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Re: Braille Displays

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From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Dec 6, 2016 5:08AM

Braille displays communicate with the OS through the screen reader.
The braille display vendors basically write drivers that are enable
the braille display and screen reader to communicate.
If a website is accessible and the screen reader and the driver handle
the driver issues properly then, yes, a website is braille display
accessible.
I have been using braille displays for over 20 years, but never tried
to use one to control the computer or browse, I find it too slow, but
I think it is fully doable on an accessible website.
Some braille note takers (that user can use independent of a computer,
like a PDA) may have a built-in browser, I have never tried one.
But if they do, I suspect their browser is not equipped to handle the
complexities of CSS, Javascript and ARIA, though I wouldn't mind being
wrong about that.



On 12/6/16, <EMAIL REMOVED> < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> I'm emailing to the list since I think this is actually on topic and a
> valuable discussion for people to read.
>
> Note that I don't use a braille reader. Although it turns out I read braille
> better than most blind people - on account of the fact that most don't read
> braille. I hope one of those who does will chime in with some more
> experience here...
>
> 06.12.2016, 11:04, "JP Jamous" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >:
>> A client wishes to make his application screen reader and Braille Display
>> accessible. As I have never used a Braille Display before, I started
>> wondering and noticed that to have a Braille Display running, you ought to
>> have a screen reader running. Am I correct or wrong?
>
> Essentially right. You need something to send content to the braille reader,
> and I believe that the common case is now to use a screen reader since they
> provide that support.
>
> There are also dedicated braille devices, just as there are multiple OSes
> and screen readers. So what you discover testing with acommon setup won't
> reflect the universal experience of everyone, but I presume that isn't a
> surprise.
>
>> I am going through the WCAG audit for the client's application and it sure
>> fails many success criteria. My hope is to get the audit done and once
>> that
>> is complete, the application will be accessible via Braille Displays as
>> long
>> as JAWS or NVDA are running and support the drivers for the particular
>> Braille Display that will be used.
>
> To be pedantic, the audit won't make anything accessible but fixing faults
> identified by it should do so, but I presume that is what you meant.
>
> Roughly the same content will be passed to the Braille reader, but there are
> some important differences. People who do know braille like it because among
> other things it is precise - issues regarding pronunciation of acronyms and
> so on a reduced because the punctuation, capitalisation and spelling of
> words is explicit.
>
> On the other hand, where speech is "pushed" to the user who has to consume
> it as it is given, braille is presented on the display and the user reads it
> at their leisure before requesting the next bit. Which means the way that
> e.g. live regions behave and that the user experiences them may be a little
> different. This is an area where a video or two - described and captioned,
> of course - would be a really great resource.
>
> cheers
>
>> I would appreciate any feedback on my thought process. You may e-mail me
>> off
>> the list since this is sort of an off-topic in a way. <EMAIL REMOVED> .
>> Thank
>> you folks.
>>
>> >> >> >> >
> --
> Charles McCathie Nevile - standards - Yandex
> <EMAIL REMOVED> - - - Find more at http://yandex.com
> > > > >


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