8/27/2018
Transcribed by Grecia Ramirez
Welcome to the Brailliant BI 14 audio modules, a collaboration between Humanware and Mystic Access, where the magic is in learning.
Hi. This is Kim Loftis, Director of Product Development with Mystic Access. We are very pleased to be bringing you these audio modules on the Brailliant 14 in collaboration with Humanware. In this introduction, I would like to share with you some of the features and functions of the Brailliant 14 that can assist you in adding greater proficiency to your life and work.
First of all, one of the really handy things about the Brailliant is in its name, the Brailliant 14. This particular model of the Brailliant is a 14-cell Braille display, so it’s very tiny, it’s very portable, and it’s very easy to take with you from place to place in your purse, in your bag, in your briefcase, et cetera. When you receive the device, it will be in a nice, leather case so you can be assured that your Brailliant 14 will be well protected as you carry it from place to place. It also includes a preattached lanyard for an extra layer of protection.
Despite the tiny size of this Braille display, as with all of the Brailliant models, the Brailliant 14 allows you to easily pan your display so that the small size does not inhibit your reading of Braille utilizing the Brailliant. The Brailliant 14 can be utilized with almost any screen reader available. You can hook it up to a Mac or PC using a USB cable. Or if you have Bluetooth built into your computer or a Bluetooth dongle, you can utilize the Brailliant using a Bluetooth connection as well.
But using the Brailliant with your computer is only the beginning. The Brailliant 14 also supports screen readers which are built into mobile devices. Therefore, you can easily hook it up utilizing its lightning fast connectivity to your phones and tablets as well. In fact, the Brailliant supports up to five simultaneous Bluetooth connections in addition to one USB connection. So you can easily switch among your devices to your heart’s content.
The BI of Brailliant BI 14 stands for Braille input. You have a comfortable eight-dot, Perkins-style keyboard available on this unit and will be able to type quietly and ergonomically. The Brailliant 14 allows you basic editing functionality, and you can create internal notes utilizing the device. It also includes other applications that could be of use such as time and date, a stopwatch, and One-hand Mode, if that’s something that you ever need to utilize.
One of the things that really sets the Brailliant 14 apart from other Braille displays on the market is its synchronization capabilities. I just mentioned that you can utilize the Brailliant to take notes internally, but this functionality with notes goes even further. You can synchronize the Brailliant with your Email accounts, thus allowing you to access information pretty much anywhere you need to be at any given time. Let me share a couple of examples. If you are a student, you could carry your Brailliant into class to take notes on a lecture being given at the time. You could then sync those notes with your Email account and then be able to access them from your Email client of choice. You could also be in a business meeting and taking notes on the important topics being discussed using your Brailliant. And once again, sync those, for instance, to your business Email account for access and later reference when you need those notes most.
What’s particularly nice about this synchronization capability is that when you configure accounts to sync back and forth between your Email account and your Brailliant is that you don’t need your phone or your mobile device nearby in order to sync information. For instance, if you went into that business meeting, you could just take your Brailliant 14 with you and leave your phone upstairs three floors away in your office and you wouldn’t have to worry about it because the notes that you took in that meeting would sync directly to the Email account on your phone.
In the following modules, I’m going to orient you to the Brailliant 14. I’m going to share and demonstrate the features and functions available, show you the note taking and synchronization capabilities, and demonstrate the use of the Brailliant 14 with both a PC and iOS device. You will know that you have reached the end of the module which you are currently listening to because you will hear a chime like this.
The Brailliant 14 has no speech, so throughout these modules, I will be sharing with you what appears on my display. As previously mentioned, we will be hooking up the Brailliant to a PC and iOS device so that I can demonstrate how to use it with mobile screen readers, as well as how to synchronize your notes across various accounts. I hope you enjoy the information that we’re about to share with you on this portable, affordable, and powerful note taker and Braille display and that it greatly assists you in increasing your productivity and proficiency, whatever you’re doing wherever you’re going.
Thanks for joining me.
When you receive your Brailliant 14, you’re going to find the following items in the box:
Of course, you’ll find the Brailliant 14 itself, which is already in its nice carrying case. It also has a preinstalled lanyard, and I’ll talk to you more about that in just a moment. You’ll also find a micro-USB cable, a USB wall adapter, and a quick-start guide for your Brailliant in both print and Braille. The quick-start guide includes a Braille commands summary for your Brailliant.
The included power adapter has a USB port built into it so you can plug the power adapter into a wall and plug your micro-USB cable into the USB port on the adapter. This way, you’ll be able to charge via any wall outlet. You could also choose to just use your micro-USB cable and plug it into a PC or Mac, either to charge the device or when using it in Terminal Mode.
One thing to note is when you do receive the box, there is what looks like the bottom of the box, but which is actually a piece of cardboard which you will need to remove in order to find your micro-USB cable and your USB power adapter. So if you have any difficulty finding those two particular accessories, that’s where those are.
As mentioned a moment ago, the Brailliant 14 will likely be in its case when you receive it. The included case is made of a nice supple leather material, and the inside portion of the case, which covers the keys and the display of your Brailliant, is made out of a soft velvet material. The Brailliant 14 is attached to the case via Velcro, and I’m just going to pull it off so you can hear what that sounds like. So you can take it out of the case, but I definitely would encourage you to leave it in there for its protection and to keep it nice and clean and dirt- and dust-free.
The case has a magnetic closure that will allow a portion of the case to fold down over the keys and the display itself. And the attached lanyard is nice and long so that you can easily carry the Brailliant around your neck or over your shoulder for easy portability. The lanyard is detachable if, for whatever reason, you do not want it, but it does make it much easier to carry around and be portable for you. And speaking of portability, the Brailliant is really light and easy to carry because it’s just over half a pound.
Let’s talk about the device itself. It is rectangular. On the top face of the device, you will find an eight-key Perkins-style keyboard which includes dots 1 through 6; dot 7, which will fall under your left little finger; and dot 8, which will fall under your right little finger. Dot 7 will often serve as a Backspace key when you are writing and editing, and dot 8 serves as an Enter key during writing and editing. If you prefer to write in computer Braille, you will also be using dots 7 and 8 to execute certain commands and for writing particular characters. When you place your hands on the keyboard, you will find that dots 1 and 4 are slightly closer to the front of the keyboard, as are dots 7 and 8. This allows for very comfortable, ergonomic typing for you. The keys are also vertical and slightly oblong in shape. The shape and placement of the keys allow for a very effective and efficient typing surface.
Just above and between dots 1 and 4, you will find a small joystick. You can utilize this to assist in navigation. The joystick moves in five directions: up, down, left, right, and you can press directly in on it. Pressing directly in on the joystick also can serve as confirmation, just like the Enter key, or dot 8, does. You could also refer to this gesture as the action gesture when you press directly in on the joystick because it confirms an action that you are wanting to take.
If you slide your hands down from the Perkins-style keyboard, you will find the display. This is a 14-cell Braille display. Above each cell, you will find cursor routing sensors. You may also hear these referred to as Active Touch Sensors. They are not actually keys. What you will find is a slight groove above each cell of the Brailliant’s Braille display, and you can touch just under or sometimes even within each of those grooves to move the cursor to a respective cell on the Braille display. If you have only worked with cursor routing keys before and not cursor routing sensors as these are, this may take a little bit of getting used to. Fortunately, there are settings within the Brailliant itself that can assist you in making this process a little easier for you. The nice thing about having cursor sensors versus cursor keys is that you don’t have to worry about having wear and tear on cursor routing keys.
Just beneath, and in the direct center of, the 14-cell Braille display, you’re going to find a long, rectangular key. This is the Spacebar. You can also use this key in conjunction with other keys to invoke certain commands on the Brailliant. If you move your hands from the Spacebar towards the front face of the Braille display, you will find four long, thin, rectangular keys. These are referred to as thumb keys because you can operate them with your thumbs without moving your fingers from the keyboard itself. If you have had experience with other Humanware products in the past, you will already be familiar with these keys and their functionality. Starting from left to right, you will find the Previous thumb key, Left, Right, and Next thumb key. The Previous and Next, or the two outer-most, thumb keys will allow you to move from item to item in menus. The Left and Right thumb keys, or the two center thumb keys, allow you to pan the display.
On the back of the device, there is only one control. If you have your left little finger sitting on the dot 7, or Backspace, key and you slide your left hand to the back face of the Brailliant, you’ll find a switch. This is a two-position switch. If you flip the switch to the left, you will be in Application Mode. If you flip the switch to the right, you will be in Terminal Mode. More on these two modes of operation in an upcoming module.
If you move to the left-hand side of the device, you will find a button and a port that will be of interest to you. Closer to the back of the left-hand side of the unit, you will find a square button that is almost flush with the Brailliant itself; and it has a dot in its center. This is the Power button. You will press and hold this button for approximately three seconds to turn your device on or off. This button can also assist you in accessing the menu when you are in Terminal Mode. Slide your hand down an inch or so from the Power button, and you will find the micro-USB port. This is where you will plug in your micro-USB cable when you wish to charge your Brailliant or when you wish to connect it to a PC or Mac in Terminal Mode. Please note that when you plug the smaller end of your USB cable into this micro-USB charging port, the nibs on the end of the cable go down.
If you ever need to locate the serial number on your Brailliant 14, it’s located on the right-hand side of the bottom of the device. So you would need to un-Velcro it from the case, if you have it in its case, and you will find it there.
So those are all of the controls that you will find on the unit, and we will discuss more of the use and functionality of these controls in an upcoming module.
Before using your Brailliant 14 for the first time, it’s important to charge it for a minimum of eight hours. This will make sure that your device is fully charged and ready to go for its first use. After this initial charge, on subsequent charges, it will take about five hours for the Brailliant’s battery to reach full capacity.
So once you’ve charged it for a minimum of eight hours, you can power it up for the first time, and to do that, you will find the Power button. Remember that this button is square and has a raised dot in its center. It’s located on the left-hand side of the device towards the back. To power on your Brailliant, press and hold this square button for approximately three seconds. I don’t know whether my microphone allowed you to hear that, but it does make a small beep and the word, “Starting,” appears on the Braille display.
I have my Brailliant currently in Application Mode, which means that the switch is flipped to the left. And that’s the switch on the left of the back face of the unit. Most likely, when you receive your device, it will be in Application Mode, meaning that the switch will be turned to the left.
If the switch is turned to the left on your device, you will be in Application Mode, and after the "Starting" prompt disappears from your Braille display, you will see the time, or a time. It may not be correct when you see it. If your switch is flipped to the right, you will be in Terminal Mode, and you will see the word, "Hello," after the "Starting" message disappears.
