Pairing a Refreshable Braille Device iOS 8
iFocus Program
Tips on Using the
Vision Accessibility Features in iOS:
Pairing a Refreshable Braille Device iOS 8
Presented by
Douglas Walker
The Hadley School for the Blind presents iFocus: Tips on Using the Vision Accessibility Features in iOS. In today’s installment, we’ll look at pairing a refreshable Braille device. Hello, my name is Douglas Walker and I am an instructor of Assistive Technology here at the Hadley School for the Blind. Today we are going to be looking at pairing a refreshable Braille device. We’re using the iPhone 5S for today’s demonstration and we’re running software version iOS 7.1.2.
Today, we’re going to be pairing a refreshable Braille device with our iPhone. Now for those of you that don’t know, a refreshable Braille device gives us the ability to totally control our iDevice by using Braille input keys. It also gives us the ability to electronically read Braille directly from our iDevice. And since there’s no USB connection on an Apple product, this is done using a Bluetooth connection. Now Bluetooth gives devices the ability to communicate with one another wirelessly, so we don’t need any wires or cables to connect our devices and that is pretty cool.
Alright, so now we’ll need to have voiceover running which is Apple’s screen reading software because voiceover serves as our Braille translation software. Now for today’s demonstration, we’ll be using a refresher Braille 18 from the American Printing House for the Blind. Now there are several other fantastic refreshable Braille devices out there to choose from. However, you’ll find that the pairing process is going to be very similar for most of the refreshable Braille devices that are currently on the market.
Alright, so let’s go ahead and get started. So in front of us, we have an iPhone 5S and our refreshable Braille device. Now we’ve learned a lot of things through trial and error that might make pairing our device just a little bit easier. One thing that we’ve learned is that it’s best to have the Bluetooth on our iDevice turned on before we began pairing. Now if we don’t already have it turned on, we’ll receive a popup menu in our voiceover settings menu and be prompted to turn it on when we go into our Braille settings.
However, our Braille device is much more likely to pair if we already have our Bluetooth turned on. So let’s go ahead and go to our settings menu and turn our Bluetooth on first. Alright, so we need to activate
our settings menu so we’ll just find our settings and then single-finger double tap to open it.
iPhone Audio
Settings, double tap to open.
Douglas Walker
And there’s our settings and we’ll just single-finger double tap anywhere on the screen.
iPhone Audio
Settings.
Douglas Walker
Alright, so we’re in our settings so we’ll just right-flick until we find Bluetooth in our settings list here. So I’ll keep right-flicking down the page or to the right here.
iPhone Audio
Airplane mode, off. Wi-Fi, Doug’s Wireless.
Douglas Walker
I’m flicking to the right.
iPhone Audio
Bluetooth off button.
Douglas Walker
Right, and there’s our Bluetooth, so we’ll just single-finger double tap to activate our Bluetooth button and we’ll have our Bluetooth list opened up here.
iPhone Audio
Bluetooth settings back button.
Douglas Walker
Alright, so now we’ll just right-flick until we find our Bluetooth off button. So I’ll right-flick to the right here.
iPhone Audio
Bluetooth heading. Bluetooth off. Double tap to toggle setting.
Douglas Walker
And it’s off right now and it’s a toggle switch so it actually told us that we could double tap to turn it on. So we’ll just single-finger double tap.
iPhone Audio
Bluetooth on.
Douglas Walker
Alright, great. So our Bluetooth is now turned on so we should be good to go. Now again, you would have been prompted to turn it on if you were to have gone on into your Braille settings. However, we found that pairing is much more likely to be successful if we go ahead and turn our Bluetooth on first. Okay, so let’s back out of our Bluetooth settings here…
iPhone Audio
Settings heading.
Douglas Walker
I’m back in our content or general list here. And we’ll just press our home button to return to our desktop here.
iPhone Audio
Home settings. Double tap to open.
