Category: Geeks r Us
I have requested a blue tooth braille display from my state's Division of Vocational rehabilitation to enhance the technology I already use. For anyone who has used a refreshable Braille display with the iPad or iPhone, how do you navigate by page or chapter of e-books like those found in the iBooks or Nook apps? Just curious to hear about other people's experiences before I look through the documentation for the display I've requested in case I am unable to find anything to help me on this topic. For discussion's sake, I've asked for a braille Edge 40, and will be having the technology evaluation on the fifteenth of this month at my school.
You use the buttons available to you on the UI. Braille in iBooks will just scroll the pages as you pan, very convenient. But I just set the roter to Vertical navigation so I can move from the text area to the other UI controls and move that way.
Cool, thank you.
The edge is a nice display. The Vario ultra is the newest hit thing and people are liking it but it's quite a complicated device. I think the edge is a nice choice because it's an easy to use device, offers many features and pairs very nicely with an iThing. Of course the ability to just plug it in to a mac is a plus for me. Enjoy your new tech.
I'd like to spring for a new display myself. I find my RefreshaBraille gets cumbersome after awhile. I'm partial to thumb keys for one thing, and their panning buttons are so tiny!
Problem is you can't just go to Office Max and look at a display.
I've seen the edge. I love it. but I love my braille sense u2 mini more; it serves as a braille display and a stand alone device, so i'm sold on it and pretty convinced there's nothing better for my personal needs. I admire any hims product though.
I used to have a brailliant from humanware, but that thing, though robust, never could properly connect to my iPhone or iPad. good choice in displays, therefore. In terms of dedicated displays, this is probably your best option.
I can't speak to the navigation of books via a braille display on an IDevice though; sorry. I use my braille sense for lengthy reading. Just a personal preference. :)
The Edge is a good product made by a company with a fairly solid reputation. Lots of navigation options with that thing also. For example, you have 4 rectangular buttons to each side of the spacebar which carry out functions that normally require a keyboard command. The 4 rectangular buttons on the right will scroll you up, down, left, and right by page. I like the Kindle app the best, because you can turn on panning when turning pages with iOS 8. Once you begin reading, you can just keep reading without ever having to worry about turning pages yourself. If you want to bring up the menu to do something, press a cursor routing key. All 3 apps have a go to page option if I recall correctly, I know nook and iBooks do. I hope this helps.
after months of waiting, I'm finally getting the display on wednesday. feeling a little overwhelmed right now, but I'm sure that'll fade away in time as I get used to using the edge. thanks for feedback.
I hope you like it, I sure do. Braille on iDevices has really opened up a new world for me as a braille reader!
I love my Braille Edge! I hope you'll find it as easy to use, and essential. Good luck and have fun with it!
I haven't used the Edge with the Iphone much, and not to read books, so I'm glad to see others' input on that question.
My preference is just to copy/paste books as plain text files or .brf files onto the Edge's SD cardd, and read that way. This makes notetaking while reading easier, and I'd rather deal with only one device.
NLS Web-Braille files won't need to be altered in any way, just paste them onto your SD card.
A small program called WinBT is extremely helpful. It runs on Windows, and translates text files to brf extension files.
You can get it here:
http://EmpowermentZone.com/wbtsetup.exe
Your Braille Edge opens brf files more quickly than any other file type, so in cases of long documents such as books, I find it easier to have them as brf files.
For notes and misc other things, just leave the Edge's default file type setting on txt. this will make copying to and from your computer simpler.
I didn't get along with the BrailleSense, at all, but the Edge is a breeze to pick up, and its keyboard layout is far better, in my opinion. It would be absolutely perfect with optional speech. But I have no complaints. It's the only bit of blind-specific tech I've ever owned that I truly use every day.
Joanne: Here are some links to things I've written about braille displays and iDevices. You can read a general guide Here There are a bunch of other links within that post to other articles and things I and a few others have written on the subject. I agree with transferring the books to the Edge and going about reading that way, assuming you can get the content you want in a format the Edge supports. If you happen to see me on and have specific questions, feel free to ask. I deal with braille displays all day most days, and do own an Edge as well.