Braillecast Extra

Did you know you can connect a Bluetooth keyboard or braille display to any iPhone or iPad? It’s a great way of improving your productivity and efficiency. However, there are some features which don’t have a keyboard shortcut assigned to them by default, and others where the default keyboard shortcut is hard to remember or ... Read more

Apple released the latest versions of its flagship operating systems, including iOS and iPad 26 for the popular iPhone and iPad product lines, in September 2025. Amongst the many new features are a significant number of improvements for braille users in VoiceOver, the built-in screen reader. In this, the second part of a two-part series, ... Read more

Apple released the latest versions of its flagship operating systems, including iOS and iPad 26 for the popular iPhone and iPad product lines, in September 2025. Amongst the many new features are a significant number of improvements for braille users in VoiceOver, the built-in screen reader. In this, the first part of a two-part series, ... Read more

You might be familiar with many functions of the Canute 360 from Bristol Braille Technology, but did you know it can work seamlessly with the widely popular Duxbury Braille Translator? When connected to a Windows machine, the Canute can output Braille text in real-time using Duxbury’s six-key Braille entry, or display any translated text loaded ... Read more

You’re invited to pull up a chair at the Braillists’ Christmas party, where a friendly cast of characters discuss the games they play after Christmas dinner. Card games, board games, dice games and everything in between, we’ve got you covered. We discuss where to buy specially adapted games and how to adapt your own. And ... Read more

The latest in our occasional series showcasing historical braille shorthand codes which you might still find useful today: Braille, User-Oriented Code (BUOC) was a code written by the late Australian, Rebecca Maxwell, with the support of Australian Braille Literacy Action (ABLA), formerly the Australian Guild of Business and Professional Blind. It was last revised in ... Read more

USB, or Universal Serial Bus, has been a feature of braille displays for over twenty years. Originally a standard for connectivity, it has evolved over time to also provide power and charging capabilities. However, if USB is supposed to be Universal, why are some chargers faster than others, and why won’t some chargers and cables ... Read more

Reading aloud is a skill that is both terrifying and liberating. Adding braille to the mix presents unique challenges that can often get in the way of recognising significant progress. Along with reading speed and fluency, the one question we hear most often is: “How can I improve my ability to read aloud?” Building on ... Read more

Braille Screen Input has been overhauled! iOS and iPad OS 18, released on Monday 16 September, include the biggest refresh of Braille Screen Input since the feature was first introduced in iOS 8. Although you can, for the most part, still use Braille Screen Input as you always have done, the new functionality in Apple’s ... Read more

Do you need an easy way to identify your shampoo from your hair removal cream? Do you want to avoid accidentally feeding dog food to your dinner guests—again? Does your granddaughter complain that you’ve covered up the print label on her favourite midnight snack with your “special dots”? Our sense of touch can give us ... Read more

This session, presented by Saima Akhtar, is designed to give you a Whistlestop tour of the fundamentals of Arabic braille. Rest assured, it’s not nearly as complicated as you think. By the end of the session, you will have more insight into the following areas: Please note, it will be much easier to follow along ... Read more

Many braille displays include an SD or Micro SD card slot. However, when it comes to purchasing a suitable card, there are so many options! Which is best, and which work with your braille display? In this session, we were joined by friend of the Braillists Ben Mustill-Rose to help make sense of them. He ... Read more

According to its website, “BrailleBlaster™ is a braille transcription program developed by the American Printing House for the Blind to help transcribers provide blind students with braille textbooks on the first day of class.” It uses markup from source documents to automate formatting, and provides “tools to make advanced tasks quicker and easier.” Although it ... Read more

Sometimes, you just need a BRF file with no fuss, even though you know it might have the occasional error or won’t be formatted quite as you’d like. RoboBraille is one solution to this problem. It works with a large variety of file formats including PDF, Microsoft Word and plain text, and converts them to ... Read more

Following our exploration of braille translators during National Braille Week, we were delighted to be joined by esteemed assistive technology pioneer Dean Martineau. Dean is a long term braille user and has spent many years developing his own personal braille shorthand system. In this Masterclass, Dean introduced us to the Biblos braille translator and demonstrated ... Read more

A message from our Chairman, Dave Williams, to thank our many volunteers this National Volunteers Week.

For many years now, Sight Scotland have championed National Braille Week, an opportunity to celebrate braille usage and raise awareness of the importance and value of braille. It runs in the second week of October, to coincide with World Sight Day. In 2023, we celebrated National Braille Week at the Braillists by running five Masterclasses, ... Read more

For many years now, Sight Scotland have championed National Braille Week, an opportunity to celebrate braille usage and raise awareness of the importance and value of braille. It runs in the second week of October, to coincide with World Sight Day. In 2023, we celebrated National Braille Week at the Braillists by running five Masterclasses, ... Read more

Supernova is a screen magnification and screen reading package from Dolphin Computer Access Ltd, based in Worcester in the UK. Braille display support is a core part of its offering, but we don’t hear very much about it. In this session, we were joined by Aj Ahmed, proprietor of AAT Solutions, an independent provider of ... Read more

If you have a new braille display and you’re struggling to connect it to your computer, iPhone or iPad, or you have a new computer, iPhone or iPad and you’re struggling to connect it to your braille display, this session is for you. We covered: The pros and cons of Bluetooth and USB Pairing and ... Read more

Many screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA, make use of the popular, open source Liblouis braille translation engine as part of their braille display support. In this session, we explained and demonstrated how to harness the power of Liblouis braille tables to implement additional contractions in your screen reader of choice. If you use a ... Read more

“What’s wrong with grade 2?” In many cases, nothing. It strikes a good balance between compactness, readability and lack of ambiguity. However, in some cases, a code which is even more compact than grade 2 is extremely advantageous, especially when information needs to be written down at speed. The Braille Shorthand Code was one attempt ... Read more

iOS 17 was released last September, bosting a number of significant braille enhancements. In this Masterclass, we were joined by Scott Davert to find out more. Scott is well regarded in the blind community as an expert in braille on iOS. He regularly contributes braille-related content to the AppleVis website, and presented a series of ... Read more

Getting tactile diagrams at University is often not as easy as it should be. However, the Open University has an excellent reputation for accessibility, and has developed robust processes for students to request diagrams and for those diagrams to be designed and produced. This session was presented jointly by Jeff Bashton, former Visual Impairment Adviser ... Read more

As the days get shorter and the nights get colder, a few people joined us for a cosy fireside chat to round off the year on Tuesday 19 December. How do you write and address your Christmas cards? How do you know whose Christmas presents are whose? And what part does braille play in all ... Read more