We’re going to go in depth and talk about what you can do in either Application or Terminal Mode in upcoming modules, but right now, I want to explain the differences between the two.
Application Mode is pretty easy to remember because it actually includes applications that are available to you on the Brailliant device itself such as time, date, settings, a stopwatch, One-hand Mode, and more. From Application Mode, you can enter any of these applications and interact with them as you wish. We’ll discuss the various applications included in this mode in an upcoming module. Application Mode is a stand-alone mode. In other words, you can use the Brailliant without any other devices connected to it. You can create notes, you can check the time, use your stopwatch, you can view your settings, et cetera, and you can do it all with the Brailliant itself.
If you are in Terminal Mode, you will be able to connect via Bluetooth or USB to another device such as a PC, Mac, or mobile phone or tablet. You may connect to up to five Bluetooth devices and one USB device – so six devices in total – simultaneously.
So if I wanted to, I could be connected to my PC via USB, my iPhone via Bluetooth, and my iPad via Bluetooth as well. The advantage of Terminal Mode is that you can read and interact with material on other devices using the Braille display of your Brailliant.
Besides viewing the content of connected devices on your Brailliant’s display in Terminal Mode, you also have the ability to enter a menu from there and access many of the applications that are available in Application Mode. We’ll talk more about how to enter this menu and access those applications in an upcoming module.
Basically, the way you can remember the difference in the two modes is that Application Mode includes applications that can easily be accessed just by flipping your switch on the back of the device to the left, A, for applications. If you flip the switch to the right, you’ll be in Terminal Mode, from which you can view your connections to various devices such as your computer, iPhone, et cetera; T for Terminal Mode. Here’s a little memory trick that may help you in remembering which way to flip the switch for which mode you want. A comes first for Application Mode; you flip the switch to the left. T is later in the alphabet and stands for Terminal Mode, which is accessed when your switch is flipped to the right.
When you wish to turn off your Brailliant, you can do so the same way you turned it on, which is by pressing and holding the Power button for approximately three seconds. You’ll hear a beep, and anything on your display at the time will disappear.
The way we use our technology is as unique as we are, ourselves. Fortunately, we have a lot of different ways that we can navigate using the Brailliant 14, so you can choose the method that works best for you and your particular tastes. In this module, I’m going to talk to you about the various ways that you can navigate, and you may wish to follow along with me to see which methods work best for you. You may also find that different methods work better depending on your particular situation, so I encourage you to enjoy learning about the various methods available for navigation.
After you have powered on your Brailliant, particularly when you are in Application Mode, you’re going to find several different ways to move through the menu that is immediately presented to you. One of these methods is by using the Previous and Next thumb keys to move between menu items. Remember that the Previous and Next thumb keys are the two outer-most thumb keys on the front face of your display. The Previous thumb key will cycle you back through the various menu items available, while the Next thumb key will move you forward. Occasionally, you’re also going to find that you may need to use your panning keys, or your Left and Right, thumb keys, which are the inner two thumb keys on the front face of the device. This is particularly true when you reach the Watch app and you want to see what the date is. You need to pan using your Right thumb key in order to see the date. More on the menu and its included items in our next module.
If you are trying to use the panning keys to move through most menu items, however, this will not work. You will remain sitting on your current menu item when you are using your Left and Right thumb keys in most cases. So your Previous and Next thumb keys are one way to move seamlessly between and among menu items, but there are other ways.
You can use the joystick, which is just above and between dots 1 and 4 on the Perkins-style keyboard to move through menu items as well. Remember that the joystick has five different directions in which it can move: up, down, left, right, and you can press in on it to complete an action. If you press the joystick to the left, you will move left through menu items. If you press it to the right, you will move right through menu items. If you press down on it, you will be able to go into a submenu. For instance, if you press down on it when you are sitting in the Settings menu item, you will be able to go into Settings. Pressing up on the joystick will move you back out of a submenu; for instance, back out of Settings. Down moves you into a submenu or into an item’s options; up moves you out of them. Down takes you into various menus, then you can use the left and right functionality on the joystick to move you among items, and when you’re ready to return to the previous menu level, up will take you back out of that particular submenu or group of items to the menu that you were in previously. So you can move up and down through menus and submenus, and left and right between items at a given level.
One nice thing about navigating with the joystick, particularly if you are moving up, down, left, or right, is that it is virtually silent. So you can move through items very quietly should the need arise.
One of the easiest and fastest ways to navigate using your Brailliant is by using what’s called first-letter navigation. This means if you are in a menu, for instance, you can press the first letter of any menu item to reach it quickly and easily. For instance, S will cycle you between Stopwatch and Settings, C will take you to Connections, A will take you to About, B will take you to Battery, and N will take you to Notes. So you can press the first letter of a menu item’s name in order to reach it very quickly and easily. This also works well if you need to reach a particular note, for instance. If you go into Notes, and you need to reach a note whose title begins with the letter, Z, for instance, you can press Z and you can reach that note quickly.
One thing to note about reaching notes with this particular navigation method, however: If you want to reach any note quickly and you’re using first-letter navigation to get to it, if that note’s title begins with a capital letter, you will need to press dot 7 in conjunction with the letter in order to get to that note. Otherwise, you’re just going to stay where you are and not move anywhere. The reason this works as it does is that the title of the notes are in computer Braille. So if a note’s name begins with a capital letter, you do need to press dot 7, which is a capital in computer Braille, in conjunction with that note’s first letter to reach it.
A powerful way that you can interact with menu items is by using dots 7 and 8, or Backspace and Enter respectively, on the Perkins-style keyboard. For instance, if I’m on Battery in the menu, I can press Enter to see what my battery status is and then Backspace to move me back to the main menu. Note that these two keys don’t allow you to cycle among menu items, but you can utilize them to select and back out of certain items.
Another example: If I wish to know what connections I have available to me, in other words, what devices I have connected to my Brailliant, I can press Enter on the Connections menu item, see what connections I have available, and either cycle through them and select one of them using Enter, or back out of the Connections item using my Backspace key. Remember that dot 7, or Backspace, is under your left little finger when you have all of your fingers placed on the Perkins-style keyboard, while dot 8, or Enter, is under your right little finger.
Enter is also used to select various options. So while you can use it to, say, enter a menu, for instance, or enter a submenu, you can also use it if there is an item that you need to select. For instance, if you go into the Notes item within the menu and then go into Local Notes, you can select both Notes and Local by pressing the enter key. If you wish to, for instance, select the first note within your Local Notes menu, you can press Enter on it and that will open that note.
But there are other ways that you can select items, as well as the enter key. One of these is Space. Often, your Spacebar behaves the same way as Enter. For instance, if I want to know my battery status and I’ve scrolled through the menu to Battery, I can press my Spacebar to discover my battery percentage. Then I can use my dot 7 key, or Backspace, or I can press up on the joystick to move me out of that menu.
Note that if you have selected a particular menu item such as Notes, Battery, Stopwatch, et cetera, in order to back out of it, you can’t use your Previous and Next thumb keys to actually back out. They only cycle you between items at a given level. To back out, you would need to press up on the joystick or your Backspace key.
There are two other powerful ways to select items. Let’s move back to the joystick for a second. You can press directly in on the joystick to select a menu item. Let me explain so that there’s no confusion. If you’re pressing up on the joystick, you’re pressing it away from you. If you’re pressing down on the joystick, you’re pressing it toward you. And if you’re pressing in on it, you’re pressing down just like you’re pressing a button. Let’s go back to my battery example. If I move to Battery within the menu, I can press in on the joystick to discover my battery status. If I am in Connections and I move to the connection that I want, I can press in on the joystick to select that connection. Or if I’m in Settings, for instance, and I want to change my Sleep Time, I can find the duration that I wish to change to and press in on the joystick to activate that option.
So far, we’ve learned that Space, Enter, and pressing in on the joystick will select an item. But there’s one other very powerful way to do this. This is by interacting with your cursor routing sensors. If you’re used to other Humanware devices, you may be familiar with the cursor routing keys that are often found above each cell. In this case, these aren’t keys, they’re sensors. So you aren’t going to find physical keys above each of the 14 cells on your Brailliant 14. However, you will find the cursor routing sensors. You can press any of these to select an item.
Let me use my battery example again. If I am on that menu item, I can press any cursor routing sensor above the letters of the word, "Battery”, to select this menu item and discover the battery’s status. And now, I can see that my battery’s status is 89 percent. I don’t know if you were able to hear, but there is a vibration – at least the way my configuration is currently set up – when I press on one of the cursor routing sensors. To move out of the status, I will press my Backspace key. If I were to press a cursor routing sensor over any of the empty cells after the word, "Battery”, I would not have been able to select that menu item. So you do need to press one of the cursor routing sensors over the letters of the word whose menu item you wish to select.
If you have another device connected to your Brailliant, you can use some of these same navigation strategies to move through the items on that device using your Brailliant while in Terminal Mode. For instance, let’s say you have your iPhone connected and you wish to move through items on the home screen of your iPhone. You can use either your Previous and Next thumb keys to scroll between items, or you can move using the left and right movements on the joystick.
While not all of the navigation methods that we’ve discussed here will work in every circumstance, whether or not you have another device connected to your Brailliant, you’ll be able to find unique ways to navigate depending on your situation or just your particular taste. I hope you enjoy playing with the different navigation strategies and that you find those that are the most convenience and beneficial for you.
When discussing the Brailliant’s menu, I’m going to have mine in Application Mode. This means my switch on the back of the device is going to be flipped to the left. The reason I’m doing this is while you can access some of these menu items from Terminal Mode, you’ll find a wider selection of menu items in Application Mode. I will flip to Terminal Mode before this module is over and show you the differences in which menu items are included in which mode.
Two things to note about Brailliant menus before we get started. One is that the menus are in uncontracted Braille, and the second is that menu items and sub menu items wrap around. So if you get to the end, with the next press of your thumb key or your joystick, you’ll be back around to the first item in your menu or submenu.
So I have just powered on my Brailliant, and I’m in Application Mode. Once the word, "Starting," disappears from my display, I’m in the menu and I am placed on the time. If your time is incorrect when you get your Brailliant, don’t worry because once you use the Brailliant Sync application for the first time to sync notes between an Email account and your Brailliant, the time will change automatically to coincide with that of the device with which you are syncing. Don’t worry if this makes no sense now. There is a module later on all about the synchronization capabilities of your Brailliant. Once the time syncs, it is set and you no longer have to worry about it.
