experience to the next level.

Join us in this episode as Matthew Horspool talks us through what’s new.

Summary of New Features

  • New gestures for entering and exiting: double tap the far edges of the screen with two fingers to enter. To exit, pinch outwards or inwards, or perform a two finger scrub. BSI is also still available in the rotor and if this is enabled, the rotor gesture still works to exit, but it does not work if BSI is removed from the rotor.
  • You can now braille a for sign.
  • There are keyboard clicks and haptics during text entry, the same as those for the QWERTY on-screen keyboard.
  • When searching for apps on the home screen, you can now use grade 2.
  • You now have access to a Braille Item Chooser from within Braille Screen Input. It works in a similar way to searching for apps on the home screen, but functions within apps.
  • You can now enter Braille Screen Input automatically when encountering a text field.
  • Braille Screen Input now uses the Braille Table options in Settings, Accessibility, VoiceOver, Braille to determine whether input is contracted, uncontracted etc. Swipe up with two fingers to change braille table.
  • There is a new Command Mode, accessible via a three finger swipe left or right from within Braille Screen Input, or a tripple tap with two fingers at the far edges of the screen from elsewhere. Gestures in Command Mode are akin to braille display commands with the space bar held down, e.g. type the letter h in Command Mode to go to the home screen. You can also move the cursor and perform text selection with one finger and two finger swipe gestures.
  • When using the Braille Item Chooser or searching for apps on the home screen using Braille Screen Input, you can opt to remain in Command Mode when swiping right with two fingers rather than exiting Braille Screen Input altogether.
  • When in Command Mode, if the setting to enter Braille Screen Input when encountering a text box is enabled, VoiceOver will automatically switch from Command Mode to Braille Entry Mode when a text box is encountered.
  • There are new sounds for entering and exiting Braille Screen Input, calibrating the dots and changing between Command Mode and Braille Entry Mode.
  • There is now a setting to determine whether translated text appears on the screen whilst Braille Screen Input is active.
  • All Braille Screen Input gesture assignments, plus the assignments for entering Braille Screen Input, can be customised.
  • Braille Screen Input now supports Japanese braille.

N.B. if the master toggle for VoiceOver sounds is switched off in Settings, Accessibility, VoiceOver, Sounds and Haptics, the new Braille Screen Input sounds will not play.

Supported Devices

  • iPhone 16, 16 Plus, 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max, 2024
  • iPad Pro (M4), 2024
  • iPad Air (M2), 2024
  • iPad Pro 11-inch 5th generation, 2024
  • iPad Air 6th generation, 2024
  • iPhone 15, 15 Plus, 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max, 2023
  • iPhone 14, 14 Plus, 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max, 2022
  • iPad Pro 12.9-inch 6th generation, 2022
  • iPad Pro 11-inch 4th generation, 2022
  • iPad Air 5th generation, 2022
  • iPad 10th generation, 2022
  • iPhone SE 3rd generation, 2022
  • iPhone 13, 13 mini, 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max, 2021
  • iPad Pro 12.9-inch 5th generation, 2021
  • iPad Pro 11-inch 3rd generation, 2021
  • iPad 9th generation, 2021
  • iPad mini 6th generation, 2021
  • iPhone 12, 12 mini, 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max, 2020
  • iPad Pro 12.9-inch 4th generation, 2020
  • iPad Pro 11-inch 2nd generation, 2020
  • iPad Air 4th generation, 2020
  • iPad 8th generation, 2020
  • iPhone SE 2nd generation, 2020
  • iPad 7th generation, 2019
  • iPhone 11, 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max, 2019
  • iPad Air 3rd generation, 2019
  • iPad mini 5th generation, 2019
  • iPad Pro 12.9-inch 3rd generation, 2018
  • iPad Pro 11-inch 1st generation, 2018
  • iPhone XS, XS Max and XR, 2018

Apple Support Articles

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The Tactile and Technology Literacy Centre (TTLC), the Aotearoa Braille Music Initiative (ABMI) and Braille Music for Us (BMU) (Episode 62)

The Braillists Foundation prides itself on being a grass roots organisation; led by braille users, for braille users and, by extension, by blind people, for blind people.

