Brailroom

this is a video explaining how blind people type and navigate a computer screen completely independent of vision.

blind people can type on a regular qwerty keyboard because the f and j keys have grooves on them. once the fingers are placed properly, the blind person can type the same way sighted people who look at the screen and not their fingers do, that is, by knowing where the keys are, to the point it’s second nature.

blind people can navigate a screen without vision by using a series of keystrokes, which usually means there is a button to hold down and arrow keys to nagivate up/down/left/right (this is how mac voice over works) or sometimes there are two keys that toggle back and forth among the elements on a page (which is how i think jaws works).

braille displays, which are displays that use crystals in the 8-dot braille pattern, can show where the mouse is. print braille, which is 6 dots, is three dots tall and two dots wide. computers use 8-dot braille though to allow for symbols, and international letters. the dots 7 and 8 (the two bottom dots of the 8-dot cell) are used for disambiguation. the mouse location is indicated by these dots 7-8 either blinking or vibrating.

if you have any other questions feel free to ask and i can make more videos.

Duration : 0:3:33

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How to highlight, copy and paste text using Alex VoiceOver (the screen reader that comes with Apple MacBook)

Hold down the CONTROL and OPTION keys and use the UP and DOWN areas on the keyboard to select the desired text or input field

Alternatively, OPTION + COMMAND + SHIFT + UP arrow allows you to interact with the content and therefore navigate with the UP/DOWN arrows without having to keep the CONTROL and OPTION keys held down.

Wherever you’re typing will be automatically selected. By default Alex will read or your braille display will display by sentence.

Add the CONTROL and OPTION keys to navigate by word.

Add the SHIFT key if you want to navigate by letter.

To copy paste, select the text you want to copy paste by navigating to it and

To highlight, turn the interact-with-text ON (CONTROL + OPTION + SHIFT + DOWN arrow) and use the by-word or by-letter navigation (whichever you prefer) and hold down the shift key as you arrow to the word where you want to finish highlighting.

COMMAND + C to copy

COMMAND + V to paste

If you want to paste in a different field, for example if you’re copy-pasting a post into a reply field on a forum you can hold down CONTROL + OPTION and use the UP and DOWN arrows to navigate to the type-in field. Then you can do COMMAND + V to paste. If you would like to add BBCode like [QUOTE] [/QUOTE] or quotation marks, you can navigate within the field using the same interact-with-item technique described before.

If the different field is in another window, you can use the COMMAND + TAB feature to toggle between windows. Then within the new window you can use the CONTROL + OPTION and arrow keys to navigate within the new window to find the type-in field.

Duration : 0:3:56

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Today, Optelec is setting the standard in Braille communication. With the introduction of the ALVA Braille Controller 6-series, Optelec presents the first series of Braille Access solutions that merges classic Braille display access with modern note taking functionality.

The ALVA BC640 combines powerful features with a compact and lightweight design. High quality Optelec Braille cells and easy-to-operate keys allow for effortless reading and smart navigation. The optional Braille Audio Feature Pack makes the ALVA BC640 uniquely versatile. The ergonomically designed Braille input keys and integrated high quality audio speakers makes you operate your ALVA BC640 efficiently and comfortably. Upon request the ALVA BC640 can even be equipped with internal memory, allowing you to store your documents or host your preferred screenreader on-board.

Duration : 0:3:23

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