Currently, my time says it’s 1:20 p.m., and my second hand is moving forward – five seconds, six seconds, seven seconds. So I can see how many seconds are going by. This little application is called the Watch application, or app. You’ll hear me refer to applications as both applications and apps throughout these modules.
The Watch app doesn’t just include the time. This is one of the only times where you will have to use your panning keys, in other words, your inner-most thumb keys, to reach an item on the menu. So if I press my Right thumb key, I will see my date, which is August 16, 2018. If I press my Left thumb key, I’ll be back at the time. So in order to see that date, you do need to pan. Again, if your date is wrong now, it will synchronize when you connect to a device.
After the Watch application, the next app I see on my menu is Notes. We’re going to talk a lot about Notes in the course of these modules. If I go in here at this point -- and I’m going to do so by pressing my Enter key -- I see Local and I see notes from my Gmail address, because I have that account synced so that I can access notes both in my Gmail and through my Brailliant. So you could have local notes that are available just on your Brailliant, and you can sync notes from other accounts. That’s one of the really nice conveniences of the Brailliant and a really unique feature among notetakers. Later in these modules, I will show you how to synchronize an Email address with your Brailliant.
I’m going to move back out of Notes, and I did it by using my Backspace key, but I also could have pressed up on my joystick. If you wish to navigate this menu, remember that you’ve got lots of different options. I’ve been using my Previous and Next thumb keys, but you could also move left and right using your joystick, and you can press in on it when you wish to select an item, or you could press Enter to select an item, or Space. There are multiple options, and you can learn more about navigation in a previous module.
After Notes, you’ll find Battery. I’m going to press a cursor routing sensor over Battery, and it’ll show me my battery status, which is currently 74 percent. This is another place where you can actually pan to learn a little bit more information about your battery. When you’re in this menu option and you see your battery status, you can pan using your Right thumb key, and it will either say "Charging" or "No charging". So if you have it plugged in and it is charging, you will see that that is the case. If it is not charging, you will see that information as well. You can use your Left thumb key to pan back to Battery and either Backspace or pressing up on the joystick will move you back out of this menu option. I backed out using my Backspace key. There is another way to see your battery status. If your Brailliant is turned off, you can press the Power button quickly, and you will be able to see your battery status.
If you navigate to the next menu item – and this time, I’m doing so using the joystick and pressing right on it – you’ll see the next application, which is Stopwatch. That one’s pretty self-explanatory. You can go in here and you can set stopwatch timers for various things and see how long various tasks take you.
If I press my Next thumb key to move to the next menu item, I see Connections. When I select this item – and I’m doing so with the cursor routing sensor, I see none. Currently, I have no items connected. If I were to unlock my iPad right now though, I would be able to see its name on my Brailliant. That’s because I have my iPad connected so that I can use it in Terminal Mode. You may have up to five Bluetooth devices and one USB device connected at the same time, and in the Connection menu, you’ll be able to switch between them. Currently, there is no shortcut to do this. You will need to go into your menu and move to Connections. The easiest way may be just to go into the menu and press the letter, C. From there, you will be able to enter that menu item and either press the first letter of the name of your device or move through using any of the methods we’ve talked about previously to find the device to connect to and select it.
Next in our menu after connections, we have Settings. In our next module, we’re going to discuss Settings in depth.
The final item in the Application Mode menu is About. If you go in here, you’re going to find the version number, the serial number, something called SDVer, which I assume is SD version, and an item called Upgrade. Currently, the easiest way to know when an upgrade is available for your Brailliant is to check Humanware’s website. You may also receive an Email with that information.
Those are the menu items available in Application Mode. I’m going to turn my switch to the right on my device, and now, I am in Terminal Mode. My display is currently empty. If I just give one quick press of the Power button, however, I will be in a very similar looking menu.
I’ve landed in my Watch application, so I can see my time, and if I pan, I can see my date. Then I have Battery, Stopwatch, Connections, Settings, About, and Exit. Exit obviously will take me out of this menu so that I can, once again, read information from any of my connected devices. So the item that is not available in Terminal Mode is Notes. You can only view your notes from Application Mode.
Remember that you also have first-letter navigation available to you in these menus. So you can press the first letter of a menu item’s name to reach it quickly. If you are in Terminal Mode, there is a second way to exit that menu. You can give another quick press of the Power button, and the menu will disappear. If you’re in Application Mode however, the menu is always there. You can always back out of an application and scroll through that menu with a navigation method or methods of your choice.
We will be delving into these menu applications in upcoming sections. In our next module, we’re going to talk all about Settings.
Like most of the Brailliant’s menu items, Settings is available both in Application and in Terminal Mode. Once you find the item in your menu, you can enter it by either pressing Space, Enter, pressing in on the joystick, or one of the cursor routing sensors over "Settings". As with the menus and submenus, your settings are in uncontracted Braille. There are several options in here that can assist you in configuring your Brailliant in the way that works best for you.
The first setting within Settings that we come to is Auto-power-off. In other words, this is asking you how long you want it to be before your Brailliant powers off completely. You have various options here: 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, 60 minutes, or Off. So if you want your Brailliant to never turn itself off automatically, you can select this option. To select one of these options, you can either press a cursor routing sensor over it, you can press Enter, Space, or in on the joystick. So whatever period of time you select, after that period of time has passed with no activity, in other words, no interaction with connected devices, no interaction from you on the Brailliant itself, no keystrokes, et cetera, the device will completely turn itself off.
When an item is selected on the Brailliant in these settings, you will know that that item is the selected item because it will be represented by an eight-dot sign. So you will see all eight dots raised next to your selected item. So let’s say you have something turned on, and you turned it off. Next to "Off," you will see all eight dots raised. This eight-dot sign allows you to easily recognize and differentiate a selected item from any other items shown as part of the option.
The next item in the Settings menu is Sleep. This is pretty similar to the Auto-power-off except that it means that your Brailliant will go to sleep after a particular amount of time rather than turning off completely. You’ll be able to wake it up again by pressing any key on the Brailliant. If you have a mobile device such as an iPhone, you’ll be familiar with how a Sleep mode works. You have similar options as to what you had in the Auto-power-off: 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 10, 15, 20, 30, 45, 60 minutes, and Off.
After Sleep, there’s Sound. And the only options in Sound are turn it on, or turn it off. So if you don’t want to hear the little beep, for instance, when you turn on or off your Brailliant, you can choose to turn that off by turning off sounds.
Next, the vibration. If you don’t want to experience any vibrations on the Brailliant, you can turn them off. And if you change your mind, you can turn them on. Again, to select any of these options, you can use Enter, Space, pressing in on the joystick, cursor routing sensors. The choice is totally yours.
The next two items in Settings are interesting ones. They’re called Cursor Sens, and after that, Cursor Vib. These stand for Cursor Sensitivity and Cursor Vibration respectively. Cursor Sensitivity means how sensitive do you want your cursor routing sensors to be? You have options between one and five, and you can turn off cursor sensitivity completely. I have mine set to four. That means you have to work a little bit to press over those cursor routing buttons. One is very sensitive. I encourage you to play with these various sensitivity settings and see what works best for you.
Same thing with cursor vibration. How much is your Brailliant going to vibrate when you press one of those cursor routing sensors? Again, experimentation here may be worthwhile to find out what works best for you. You, again, can select from one to five or turn this off completely. I really haven’t found a setting that works for me yet, in terms of what I like most.
After Cursor Vib, or Cursor Vibration, you’ll find something called Computer Braille. You’ll go in here to set your computer Braille table, and you have various options available to you. Remember that within these menu items, you can use first-letter navigation to select an item quickly. So for instance, in here, if you want to select French for your table, you can press F; English, E; German, D for Deutsche; et cetera. Once you find the item you want, you can select that item.
The next item in your Settings menu is Literary Braille, and the same concept applies here. You’ll go in here to select your literary Braille table.
The third Braille option in Settings is Default Braille. Here, you will choose whether you wish for Literary or Computer Braille to be your default braille used on the Brailliant.
After this setting, we have Language, and you will just choose your language from among the choices available.
Next, we have One-hand Mode, and you can go in here to turn it on or off. Later, I will be showing you how to use One-hand Mode in its own module.
Then, the menu cycles us back to Auto-power-off. So those are the items available within this menu. One thing to note here: If you accidentally back out of Settings and need to go right back into it to reconfigure something, you will be on the setting that you were last on. For instance, if I accidentally back out of Settings and I’m on Sound and I meant to turn sound off, I can go straight back into Settings and it will put me directly back into Sound. So I can go into it and select the option I wish to choose.
I mentioned earlier that we were going to talk quite a lot about notes in these modules. The first type of notes that I want to discuss with you are local notes. Remember that to access Notes from within the menu, you’ll need to be in Application Mode to do so.
I’m going to press N to go to Notes, and I have a couple of folders in here. You will only have one if you’ve just received your Brailliant, and your folder name will be "Local". If I go into my Local Notes folder right now, the message that I receive is "Empty". I currently have no local notes.
Before I create a note and show you how it works, let me explain what a local note is. One of the things that really makes the Brailliant special is that you can synchronize notes across various devices and accounts. I’ll show you that in a later module. You cannot, however, synchronize a local note to other devices. It is simply, as it says it is, a local note. It is available strictly through your Brailliant. There are any number of ways that you can choose to use local notes, however. You can use notes as shopping lists, you could use a note as a scratch pad to write down a phone number or address or Email address, you could make a note for a reminder, something you know you need to do and you have nothing else to write with at the moment. You may want to think of the Local Notes folder as a way to store and save your more private notes. For instance, if you wanted to put a credit card number in here that you needed briefly, you could do that. You could keep a journal in here. If you needed to write down something confidential, you could do that as well. So these notes are your own personal notes that you have no intention of sharing with anyone.
There are any number of ways that you can use local notes to add some efficiency to your life. There are eight gigabytes of storage available in the Brailliant for notes.
Let’s create a note, and I’ll show you how this works. To create a new local note, I’m going to press Space with N, and I can see my cursor sitting in the first cell and nothing else in this note. I’m going to be really original and I’m going to type, "This is a test!” exclamation mark.
Now that I have this note written, there are a few very basic editing commands that I can use. For a new line, I can press Enter, or I can press in on the joystick. To backspace, I can use the Backspace key, or Space with B. For the previous line, I can use Space with dot 1, or I can move up using the joystick. To go to the next line, I can use Space with dot 4 or joystick down. To move to the previous word, I can use Space with dot 2. To go to the next word, I can use Space and dot 5. To move to the previous character, it’s Space with dot 3 or move the joystick to the left. Next character: Space with dot 6 or move the joystick to the right. To move to the top of a note, Space with dots 1-2-3. To move to the end of the note, Space with dots 4-5-6. Please keep in mind that when I’m saying, "Space with” or "Space and,” this means that you press the dots in conjunction with the Spacebar. So for instance, to go to the top, or beginning, of a note, you’ll press the Spacebar in combination with dots 1-2-3.
