Hi Penny,
Thanks for your questions. I can't yet promise a date for Grade 2
contracted braille. But we are working on it, and we are very excited
about offering this in a future update!
We will look into an option for a horizontal keyboard layout, but I
can't promise this. I certainly understand that this would be more
intuitive. But as others have pointed out, it would require you to lay
your iPhone on a desk or other surface.
Some people have discovered that BrailleTouch works for them when laying
flat on a desk. They position their hands in a V-shape. Your index
fingers are in the middle of the screen closest to you. Your ring
fingers are in the far left and far right corners of the screen. This is
undocumented and not in our User Guide. But it does work for some
people, and is more like typing on a Perkins, though not exactly so.
Make sure the flip dots setting is turned off if you try this.
There are other potential issues with adding a straight line horizontal
keyboard option to BrailleTouch The touch surface on the iPhone does not
cover the entire flat glass face of the device. Rather, it is a smaller
rectangle in the middle of the glass. This means there is the potential
that your fingers on the left for dot 3 and on the right for dot 6 would
slip off the touch sensitive area of the glass. For example, you could
type the letter T (dots 2-3-4-5) and your dot 3 finger could be on the
glass but out of the touch sensitive area. BrailleTouch would then see
dots 2-4-5 and say the letter J. This would be very frustrating and
error prone.
You can try this for yourself. Place your iPhone flat on a table and
pretend to type on a horizontal braille keyboard on the touchscreen.
Then tap dots 3 and dots 6 and see if the touchscreen recognizes these
fingers. I suspect for some of you that it will not, as these fingers
will be on the glass but not on the touch sensitive zone.
I'm not saying that a horizontal keyboard layout is impossible. But it
will be challenging to find a solution that will work for most people,
be accurate, and not be frustrating.
On a related note, you can read why BrailleTouch is not available for
the iPad here <http://brailletouchapp.com/faq.html#a8>.
I hope this helps!
Best,
Caleb
http://brailletouchapp.com/
On 2/1/2013 1:48 PM, Penny Reeder wrote:
I agree as well. The vertical lay-out and the requirement to face the phone
outward are spatially confusing, and the unavailability of Grade 2 braille can
cause one who is used to writing in Grade 2 to make lots of mistakes. Since
developers are also on this list, I wonder if they can comment on whether a
horizontal orientation is possible and, if so, what kind of priority can be
given to making such a change as well as when we might expect Grade 2 to be
added. Thanks. Penny
Sent from my iPhone
On Feb 1, 2013, at 1:32 PM, Kawal Gucukoglu <kawa...@me.com> wrote:
Hello Jonathan.
I'd like to agree with you about the repositioning of how you might put your
fingers. Only because, earlier, myfingers began to ache and I am worried that
one might get RSI. I don't want to be sceptical, but, we need our hands as for
us all, our hands are important to us due to our inability to see.
Kawal.
On 1 Feb 2013, at 06:24 PM, Jonathan Mosen <jmo...@mosen.org> wrote:
Hi everyone, I didn't hear the podcasts on Braille Touch before release, but
thought I'd download it and have a play. The fact that you can try the app
before purchase is excellent.
I am a lifelong Braille user and input in Braille every day. And I think this
is my problem. When I heard about Braille Touch, I imagined that you would
input Braille in the same way that you would on a Perkins or refreshable
Braille display that offers a keyboard. But really you don't. On such products,
the keys are aligned horizontally. Perhaps there's a little diagonal placement
for the sake of ergonomics, but fundamentally they are horizontal. With Braille
Touch, however, dost 1, 2 and 3 are under each other. This is how they
obviously appear when reading the cell, but not when you're inputting. So
people who do a lot of input on refreshable Braille displays are going to have
to remember to Braille as the cell looks, not as they would on a Braille device.
I wonder if making the dots horizontal could be a future setting. I think
there's enough screen space for this to work, and I know for my part I'd find
it more intuitive because of the amount of Brailling I do on other devices.
Congrats to the developers on the app.
Jonathan
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