Hi,
I have been using Braille displays for 20-odd years now and think my current one is probably my favourite and that is the Brailliant from HumanWare. What makes it stand out for me is its compactness, feel and quality of the Braille and simplicity of navigation keys. Unlike a lot of displays, all the Brailliant has in terms of navigation (other than the cursor routing keys, of course) is a vertical column of three "dots" at either end of the Braille cells which can be configured in various permutations to meet your needs. Having been used to more bloated displays over the years, when I first saw the Brailliant I didn't think there was going to be enough functionality for me; however, when it came down to it, I realised that I used only a fraction of a display's functionality as, for me, that is primarily what a display is, a display! I'm more than happy using the qwerty keyboard as my input mechanism as this removes the need to have to remember a lot of convoluted key combinations to achieve basic tasks easily achievable from the keyboard. The one thing I would recommend is that if, for example, you will be doing a lot of coding, go for an 80-cell display if you can aford it. Whilst a 40-cell and less are fine for portability, I much prefer the 80 variety for desktop use as you can see more of what you are working on and get more of a feel for layout. One of the Brailliant's strengths, its compactness, is also its weakness, though since the keyboard its on the desk behind the display rather than on top of the display and this can make for awkward use of the keyboard. I have used a Heath Robinson approach and put a small block of wood the same thickness as the display behind so that the keyboard is raised to my preferred level! Another neat feature of the Brailliants is that you can rotate the Braille which is excellent for achieving maximum comfort when using it - similar to the problem people have with some laptop screens and Intel cards; however, the difference is that the Braille rotation can't be done accidentally! As well as Window-Eyes working well with the Brailliant, there is also a 64-bit driver for WE but there isn't one for JAWS thanks to Freedom Scientific's chargeable software signing policy. Finally, the most important thing is for you to physically see and use as many as you can before making a decision as none of the options are cheap! Good luck and happy reading. Regards Richard Bartholomew E-Mail: <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected] Skype: Richard.Bartholomew From: John W. Carty [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: 24 March 2010 14:29 To: '[email protected]' Subject: braille displays I'm considering the purchase of my first Braille display. Can anyone offer model suggestions that work particularly well with WE? Why? Thanx, John Carty __________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature database 4971 (20100324) __________ The message was checked by ESET Smart Security. http://www.eset.com If you reply to this message it will be delivered to the original sender only. If your reply would benefit others on the list and your message is related to GW Micro, then please consider sending your message to [email protected] so the entire list will receive it. GW-Info messages are archived at http://www.gwmicro.com/gwinfo. You can manage your list subscription at http://www.gwmicro.com/listserv. __________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature database 4971 (20100324) __________ The message was checked by ESET Smart Security. http://www.eset.com __________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature database 4972 (20100324) __________ The message was checked by ESET Smart Security. http://www.eset.com If you reply to this message it will be delivered to the original sender only. If your reply would benefit others on the list and your message is related to GW Micro, then please consider sending your message to [email protected] so the entire list will receive it. GW-Info messages are archived at http://www.gwmicro.com/gwinfo. You can manage your list subscription at http://www.gwmicro.com/listserv.