There are some commands related to saving notes too, but we’ll get to those in just a second. In addition to those commands, I want to remind you of the power of these cursor routing sensors. I added a little bit more to my note, and I’m going to go to the top of the note and read it to you. I’m going to pan through with my Left and Right panning keys. It says, "This is a test. This will be used in the Brailliant module.”
I purposefully made some mistakes in here. Instead of Brailliant, I wrote, "Exclamation." So I have an L where the R needs to be. If I wish to delete that, I can press a cursor routing sensor over the first A in the word, "Brailliant," and I can backspace. Now, my incorrect L has disappeared, and I can put an R here. I also put an N to begin the word, "module" rather than M. So if I wish to change that, I will press a cursor routing sensor over the letter, O, of "module," Backspace to delete the N, and put in an M.
I can also insert text in the same way. Let’s say, for instance, I wanted "module" to be "modules," I could press a cursor routing sensor over the period, if there was one, or directly after the E of "module," and then insert an S after that. Remember that you can move your cursor position with either the cursor routing sensors, the joystick, or using the commands I just mentioned to move by character, word, or line.
In the case of this particular note, I don’t want to save it, so I’ll use one of the save commands available. In this case, a command not to save. I can press space with the letter, Z, and I get a prompt that says, "Exit without saving." I’m going to press Y for yes on this because I do not want this note, and I am back to the message, "empty," because I have no notes in my Local Notes folder.
Please note that this Space with Z command also works very well if you have a note, you’ve gone into it, and you’ve added text that you don’t want to save. So for instance, let’s say I have a note called Class, and I put some stuff in Class, say, some notes that I just needed for myself yesterday, and I saved those notes. But when I went to Class today, and I went to the lecture, I realized I made a few notes but I don’t really need them. If I don’t need the changes that I made today, I can just press Space with Z, exit without saving, and I still have the information from yesterday, just not the stuff that I didn’t need from today.
There are two other save commands available to you. To save the note, it’s Space with S. This command will leave you in the note so that you can continue writing. If you wish to save and exit the note, it’s Space with E. And again, if you don’t wish to save your current note, it’s Space with Z to exit it.
When you are saving a note, it’s important to know that you can’t give the note a name of your choice. It saves the note as the first few words of that note. For instance, if my note says, "Hi. This is a test,” it will likely save my note as something very similar to that. And then I’ll be able to find it in my notes list. If this is confusing for you, consider putting a title in your note. In other words, have the first thing you type in the note be what you would like that note to be called. For instance, I could have called the note I just wrote, "Tests note," or something really original like that. That way, when I found it in my list of notes, it would have said, "Tests note.”
The way I would do this is write the, quote, unquote, title of the note, press Enter twice to make a line break, and then begin my note. That way, if I’m reading it back on the display, I understand and remember that I wrote a title. Also, putting titles in your notes can assist you with organization and finding the notes you want more easily and quickly.
If you wish to switch between computer and literary braille when you are in a note, the command to do that is Space with G, Space with dots 1-2-4-5. If you’re in literary Braille mode, your cursor will be represented by dots 7 and 8. If you’re in computer Braille, the cursor will be represented by dot 8. Just a reminder: If you have a long list of notes in any of your Notes folders, including your Local folder, and you wish to find a note quickly, you can use first-letter navigation to find that note. However, if that note’s name begins with a capital letter, you will need to press dot 7 in combination with the first letter of that note’s name. For instance, if you’re looking for a note called "Grocery Store" and you know it begins with a capital G, you’ll need to press dot 7 in combination with dots 1-2-4-5 for G. The reason you need to do this is because the Notes list is in computer Braille. If you just press G to try and find that note, it’s not going to work. You do need to press dot 7 to represent the capital letter. Then, you’ll be able to select that note to open it with whichever command you prefer for doing that.
If you have a note and you know you just don’t want it anymore, you can find it in your Notes list by scrolling to it, and you can press space with D to delete that note. If by chance, you turn the power off on your Brailliant while you are in a note, it will save your note for you. That is something good to know if that happens to you. We will be talking about synchronizing notes in an upcoming module.
Have you ever had an experience where you really wanted to time a task? The Brailliant has you covered with the Stopwatch app. You can either be in Terminal Mode or Application Mode to reach this app in the menu. You can scroll through, or you can press S to take you to Stopwatch. Once you open it, you’re going to see several 0s, and then you’ll be ready to start timing a task. You can time tasks to assist you in productivity, to time an action that you’re taking for work, an exam that you’re taking, a task that you’re trying to complete more quickly, your lunch break, there are any number of things that you can time using a stopwatch.
It’s very easy to start and stop this app. To start the stopwatch, you’ll press Space, and you’ll see all the seconds and even the milliseconds bounce by on the display of your Brailliant, which is actually kind of fun.
When you have completed your task, you can stop the stopwatch just by pressing Space once again, and then you’ll be able to see your completed time.
If you need to resume timing your task, you can hit Space once again, and it will resume where your time left off. When you are ready to clear the stopwatch, perhaps to begin timing another task or to exit the app, make sure that you have stopped the stopwatch and press Space with C. That will clear the time on your stopwatch, and you will be ready to time your next task.
If you need to use the Brailliant in One-hand Mode, that option is available to you within Settings. If you have the use of only one hand, and you need to get to Settings to turn One-hand Mode on, the easiest way to do that is to use the joystick. Navigate left or right with your joystick until you find settings, and you can press in on the joystick to enter settings. Press the joystick to the left, and that will immediately take you to One-hand Mode. Again, press in on the joystick to select, and you’ll have two options for One-hand Mode, on and off. Move the joystick to the right to get to the On option, and again, press in on the joystick to select that you want One-hand Mode on.
Please note that when you have One-hand Mode turned on and you either power off your Brailliant or it goes to sleep, when you wake it up or power it on, you will have a message come up on your display that reminds you that you are in fact, in One-hand Mode.
So now that you’ve turned on One-hand Mode, you can then press up on the joystick to get out of the One-hand Mode options and up again to take you out of the Settings menu. The way I now want to show you how to use One-hand Mode is in Notes. So I’m going to now move my joystick to the right to more quickly reach the notes application. I’m going to press in on the joystick to select Notes. Now, I’m going to press in on the joystick again to take me into Local Notes because that is my first option, and that is where I’m actually going to show you more about how One-hand Mode operates.
There are a few things to remember about using One-hand Mode. I believe the most important thing to remember is that the Spacebar is your friend, and you will use it to assist you in executing commands in One-hand Mode. If you need to execute a Backspace or Enter command, you need to press Backspace or Enter followed by Space. For instance, I want to back out of these on-off options for One-hand Mode, so I’m going to type Enter, Space, and now, I can use my Previous and Next thumb keys to move through Settings. But that’s not what I want to do. I want to back out of here again, Backspace, Space. Now, I’m back on Settings. I’m going to find Notes so that I can show you more about what One-hand Mode is like.
The trick with One-hand Mode is you can press keys in combination with one another. For instance, I want to get to Notes and I’m sitting on Settings. Rather than having to scroll through with my joystick or my Previous and Next thumb keys, I can press the letter N in any combination that I wish. So I’m going to press dots 1-3 together and dots 4-5 together, and press Space. That takes me to Notes. I want to enter Notes, so I’m going to now type Enter, followed by space, and I’m going to move to Local. You could do that with your joystick or with your Previous and Next thumb keys, or you could press the letter, L, in any combination that you like or altogether since it’s a one-handed command and press Space, and that will take you to your Local Notes folder. This is just an example, obviously, that I’m using to show you how One-hand Mode works.
I’m now sitting in my Local Notes folder. And when I got to it, I just pressed a cursor routing sensor over Local to get me into the folder.
Now, I want to open a new note. If you wish to execute a command that includes the spacebar, you’ll press the Space first, then the command, then Space again. So in order to open a new note, which is space with N, I’m going to press space. This time, I’m going to do dots 4-5 and dot 1, and then dot 3 for my N and press space, and it has opened a new note for me. So now I can type in a note.
To type in One-hand Mode, you will press the keys that make up the letter, number, or symbol that you wish to type followed by the spacebar. I’m going to type, "Hi. I’m typing in One-hand Mode.” I’m currently in literary Braille, so I’m going to type dot 6, Space, and now I have a capital letter. I’m going to press dots 1-2 together and dot 5 for H and Space. Dot 2 and dot 4 for I, Space. And when I press the Space, the letter I just typed appears on the display. Dot 2-5-6 for period, Space. Now, I need another Space, so how do I do this? I will press Space twice, and that will execute a spacebar.
Now, I’m going to type I. So again, dot 6, space for the capital letter, dot 2, dot 4, Space. And then Space twice to execute a spacebar. A, which is dot 1, Space; dot 1-3-4 for M, Space; and then two spaces. So I have the word, "am."
I’m going to do the same thing for the word, “typing.” T, dots 2-3 and dots 4-5, Space; Y, dots 1 and 3 and dots 4-5-6, Space; P, dots 1-2-3 and dot 4, Space. I’m going to use the I-n-g contraction, dot 3 and dots 4-6 together, Space. Two spaces, so I have the word, “typing” followed by a space.
For the word, "in," I’m going to just spell it out, dot 2 and dot 4 for I, Space, dots 1-3 and dots 4-5 together, Space, two spaces, so I have the word "in." Dots 1-3-5 for O, Space, dots 1-3-4-5 for N, Space, dots 1 and 5 for E, two Spaces for space, dots 1-2-5 for H, Space. I’m going to do the contraction for “and” to end the word hand, dots 1-2-3, and dots 4-6 followed by a Space. Remember, you can type these in any combination that you wish. I need a space here, so two Spaces.
And the final word, dots 1-3 and then dot 4 for M, followed by a Space; dots 1-3, then dot 5 for O, followed by a Space. For D, I’m going to do dots 4-5 and 1, Space. I’m going to do dot 5 and dot 1 for E, followed by a Space, and dots 5-6 and dot 2 for the period and two Spaces to finish my sentence.
So I hope this gives you an idea of how you do this. If you are writing a letter or a number, you will follow it with a Space to execute it. If you wish to execute an Enter or a Backspace, you will press Enter or Backspace followed by the Space. For instance, let’s say I want to get rid of this period. Backspace, Space, and it’s gone. In my case, since I put a Space after the period, I had to execute Backspace and Space a couple of times.