Douglas Walker
Okay, so another thing that we’ve learned is that the refreshable Braille device likes to be turned on for at least 15 seconds or so before we actually turn on our iDevice. Now this is even after we’ve paired the devices, and I’ve been told that this has something to do with the responsiveness of the Bluetooth radio button that’s in most Braille devices. So we’ll go ahead and tap our lock screen on our iPhone to put our iPhone to sleep here so I’ll go ahead and tap that lock.
iPhone Audio
Screen lock.
Douglas Walker
And then we’ll go ahead and turn on our refreshable Braille device here, so I’ll go ahead and turn that on. And it’s now on and I can see our Braille up here. Alright, so now we’ll need to turn on our Braille settings to be able to pay are our devices, and our Braille settings are under voiceover which are under accessibility. Okay, so it’s been about 15 seconds so we’ll go ahead and wake up our iPhone and then head to our settings menu again. So I’m going to go ahead and wake up our iPhone.
iPhone Audio
Notes. Double tap to open.
Douglas Walker
So we’ll go ahead and touch our settings menu here.
iPhone Audio
Settings. Double tap to open.
Douglas Walker
And we’ll just single-finger double tap to open our settings up.
iPhone Audio
Settings.
Douglas Walker
Alright, so now accessibility remember is under our general options. So we’ll just right-flick until we hear our general button here.
iPhone Audio
Airplane mode off. Wi-Fi…
Douglas Walker
So I’m right-flicking every time.
iPhone Audio
Doug’s Wireless. Bluetooth on.
Douglas Walker
Every time you here that click…
iPhone Audio
Cellular button. Personal hotspot off.
Douglas Walker
You know I’ve right flicked.
iPhone Audio
Notification sent. Control center. Do not disturb. General button.
Douglas Walker
Alright, and there’s our general button there and we’ll just single-finger double tap to open up our general menu here. So I’ll single-finger double tap.
iPhone Audio
General settings back button.
Douglas Walker
Okay, so we’ll just right-flick through our general list here until we find accessibility because remember we’re headed to our voiceover settings here so I’ll start right-flicking.
iPhone Audio
General heading. About button.
Douglas Walker
I’m right-flicking.
iPhone Audio
Software update. Siri button. Spotlight search button. Text size. Accessibility button.
Douglas Walker
Alright, and there’s our accessibility button. So we’ll just single-finger double tap to open up our accessibility settings here. So I’ll single-finger double tap
iPhone Audio
Accessibility. General back button.
Douglas Walker
Alright, and we’ll right-flick until we find our voiceover button here. So I’ll begin right-flicking.
iPhone Audio
Accessibility. Heading. Vision heading.
Douglas Walker
And I’m right-flicking again.
iPhone Audio
Voiceover on button.
Douglas Walker
There’s voiceover. Alright, and it’s currently turned on and of course it’s talking to us so we know that. And we’ll just single-finger double tap to open up our voiceover settings here. I’ll single-finger double tap.
iPhone Audio
Voiceover accessibility back button.
Douglas Walker
Okay, so these are all of our voiceover settings and Braille is pretty far down in this list. So bear with me as we flick through the list to get to our Braille button. So I’ll start flicking to the right to get to it.
iPhone Audio
Voiceover heading… Voiceover… Voiceover…Tap once to select…
Douglas Walker
And I’m right-flicking until I hear Braille.
iPhone Audio
Double tap to activate… Swipe three… Voiceover… Speaking rate… Speaking rate… Speed tense… Use pitch change… Use sound effect… Use compact voice… Braille button.
Douglas Walker
And there it is so I will just single-finger double tap to activate Braille here.
iPhone Audio
Braille voiceover back button.
Douglas Walker
Alright, so now we’re in all of our Braille settings so we’ll start flicking to the right until we find our Braille device in this list. So I’ll start flicking to the right here.
iPhone Audio
Braille heading.