The Tactile and Technology Literacy Centre, based in Auckland, New Zealand, has a similar mission to the Braillists, and we find out more about them in this episode.

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The Braille Authority of New Zealand Aotearoa Trust and the BANZAT Braille Transcription Course (Episode 61)

We start this episode in conversation with Maria Stevens, Chair of the Braille Authority of New Zealand Aotearoa Trust. We find out more about the work of BANZAT, the standards it has created and how it is helping to promote braille across New Zealand. We also discover more about the relationship between BANZAT and the Round Table on Information Access for People with Print Disabilities.

Afterwards, we catch up with Chantelle Griffiths, a familiar voice to many Braillecast listeners. She is also a BANZAT trustee and responsible for a new and exciting course to train blind people to become braille transcribers.

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Ari Hazelman on Braille in Samoa (Episode 60)

Last time on Braillecast, we heard from Ben Clare about the challenges facing Pacific Island countries in terms of access to braille, and Ben’s experiences of visiting those countries to deliver training.

One of the larger Pacific Island countries is Samoa, and thanks to a substantial fundraising effort, the Samoa Blind Persons Association were able to send three observers to the eighth General Assembly of the International Council on English Braille, which took place in neighbouring New Zealand at the end of May.

One of those observers was Ari Hazelman, who works as the Disability Inclusive Coordinator at the Association. He spent a few extra days in New Zealand after the General Assembly to find out more about blindness services there, and during a rare break in his busy schedule, he generously agreed to be interviewed for Braillecast.

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Ben Clare on Braille in the Pacific Islands (Episode 59)

Australia and New Zealand are the two most well-known countries in the Pacific Region, the area between Australia and Hawaii. The region also includes many other countries including Fiji and Samoa. Many of these countries are on small, remote islands in the Pacific Ocean. They are difficult and expensive to reach, with total populations often of 100,000 or fewer, and ensuring access to braille is very difficult.

Over the next two episodes of Braillecast, we will be finding out more about braille provision in Pacific Island countries. This episode will discuss the challenges they face and the international intervention which is assisting them, and in the next episode, we will hear from a representative from the Samoa Blind Persons Association about the work they are doing to overcome these challenges.

Ben Clare, from Australia, has had a career delivering blindness education in Pacific Island countries for over twenty years. He is President of the Pacific Region of the International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment (ICEVI), where he also represents South Pacific Educators in Visual Impairment (SPEVI). Prior to this, he spent two years in the Solomon Islands delivering braille training and establishing a Solomon Islands Government Blind Service through The Australian Volunteers Program. His first visit to the Pacific Islands, in 2004, was to deliver screen reader training at a school in Papua New Guinea, through a partnership with the School for the Blind in Sydney. He set off with just a couple of laptops and demo versions of JAWS.

This interview was recorded during the Annual Conference of the Round Table on Information Access for People with Print Disabilities.

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The Braille You Need, When You Need It: A Special Event for World Braille Day (Episode 58)

Braille isn’t just for books! It can also be found on household products and signs; in restaurants, museums and theatres; and your personal and confidential documents can also be sent to you in braille. So how do you find it? Who do you ask? And if you think the braille you’ve found could be improved, how do you make your case without upsetting people?

In this special event for World Braille Day, we were joined by a panel of braille advocates to explore these questions and more. We examined when companies are legally required to provide braille, discussed how to encourage the provision of braille and considered how best to respond when braille is not available.

On the panel:

  • Connor Scott-Gardner (@catchthesewords)
  • Paul Hopkins (@vipodcasting)
  • Siobhan Meade (@blindgirlvlogs)
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