If you wish to execute commands that include the spacebar, you would press Space, your command, and then Space again. For instance, when I opened a new note, I did Space, the letter N – you could do it in whatever combination you want – and Space again. I want to save this note and exit it. So I’m going to type Space, dot 1 and 5 to represent E, and Space. And now, I have my note and it is saved. And I have exited my notes.
So now, to back out of Notes, I’m going to press up on the joystick. I’m now sitting on my Local Notes folder. I’m going to press up on the joystick again to get to Notes. I now want to move back to Settings to turn One-hand Mode off, so I’m going to type dots 2-3 and dot 4, followed by Space. And it put me on Stopwatch, so I need to do the same thing again. Now, I’m on Settings. I entered Settings using a cursor routing sensor. And now I wish to move to One-hand Mode, so I’m going to type dots 1-3 and dot 5 followed by a Space. That inserts my O. I can now go into One-hand Mode. And again, I chose to do this with a cursor routing sensor. I can use my Next thumb key or the joystick to take me from On to Off. I can select Off, and I did that with a cursor routing sensor. And now I have turned One-hand Mode off.
So I hope this is a clear explanation, and that if this is something you should ever need, you will be able to use it with confidence.
Terminal Mode allows you to read and interact with the contents of another device. For instance, if you want a Braille display to assist you in reading the contents on a PC, navigating web pages, reading Emails, reading news articles, et cetera, you can connect your Brailliant 14 with your PC in order to do this. There are two ways in which you can connect to a PC or Mac with a Brailliant 14. One is using Bluetooth, and one is using the USB cable that came with your Brailliant. In this module, I’m going to show you how to connect via Bluetooth using both JAWS and NVDA, and I’m also going to explain the differences in the process when connecting via USB.
If you have Bluetooth built into your computer, this is a way to connect your Brailliant without the use of any cables or wires, so it can be very handy if you need a little bit more portability. Generally, there is a range of about 30 feet before your Brailliant will be out of range and not work properly with your PC or Mac. But as long as you keep it within that 30-feet range, everything should work great when you’re connected via Bluetooth. I don’t actually have Bluetooth built into my PC. However, I have a Bluetooth dongle. This is a little bitty device that I plug into a USB port on my computer, which allows me to have Bluetooth access. So if you don’t have Bluetooth built in and you would like to connect to your Brailliant wirelessly to your PC or Mac, you can get a little USB dongle for about 5 U.S. dollars, and it’s plug and play. It simply plugs into a USB port on your computer, and you can use it to connect. Please note that for this demonstration, I’m going to be using a PC, but the way that you will connect on a Mac is very similar to this.
With NVDA, I will be using the CereProc Katherine voice; with JAWS, I will be using the Windows 10 core voice, Mark.
First, I’m going to show you how easy it is to connect the Brailliant via Bluetooth with the NVDA screen reader. I’m on a Windows 10 machine, running the latest build of NVDA. I have my Bluetooth dongle plugged in via USB. If you have Bluetooth built into your computer, this process will work pretty similarly. I’m going to make sure my Brailliant is in Terminal Mode by flipping the switch to the right and powering on the unit. The Brailliant says, "Starting," and once that text disappears from the screen, it says, "Hello." I’m now going to move to my system tray on the PC
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: User promoted notification area tool bar. Ninite Updater last update check.
KIM: And I did that by pressing Windows+B on my PC. I’m now going to down arrow until I reach Bluetooth.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Bluetooth devices button, Bluetooth devices tool tip.
KIM: In my case, I just had to arrow down once. And the PC said "Bluetooth devices." From here, I’m going to enter my context menu. On a PC, you can do this by pressing either Shift+F10 or your Applications key. I’m going to press my Applications key.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Context menu.
KIM: And my screen reader says, "Context menu." I’m going to arrow down.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Add a Bluetooth device, A.
KIM: And it says, "Add a Bluetooth device." This is what I want to do, so I’m going to press enter here.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Bluetooth notification area icon, window class. Add Bluetooth or other device button.
KIM: The screen reader says, "Add Bluetooth or other device." I’m going to press enter here.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Add a device. Window shell experience, host window. Bluetooth button, mice, keyboards, pens, or audio and other kinds of Bluetooth devices.
KIM: And now, my screen reader is essentially asking me what type of Bluetooth device I wish to add. And the option that the computer is on currently is Mice, pens, keyboards, audio and other devices. I’m paraphrasing that slightly, but that is what I want, so I’m going to press enter.
And I land on a cancel button. I can now press tab to see a list of devices that my computer sees.
For some reason, it’s not seeing my Brailliant, so I’m going to flip into Application Mode by turning my switch to the left and change my switch back to the right, and now moving back to the PC, I’m going to arrow through this list again –
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Living room – charge – Brailliant 14, not selected, 3 of 3.
KIM: And you heard a low beep tone right there. That is to mask the serial number of my Brailliant 14. You will hear that same low tone again later in this section. So please know that that’s what that is. And now, my computer sees my Brailliant. So sometimes, you may have to find a little trick to make your computer see your device. I’m going to press enter here.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Selected. Done button.
KIM: It said, "Selected" when I pressed enter. I then got a notification on my PC, and now I have a, "Done” button. I’m going to –
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: New notification from settings: Setting up a device. We’re setting up Brailliant 14 window.
KIM: And now, it says it’s setting up my Brailliant. I’m going to press enter on this done button now.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Settings. Settings window: Add Bluetooth or other device button.
KIM: And I’m back on the "Add Bluetooth or other device" button. So now that I’ve pressed "Done," I’m going to close the Settings window with alt+F-4.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Documents window: Items view list.
KIM: And now, I’m going to go into my NVDA preferences. To get there, I need to go into the NVDA menu with modifier N.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: NVDA menu: Preferences sub menu, P.
KIM: I pressed down arrow. I’m going to press enter on Preferences.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Settings, S.
KIM: And now, I’m going to press enter again on settings.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: NVDA: General, normal configuration dialogue. Categories, list, general, 1 of 11.
KIM: I’m in a categories list. I’m going to arrow down to Braille.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Speech, 2 of 11; Braille, 3 of 11.
KIM: And tab.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Braille display grouping. Braille display edit, read only, multiline, alt plus D, no Braille.
KIM: It says, "No Braille" for my Braille display. I’m going to change this. To do this, I’m going to press tab.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Change button, Alt plus H.
KIM: And enter on the word, "change."
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Select Braille display dialogue, Braille display combo box, no Braille, collapsed, Alt plus D.
And it says, "Select Braille display." I’m going to press H now, to get me to the Humanware Braille display that I want. I’m looking for something like Humanware Brailliant.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Handy tech -- Hayato Mobile, Hayato Profile, HIMS Braille, Humanware Brailleationote, Humanware Brailliant BI, slash, B series, slash BrailleNote touch.
KIM: And here it is. If you’re in the list of Braille displays that are available to connect, you’ll see Humanware BrailleNote and Humanware Brailliant. Because this is a Brailliant 14, you want Brailliant. From here, I’m going to tab, and my screen reader says, "Port: automatic." I’m going to down-arrow –
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Bluetooth.
KIM: -- to "Bluetooth," and tab –
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Okay button.
KIM: -- to the "Okay" button and press enter.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: NVDA: Braille, normal configuration dialogue. Braille display grouping, Braille display edit, read only multiline Alt plus D, Humanware Brailliant BI, slash, B series, slash, braille note.
KIM: And here I am. I have successfully connected. And now, instead of saying I have no Braille with NVDA, it says I am connected to a Brailliant.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Documents window: Items view list, Brailliant 14 final outline dot TXT, 17 of 39.
KIM: I pressed space with E using the Brailliant itself, and that escaped me out of that dialogue.
So now, I am actually connected to my PC with my Brailliant. I’m in my document’s list, so I should be able to joystick down.
So if I wanted to, I could find a document.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Events Class Reminder template dot TX –
KIM: Press enter on my Brailliant.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Events class reminder template dot TXT – screen reader mode – edit multiline –
KIM: And I could open up my document. Trying to exit this document with Space E does not work as it did with the NVDA menu. That’s because Space with E represents Escape rather than a save and exit or an Alt+F4 command.
For a list of keystrokes that you can utilize using your Brailliant and NVDA simultaneously, the best place to look is probably in your user documentation for NVDA. I’ll show you how you can access that. I’m going to press modifier N.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: NVDA menu.
KIM: I’m now going to up arrow.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Exit, X; donate, D; save configuration, S; reset configuration to factory defaults, R; revert to saved configuration, R; configuration profiles; Help submenu, H.
KIM: I’m going to press enter on this Help submenu.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: User guide.
KIM: And there is your user guide.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Commands Quick Reference, Q.
KIM: If you down arrow from there, you’ll see Commands Quick Reference.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: What’s New, N.
KIM: And if you down arrow one more time, you’ll see, "What's New." And there are other things in this menu as well. But those are three areas in particular, the User Guide and the Commands Quick Reference, that may assist you in finding out more information. I don’t know what your particular connection may be called. When I go into the Connections menu to see what this set up is called, mine just says, "Device." How very ambiguous. But that’s okay because I currently know that I only have two devices connected, this and my iPad.
I’m now going to switch screen readers. And when I exited NVDA, you heard the NVDA exit sound, and I also received a vibration from my Brailliant telling me that the screen reader was no longer connected. I’m now going to run JAWS. With JAWS, you’re going to have essentially the same experience connecting. First, you’re going to install the JAWS drivers, which you can find on humanware.com’s support page. Note that this differs from connecting with NVDA; no drivers are necessary. However with JAWS, you need to install drivers in order to connect. Then you’re going to go through the Bluetooth set up the same way we did using NVDA. You'll find Bluetooth on your computer, "Add a new device," and find your Brailliant.
Once you have paired with your Brailliant, you will go into your JAWS menu, with JAWS key, J.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: JAWS context menu, Options submenu. To navigate, press up or down arrow.
KIM: You’re going to go into the Options menu. I pressed Enter to get into this menu. Now, I’m going to down-arrow. There are several options in here. The one I’m looking for is Braille
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Voices submenu, Braille, dot, dot, dot.
KIM: And here it is. I’m going to press Enter here. And it tells me that the Brailliant 14 is my active Braille display.
So automatically, when installing the drivers, it has set this as my default display. Again, if you are looking for documentation to assist you in using your Brailliant in connection with JAWS and finding relevant key commands, your best bet is to go through your JAWS menu and look for relevant documentation. You should be able to find manuals and keyboard commands that will assist you.