Douglas Walker
And there’s our heading…
iPhone Audio
Contracted Braille
Douglas Walker
Contracted Braille… [Inaudible 0:08:09]
iPhone Audio
On…
Douglas Walker
I’m flicking to the right.
iPhone Audio
Automatic Braille translation…
Douglas Walker
Flicking…
iPhone Audio
Off. Status cell…. Equations use [nemeth] code.
Douglas Walker
Nemeth code.
iPhone Audio
Show onscreen keyboard… Braille translation… English US… Choose a Braille device… Heading…
Douglas Walker
Our Braille devices would be listed here so I’m going to keep flicking…
iPhone Audio
In progress…
Douglas Walker
And it’s searching for other devices. So I’ll flick one more time.
iPhone Audio
Refresher Braille 27149768 not paired.
Douglas Walker
So it says it’s not paired and that’s it. That’s the Braille device we’re looking for. Now we’ll single-finger double tap on this to select it and once we select this device, we’ll be presented with a number keypad at the bottom part of our screen here and we’ll be expected to enter a four digit pairing code. So you’ll need to check to see what the four digit code is for your Braille device. Now for our refresher Braille 18, our code is 1234.
Now I’m telling you all this process because we have a limited amount of time to enter the code. So to recap, when we single-finger double tap to select our device, we’ll be presented with our number pad for entering our code. We’ll into the code and then we’ll activate the pair button in the top right corner of our screen by single-finger double tapping on it. Alright, let me go ahead and give it a try. Then we’ll just single-finger double tap to activate our pairing or to select our refreshable Braille device here. So I’ll just single-finger double tap.
iPhone Audio
Refresher Braille 27419768 pairing. PIN. Secure.
Douglas Walker
There’s our number pad. So I’ll just type it in quickly.
iPhone Audio
Texting 1-2-3-4.
Douglas Walker
Find the pair button.
iPhone Audio
Enter PIN. Pair button.
Douglas Walker
I’ll single-finger double tap.
iPhone Audio
Braille voiceover back button.
Douglas Walker
And we just heard two tones. Those tones let us know that are pairing was successful and our refreshable Braille now reads voiceover back button which is where our cursor is currently focused in the top left corner of our iDevice screen here. Now if we know our key strokes, we’re able to totally control our iDevice by using our refreshable Braille device here. So how about we use our Braille device to move back to our desktop. We can do this by activating our home command so I’ll go ahead and do that.
iPhone Audio
Home settings. Double tap to open.
Douglas Walker
And if we know our navigation commands, we’re able totally navigate our iDevice just like this. I can jump to the top.
iPhone Audio
Notes.
Douglas Walker
I can move through our apps right here.
iPhone Audio
Double tap to open. Messages… Reminder… Clock… Weather.
Douglas Walker
I can select any of these apps….
iPhone Audio
Drop box music.
Douglas Walker
I can move to the bottom. So it’s as easy as that.
iPhone Audio
Double tap to open.
Douglas Walker
That’s pretty cool because we’re able to do things like compose emails, take notes if we’re in our notes app. We’re able to send text messages and we can even read books in Braille here from the iBookstore. We’re actually able to totally control pretty much everything that are our iDevice will do and we’re able to do it directly from our refreshable Braille device here. And that’s pretty fantastic. Now you should be able to find a listing of commands for controlling your device within the user’s manual for your refreshable Braille device.
You can also find a list of some generic refreshable Braille commands in your iDevice user’s manual. Now one place to find the iPhone or iPad manual is by simply doing a Google search for it or you could download a free manual right from your iBookstore and read it in iBooks there. Alright, now I used to use a Braille note taker for everything. However, my iPhone, paired with the refreshable Braille device now, has totally become my preferred note taking and Braille reading device and I really do use it every day.
Again, my name is Douglas Walker and I am an instructor of Assistive Technology here at the Hadley School for the Blind. Take care and I’ll see you next time.
For more from the iFocus series, including many other topics of interest to individuals with vision loss, visit the Seminars at Hadley page on the Hadley School for the Blind website at
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