If you wish to connect via USB, this means that you will not have a wireless connection the way you do with Bluetooth. However, for most screen readers, it should be a very seamless process, even easier than connecting via Bluetooth. First you’ll need to go to the humanware.com support page and find the USB drivers that work with the Brailliant. These are needed to connect the screen reader via USB, and you will need to install those first. Then, you will just plug the larger end of your USB cable into a USB port on your computer. You’ll plug the small rectangular end of the USB cable into the Brailliant’s USB port. Remember that that’s on the left-hand side of the Brailliant closer to the display and that the little nibs on the USB cable go down when you plug it in. Plug it in gently but firmly, and then you will need to go into your screen reader’s menus or settings, depending on your screen reader. With NVDA, it’s modifier N; with JAWS, it’s JAWS key, J, and you can press those keys simultaneously. That will take you into the menu. You will look for something like Braille, and you should just automatically see your Brailliant show up among your Braille displays listed, and you can select it from there. Once you select it, you should be connected to your computer.
You can very easily connect to your iOS devices while using your Brailliant in Terminal Mode. This includes your iPads, iPods, and iPhones. This allows you to read information from, and interact with, your iOS devices using your Brailliant 14. Pairing is exceedingly fast and a very pleasant experience.
For this demonstration, I will be using my Alex voice on my iOS device. In my case, it’s an iPad mini, and I’m going to show you how to connect to the Brailliant. I’m going to turn my Brailliant switch to the right so that I will be in Terminal Mode. I have Bluetooth turned on on my iOS device, and now I’m going to go to Settings.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Settings, one new item. Double-tap to open.
KIM: So I’ve opened Settings. I now want to go to General.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Notifications – control center, selected Button. About Button.
KIM: And I’ve double-tapped to open General settings. From here, I want to look for Accessibility.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Hand-off, Multi-tasking and dock, Accessibility button. Selected, vision heading.
KIM: I’ve opened Accessibility, and now I want to go to VoiceOver.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: VoiceOver, on, button. VoiceOver – over on.
KIM: And I’ve double-tapped to open VoiceOver. From here, I want to go to braille.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: VoiceOver practice, speaking rate, speaking rate -- Speech button, Verbosity button, Braille button.
KIM: And I’m going to double-tap.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Selected, Braille – output, contracted button.
KIM: Braille settings have now opened. You can set all of your Braille settings from here. These settings determine how your Braille input and output appear on your iDevice. What I want to do though, is add another display. So I need to move all the way to the right-hand side of the screen. And I’m just moving through various settings to get there.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Alert display duration – choose a Braille display.
KIM: And I see this option that says, "Choose a Braille display."
And it says, "In progress." If I move to the right, I will see the Braille displays that I have connected with my iOS device, and I should find my Brailliant somewhere towards the end of this list.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Bluetooth keyboard, more info. Braille – more info. V, star – more info. Brailliant 14 – not paired button.
KIM: It sees my Brailliant. As I said, I have the Brailliant 14 on and in Terminal Mode, and it does see it.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Brailliant 14.
KIM: And it shows Brailliant 14 along with my serial number. I’m masking my serial number with my Brailliant with a low beep. All I have to do to connect is double-tap.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Brailliant 14 – pairing.
KIM: And it says, "Pairing." And as it was pairing, I heard a beep from my Brailliant as well as a connection sound from my iOS device. And if I move back through my Braille displays now, I will see –
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: More info button. Selected, Brailliant 14 – connected button.
KIM: And now, it says my Brailliant is connected.
And as simple as that, the Brailliant is connected with my iOS device. Now, if I choose to, I can control my iPad with my Brailliant. I can scroll through these Braille displays using my Previous and Next thumb keys.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: V-Star S20 – more info. Brailliant – more info. Selected, Brailliant – more info button. Bluetooth keyboard: Not connected button.
KIM: When you’re connected to another device with your Brailliant in Terminal Mode, this is a really good time to use the joystick. With iOS, if you move your joystick to the left and right, it simulates a left or right flick on the screen. So just as you would flick left or right on the screen using VoiceOver to move from item to item, the joystick will simulate that same action. Also, moving up and down with the joystick will simulate your rotor setting. So if you have your rotor set to characters, moving up and down with the joystick will read the characters where you are currently focused. If your rotor is set to words, moving up and down with the joystick will read words. If it’s on headings, moving up and down will cycle you between headings. So there’s a lot of benefit to using the joystick when connected in Terminal Mode.
If I want to go home, I can use Space with H. And while my iPad didn’t say anything, I’m on settings, and that shows up on the Braille display of my Brailliant.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: TV, Settings, Tips, Podcasts.
KIM: And I can just scroll through here. I can press Space with H again –
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Closing "Generic" folder. Generic folder: seven apps, one new item.
KIM: It has taken me out of the folder that settings is in on my iPad and taken me back to my home screen. So now, I have the ability to do anything using my Brailliant that, essentially, I can do on my iPad. I can use commands to scroll through, to open apps, to browse the internet, to read books, et cetera.
In order to find specific commands that you can use with iOS, you will need to look up Braille display hot keys for iOS. That will give you all the information you need. Notice that when I left Settings, I pressed Space with H, which is supposed to take you home. In my case, it took me back to my Settings app because it’s in a folder that I’ve created on my home screen. Space with H again took me Home. There are a number of commands that you can utilize with iOS that will assist you in moving around, but you see how simple it actually was. All I did was go to General, Accessibility, VoiceOver, Braille, it saw my Braille display there, and I could immediately connect to it. It just saw it. There was nothing I had to do except have Bluetooth on on my iOS device.
Now that I’m connected to my iOS device, if I turn off my Brailliant, you’ll hear that little sound. That means that my Brailliant 14 is no longer connected to my iOS device and vice versa. If I turn it back on and I’m still in Terminal Mode, you hear that sound. It has automatically reconnected to my iOS device. If you have connected it previously and you have Bluetooth on and are in range of the Brailliant, it will automatically reconnect. If you do have an issue where it doesn’t connect for any reason, you can try this:
I’m in Terminal Mode, I’m going to go into my menu, and I do that by lightly pressing the Power button. And I have all the options that we talked about in previous modules including connections. If I go in here, I see the name of my iOS device, and it is selected. If you see the name of your device and for whatever reason, it isn’t selected, you can just select it and the device should connect to the Brailliant. If your device does not show up in Connections, oftentimes, you can wait just a minute and it will show up here. Another thing you can do is flip your switch left and then right again. Sometimes, that makes a difference. The other idea that may work is lock and unlock the screen of your iOS device. That’s one of my favorite tricks if it doesn’t automatically reconnect.
If your screen on your iOS device locks, you get a vibration from your Brailliant and you get that sound from your iDevice. If it unlocks, for instance if you get a push notification or if you unlock it, it will reconnect if the screen unlocks. If you’ve been working in Application Mode and you change to Terminal Mode and you have something in range, it does just take a minute to connect.
So really, the hardest thing you have to do is connect it for the first time. It generally will connect lightning fast, and you will have it available to use with your i-Device. Remember that your Brailliant can connect to up to six devices simultaneously, five via Bluetooth and one via USB. You can go into your menu and into Connections to easily switch among your connected devices.
I mentioned in an earlier module that we would be coming back to notes, and this is the module in which we are going to do that. One of the really powerful features of the Brailliant 14 is its ability to synchronize content. If you’re in a meeting and you wish to take your Brailliant with you, you could have any notes that you’ve taken in that meeting sync to your Email account. You could sync lists, important reminders, and other information from your Brailliant to your Email account or from the notes on your iDevice to your Brailliant. What’s particularly nice about this feature is if you wish to take your Brailliant with you, type notes, and then sync them back to your iOS device, you don’t have to have your device anywhere near you while you’re taking notes. You could leave your phone at home, and then that information can be synced to your iOS device after you’ve taken notes on your Brailliant.
I’m very pleased to show you how this works and can hopefully express with these demos the power of this feature. In order to synchronize accounts, you’re going to need an Email account, an iDevice with Bluetooth, and you’ll need an application from the iOS app store called Brailliant Sync. That’s Brailliant, B-r-a-i-l-l-i-a-n-t, new word, sync, S-y-n-c. Find that application in the App Store and install it. When you open that application, you’re going to have several options. I’m going to go into my Brailliant Sync app and show you what’s available.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Brailliant Sync, swipe -- Brailliant Sync.
KIM: I just opened the Brailliant Sync app on my iOS device.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Brailliant Sync heading.
KIM: You’re going to see a few headings in here. The very first one you’re going to come to says, "Brailliant Sync." If I flick to the right, there is a Brailliant Device heading. This is where your device will be connected. It says, "No device selected." I’m going to connect my Brailliant in just a moment. There is a Select Device button. I’m just continuing to flick right through the application.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Accounts, heading.
KIM: Here are accounts. These are Email accounts. You could add your Gmail account, which is definitely the easiest to add because it doesn’t require you to know any port information or Imap information, server settings, anything like that. I have deleted my Gmail account, and I’m going to re-add it for purposes of this demonstration, but it’s not the only type of account you can add. If you know your port numbers and server settings, you can add other Email accounts as well.
Also, you could have more than one Email account in here. So you could have your Gmail account, you could have another personal account, you could have a work account. So you can use multiple accounts, should you wish.
There is an Add Account button. I’m going to keep flicking right.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: App information heading.
KIM: Here is app information for the Brailliant Sync app. In this case, I have version 1.19 of the app.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Version 1.19.
KIM: And that’s all that’s here. That’s all that’s available on this screen. It’s very simple. The first thing I want to do is to connect my Brailliant to the Brailliant Sync application. So I’m going to turn it on. And I also have Bluetooth turned on on my iOS device.
I’m now moving back to –
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Select Device button.
KIM: -- Select Device because I need to add my Brailliant before I can add any mail accounts. I’m going to double-tap this --
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Brailliant Sync, Back button.
KIM: -- and flick to the right.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Select device heading. Cancel button. Found devices heading.
KIM: It says, "Found devices heading."
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: -- in progress.
KIM: And it shows me a number, and I put in the low beep to mask it because it involves my serial number for my Brailliant. This is the only Brailliant I know of around here, so this is definitely my device. If I flick to the right of that, it says, "In progress."
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: In progress.
KIM: That’s all that’s on the screen. So I’m going to flick back to this number and double tap it.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Brailliant 14 Sync heading.
KIM: And my iOS device says, "Brailliant Sync heading."
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Brailliant device heading.
KIM: I flick to the right, and it says Brailliant device.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Connected.
KIM: And now it says that this device is connected. So my device is connected. I’m ready to add accounts so that I can sync material to and from my Brailliant. I’m going to flick to the right.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Accounts heading.
KIM: There’s the accounts heading. If I flick to the right again, I can –
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Add account button.
KIM: -- add an account. I’m going to double-tap to go in here.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Alert: Select account type. Select account type.
KIM: Now, I get a dialogue that asks me to select account type.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Select account type.
KIM: If I flick to the right –
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Google button.
KIM: -- I can choose Google –
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Other button.
KIM: -- or other.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Other button.
KIM: I’m going to flick back to Google, and I’m going to connect my Gmail account.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Google button.
KIM: Double-tap on Google.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Forward, dimmed, button. Done Button.
KIM: It took a moment for this page to load, and I’ve landed on a Done button.
I’m now going to flick to the right.
I have a back button which is dimmed. If I continue flicking right –
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Forward, dimmed, button.
KIM: -- I have forward, dimmed.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Address: Accounts.google.com, secure and validated connection.
KIM: And it shows that I’m on a webpage. It’s accounts .google.com, and it tells me that it is a secure and validated connection.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Reload button.
KIM: I can reload this page, I can share it, I can open in Safari.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Choose an account heading, level 1.
KIM: And then, as I continue flicking right, I come to "Choose an account," and this is a heading. And it says, to continue to Brailliant Sync.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Kim Loftis – Gmail.com, signed out button.
KIM: Here is my Gmail address. It shows my name, my Gmail address, and tells me that I am signed out. And again, I am using the low beep to mask my Email address. If I flick to the right again –
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Use another account button.
KIM: -- I have the option to use another account.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: To continue, Google will share your name, Email address, and profile picture with Brailliant Sync.
KIM: And then I receive a message that says, “To continue, Google will share my name, Email address, and profile picture with Brailliant Sync.”
Then I have the ability to change my language. It’s currently set to English, United States.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Help, link.
KIM: I have a Help link, a Privacy link, a Terms link, and I am now at the end of the page. I’m going to flick back --
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Use another account, Kim Loftis –
KIM: -- to where it shows my name and Email address and says I’m signed out. I’m going to double-tap this.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Hi, Kim, heading, level 1.
KIM: And I get a heading that says, "Hi, Kim."
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: -- Gmail.com.
KIM: It then shows my Email address when I flick right.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Enter your password, secure text field. Double-tap to edit.
KIM: And it wants me to enter my password, which I will now do?
I’ve now entered my password. I’m going to tap kind of towards the top of my screen.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Hi Kim, heading level 1. Enter your password. Next button.
KIM: And I have flicked to a button that says, "Next." I’m going to double-tap it.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Next. You may be share -- Done button.
KIM: Now, I’m brought back to another Done button.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Back button.
KIM: I have a Back button next to that, a dimmed forward button, the address that we saw before, accounts.google.com.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Reload button.
KIM: I can reload this page, I can share, I can open in Safari, just as before.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Brailliant Sync, heading level 1.
KIM: And now, I have a heading that says, "Brailliant Sync."
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Wants to access your Google account, heading level 1.
KIM: "Brailliant Sync wants to access my Google account" is what this is telling me.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: -- @ Gmail.com.
KIM: Next, it shows my Gmail address. And it tells me the things that this will allow if I allow the Brailliant Sync application to access my Gmail account. It says Brailliant Sync can read, send, delete, and manage my Email. There’s a more info button.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Make sure you trust Brailliant Sync, heading level 2.
KIM: There’s a heading that says, "Make sure you trust Brailliant Sync.”
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: You may be sharing sensitive info with this site or app. Learn about how Brailliant Sync will handle your data by reviewing its terms of service and privacy policies. You can always see or remove access in your Google account, link.
KIM: And it tells me to review terms and privacy policies and that I can always remove my access. There’s a link to learn about the risks. And there’s an Allow button and a Cancel button.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Selected, English, United States.
KIM: Then we’re back to the language and other information we saw on the previous page.
I’m going to flick left back to –
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Cancel, allow button.
KIM: -- Allow, and double-tap this button.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Add account button.
KIM: Now, I am back to add account. If I flick to the left --
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: -- at Gmail.com, idle.
KIM: -- I see my account. So here is my Gmail account, and it says it is idle, but it is connected.
So how do I sync? If I have information on my Gmail account that I wish to sync, how do I do it? This is how. I can go into Application Mode on my Brailliant and go into my Notes app, and now, I have a notes folder whose title is the same as my Gmail address. So it’s my Gmail address at Gmail.com. If I go in here, I see two items that are now available to me in this folder, and these are notes that I created at one point.
If I wish to sync, I do this through the Brailliant, and I press Space with S, and the word, "Sync" comes up on the Braille display. And that will immediately sync any information I have in my connected accounts, for instance, my Gmail account.
Once you have linked accounts, as long as you keep the Brailliant Sync app running in the background on your I device, information will continue to sync between your Brailliant and your account. If you do ever need to sync, you can go into your Email account’s designated folder in Notes in your Brailliant’s menu, and press Space with S to sync. So you can manually sync at any time.
If you configure your account through the Brailliant Sync app and your account does not show up, you can go into your Notes folder on your Brailliant and in the folder structure where you see Local, you can just press the Space with S command right there to initiate a sync. This is referred to as "forcing the sync." That should make your new account appear.
One other note: You do of course need a data or Wi-Fi connection on the device to which you are syncing. So this would be Wi-Fi, 3-G, or 4-G on your device. That way, you will be able to sync materials successfully from your Brailliant to your device.
So we have an account connected. How do you get information to sync between your Brailliant and this account and vice versa? Before I show you, there’s something very important you need to make sure about. I have now opened the Settings app on my iOS device, and I want to move to Accounts and Passwords.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Privacy button. ITunes and App Store button, Accounts and Passwords button.
KIM: I’m going to double-tap to go in here.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: App and Website Passwords button.
KIM: From here, I want to find the Accounts and Passwords heading.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Accounts and passwords heading.
KIM: And now I can flick right. There is a button that says, "App and Website Passwords." Don’t worry about that right now. Next is an "Accounts" heading.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: ICloud, iCloud Drive, Contacts, Calendars, Safari, and four more button.
KIM: Basically, what this section of your iOS settings allows you to do is to grant access to certain information. For instance, I have Outlook here. And it says that within Outlook, I can access mail, reminders, contacts, calendars, and notes. It’s not in that order, but that is the information that I can access. What I’m basically trying to do here is make sure that the account I just connected using my Brailliant Sync app has access to Notes. I’m going to show you why this is important in a moment. So I’m going to move to Gmail.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Gmail: Mail, contacts, calendars, notes button.
KIM: Sure enough, my Gmail account has notes access. But if yours doesn’t, if you flick to your Gmail account on your iOS device and when it says Gmail, it doesn’t say anything after that about having Notes access, you need to go into this – so I’m going to double-tap.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Gmail – Gmail heading.
KIM: I am put on a Gmail heading, and I want to flick to the right.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Account -- @ Gmail.com heading.
KIM: It gives my Gmail address and I can double-tap to go into this and find out more information. That’s not what I want to do right now though. I want to flick to the right.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Mail: On. Double-tap to toggle setting.
KIM: Then I can choose which of the following options I want to turn on. I have mail, contacts, calendars, notes is on. If your notes says "Off" and you have just placed any of your Email accounts into Brailliant Sync, you can double-tap on the "Notes: Off" toggle to turn notes on.
As long as you have your Email account that you wish to sync on your iOS device, you can go in and do exactly what I did for Gmail. Go into Accounts and Passwords, find out if your Email account has access to Notes, and if it doesn’t, turn that access on.
Now, let me show you the power of this. I’m now going to open my Notes app on iOS. And when this app opens, I have a lot of options in here.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Folders heading.
KIM: I have a folders heading. I can edit. That’s dimmed currently.
Now, I have a Gmail heading. This is what interests me. And it says, "Notes: Two notes," when I flick right. So I know I have two notes available in my Gmail notes folder. So when you have your Brailliant essentially discovered by your Brailliant Sync app and add an account in the way we just did, once you make sure that it has access to Notes, just like we did with my Gmail account, you should find a folder for that account in your Notes application on iOS like the one I’m seeing here, although it may or may not have any notes in it. My Gmail folder actually does have notes in it. I’m going to double-tap and go into this folder.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Selected, folders – back button. Notes heading, edit button.
KIM: From here, I can edit my notes, search my notes, and I can view the notes that are available in this folder. When I came into this Gmail notes folder, I came into a pop-up window. But there’s actually more that I can do here if I dismiss this pop-up. To dismiss the pop-up, I need to touch my screen just a little bit under the status bar.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Dismiss pop-up. Double-tap to dismiss pop-up window.
KIM: And I was able to find the "Dismiss pop-up." I’m going to double-tap that.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Switch to full-screen mode button. Notes: Back button.
KIM: And now, it says notes: Back button. I’m going to flick to the right.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Delete note button.
KIM: I can delete, share, and the next option is what I want: "New note." I’m going to double-tap.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: New – text field is editing, character mode, and insertion point at start.
KIM: Now, I can create a new note.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: August 18, 2018, 3:48 p.m.
KIM: If I flick to the left, it tells me my time and date, and there’s more information on the screen as well that I will let you explore on your own. Right now, I want to go back into my text field.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Text field is editing.
KIM: And I’m going to dictate a note.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Dictate.
KIM: Hi. This is a practice note. I’m going to use this note in the module of the Brailliant tutorial where I discuss syncing.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Inserted: Hi. This is a practice note. I’m going to use this note in the module of you bring it tutorial where I discuss syncing.
KIM: Okay. That didn’t quite work out perfectly, but it’s enough to give an idea. So now that I have some text in here, I’m going to tap in the top left-hand corner of my screen -
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Notes: Back button.
KIM: -- and back out of this note.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Switch – folders: Back button.
KIM: Now, I’m sitting on a back button. It says folders: Back button. If I flick right, there’s my Notes heading.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Edit button, search, search field.
KIM: I have Edit and Search.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Selected: Hi. This is a practice note. I’m going to use this and – 3:50 p.m., to “I’m a model of you bring it tutorial where –“
KIM: And there is the note that I just wrote. Now, how do I get this note to my Brailliant?
I’m going to return to the Brailliant now, go into my Notes app, and into my Gmail notes folder, and my new note is not showing up in this folder. But if I sync with Space S, the Brailliant says, "Sync," and after just a second, my note appears. So now, instead of having two notes in this list as I did previously, I have three.
So you saw the notes in my Notes folder on my iOS device within my Gmail notes folder, and now the note is also available via my Brailliant so I can access it easily.
Let me show you the reverse of this process. Using my Brailliant, I can go to my Notes app and then select my Gmail folder, and I can create a new note with space N. And I can say, "Hi. I love the ease and convenience of creating notes on my Brailliant that then sync seamlessly with my Gmail account." And I’m going to press Space E to save and exit this note.
Now, if I turn my Brailliant switch to Terminal Mode, it should sync that note with my Gmail Notes folder. Let’s find out if it has.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: App switcher: Notes. Swipe up with three fingers to close – folders heading.
KIM: I have reopened my Notes app on iOS. I’m on the folders heading, and if I swipe right a few times –
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Edit, Gmail, notes, Gmail heading.
KIM: And here’s my Gmail heading. I can swipe right to find out information about what’s in this folder.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Notes: Four notes button.
KIM: And it says I have four notes in here, which means it looks like it synced. Let’s go inside and find out.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Selected – folders, back button.
KIM: I’ve double-tapped to go in, I have a back button, and if I flick right –
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Notes heading.
KIM: -- there’s my Notes heading, an edit button, a search box.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: "Hi. I love the ease and convenience of creating note,”: 6:01 p.m. no additional text. Actions available.
KIM: And there is my new note. It’s reading me the first few words of that note. And it says, "No additional text.” But if I go in here --
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Selected – switch to full-screen mode. Notes, back button.
KIM: -- I should be able to read this note. So I double-tapped, I’ve entered the note, and if I flick right –
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Delete note button.
KIM: I can delete this note, I can share it, I can create a new one.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: August 18, 2018, 6:01 p.m.
KIM: There’s the time that I wrote the note.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: "Hi. I love the ease and convenience of creating notes on my Brailliant that then sync seamlessly with my Gmail account," text field. Double-tap to edit.
KIM: And clearly, I didn’t do a great job of typing that note because I was typing it in a hurry, but it gives you an idea. I was easily able to reverse the process and send a note from my Brailliant to my notes folder on iOS.
A few things to remember about the syncing process: When you have your Brailliant in Terminal Mode, after having connected an account through your Brailliant Sync app, everything should just automatically sync. Your notes should go to your Brailliant, and the notes you created on your Brailliant should go to your synced accounts. This is the case as long as you have the Brailliant Sync app for iOS open in the background. So as long as it is in your iOS app switcher, everything should work. Now, if you power down your phone and power it back on, you may need to end that app from the app switcher and restart it if you find that syncing is not occurring automatically. You can only do a manual sync from your Brailliant, and if you want to do this, you can go into the Notes folder which you wish to sync on your Brailliant and press Space with S to sync. If you have a lot of notes in there, please be patient and don’t interrupt the process. Also, if you do need to stop syncing for any reason, you can press Space with C to stop the sync.
Here’s another really cool thing. I have my Gmail account sync with my Brailliant. I now have a Notes folder in my actual Gmail account that includes any notes that I have written either on the Brailliant or in my Notes folder on iOS. So that is yet a third way I can access that information. So when you grant permission for your Email account to use notes, you too should have a Notes folder now in your Email account where you can find this information. So you can find it on your computer, you can find it on other devices, wherever you have your mail account configured, that information should be there.
What happens if you leave your college or you leave your job or you change Email addresses for any reason? Under those circumstances, you may want to delete that account from your Brailliant. Well, you can do that. I’m back in the Brailliant Sync application.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Brailliant Sync heading.
KIM: And there’s the Brailliant Sync heading. I can flick right.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Brailliant 14 device heading.
KIM: There’s the Brailliant 14 device heading.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: -- connected.
KIM: And there’s the name of my Brailliant device, which I’ve masked, and it says, "Connected.” If I keep flicking right, there’s my accounts.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: -- gmail.com, idle. Last synced on 8/18/18, 6:02 p.m.
KIM: And there is my Gmail account. It tells me that it’s currently idle, and it tells me the date and time on which it was last synced.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Add account button.
KIM: And if I flick right again, there’s add account. But let’s go back to the Gmail address.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Gmail.com, idle.
KIM: If I double-tap this --
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Alert: Edit account button. Edit account button.
KIM: -- I can edit this account, I can disable it, or I can delete it.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Delete account button.
KIM: And those are the options I have available. So I can remove this Email address if I need to do so.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Dismiss pop-up.
KIM: And I tapped kind of in the middle of the screen to see the dismiss pop-up dialogue, and I’m going to double-tap that.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Selected, @gmail.com, idle. Last synced –
KIM: And I tapped on the screen with two fingers to silence speech.
So that is a demonstration of how you can remove Email accounts that you no longer need or want to sync. Just a reminder: Local Notes, in other words, notes in your local folder on your Brailliant, cannot be synced. They are, as the name suggests, local to your Brailliant device.
I hope these demonstrations give you an idea of the real power of this process and that you find lots of creative ways to use it to enhance the efficiency and productivity of your life and work.
This module is going to be a little different from the previous ones in that I’m going to use a chime to divide out the materials. That’s because in addition to giving you some care instructions to assist you in maintaining your Brailliant, I’m also going to be sharing some troubleshooting tips with you.
First of all, let’s talk about the battery. The Brailliant includes a polymer ion battery. It cannot be completely discharged. In other words, you don’t have to worry about letting it discharge all the way. When it reaches a certain point and the battery is too low, it will shut itself off and it will indicate this to you with a beep. If you’ve turned sounds off, it will probably just go off. But you will know that it has reached its lowest battery capacity.
When you connect your Brailliant to a PC or Mac, in other words, when you’re using it in Terminal Mode, it will charge automatically while connected as a terminal device. That way, you can be, say, reading a book that you have sitting on your computer using your Brailliant, and it will be recharging its battery at the same time. When you plug your Brailliant in to charge it and it reaches full capacity, the display will tell you that the display is full. If you have the Brailliant turned off and you want to see what its battery status is at any time, you can just give a quick press to the Power button and the battery status will be displayed. When your battery is fully charged, you will get approximately 15 hours of battery life from your Brailliant when connected over Bluetooth.
Please do not use any chemical cleaners on your Brailliant. If, for whatever reason, you need to clean it off, please use only a soft, damp cloth. Do not try to remove the Brailliant’s battery yourself. If you feel, for whatever reason, the battery needs to be replaced, please contact Humanware.
A quick reminder about charging: When you plug the small rectangular end of your micro-USB cable into the Brailliant’s charging port, make sure that the little nibs on your micro-USB cable are pointed down. When you plug in the cable, plug it in gently, but firmly. Do not press really hard on that cable. You could damage your charging port. When charging your battery, it should only take about five hours to charge. If you need to charge it overnight, for instance, this would be very sufficient to make sure your battery gets a full charge.
Now, I’m going to move into some troubleshooting questions and answers for you. These questions and answers will be divided by chimes to make them easier to differentiate.
Q: My Brailliant isn’t working properly. What can I do?
A: The first thing you may want to try is just turning your power on and off. Hold the power button for approximately three seconds until your power goes off, then turn your power back on and see if things improve. If, for whatever reason, things haven’t improved, or if your Brailliant does not turn itself off, you may press and hold the power button for about 15 seconds. This will reset the Brailliant. After that 15-second period, your Brailliant should turn back on and you should be able to resume operation.
Q: I’m using my Brailliant in One-hand Mode, and I’ve accidentally made a mistake when typing. What do I do?
A: Remember that if you need to use Enter or Backspace, you press Enter, Space, or Backspace; Space, and that’s how you execute those commands. So if the last thing you typed is not what you intended to type, press Backspace and Space. That will delete the last character that you typed, and you can continue. Also remember that in One-hand Mode, in order execute a character – and this does not apply to Enter and Backspace, you need to press Space after the character. It’s very important in One-hand Mode to remember where your Space is supposed to be in relation to the character or command you’re attempting to execute.
Q: I’m having trouble connecting to a device in Terminal Mode.
A: First make sure that Bluetooth is turned on on your device. This is important because your Brailliant actually needs to see the device to which you’re trying to connect. Also, have you connected to this device previously? If not, you need to go into your Bluetooth settings on your iOS device and connect to your Brailliant 14. If you’ve previously connected to your iOS device and you’re still having trouble, try going into your Bluetooth settings, find the Brailliant in your list of Bluetooth devices, click on the "More info" button and forget the device. Then, you’ll just need to reconnect and see if that makes a difference.
One other thing: If your screen is turned off on your device, just try unlocking your screen. Generally speaking, that will make the Brailliant see it. You’ll hear a sound and feel a vibration on your Brailliant, and the device and the Brailliant will reconnect. Sometimes, it’s the little things that really make a big difference in helping us when we think things are going wrong.
Q: The notes I’m writing on the Brailliant aren’t syncing to my connected mail account. What could be wrong?
A: The first thing I suggest for this is to make sure you have gone into Settings, Accounts and Passwords, and your mail account and turned notes on. If notes is already on, you may wish to turn Notes off and then turn them back on again. More than likely though, if your notes aren’t syncing across your devices, particularly from your Brailliant to the notes folder for your mail account, make sure that Notes is turned on in Accounts and Passwords in your iOS settings. That will probably fix your issue.
Q: My Brailliant is turning itself off frequently. What’s the problem?
A: Make sure that you’re Auto-power-off is set for the duration that you really want it to be. Auto-power-off and Sleep are two different things. If you set your Sleep mode for three minutes, for instance, you could then just press any key on your Brailliant to wake up your device and it would be functional again. However, if you have Auto-power-off set for a really short duration, your device is powering itself completely off frequently. You may wish to change the Auto-power-off setting for a longer duration. Also, remember that when there is no activity on your Brailliant, either information coming from a connected PC or Mac or from a connected iOS device or from you utilizing the device itself, your Auto-power-off and Sleep will go off in the amount of time you have specified in the respective settings.
We’d like to thank you so much for joining us for these modules and really hope that you found them helpful. The Brailliant 14 can assist you in increasing your efficiency at home and on the job. We really hope you enjoy your new device. Or if you’re just learning about it, we hope you found the information shared here helpful as you’re making your purchasing decision.
For more information about the Brailliant 14, please visit Humanware’s web site at www.humanware.com. That’s H-u-m-a-n-w-a-r-e.com. To learn more about Mystic Access and all that we offer to assist and support you on your assistive technology journey, visit us at mysticaccess.com. That’s M-y-s-t-i-c-a-c-c-e-s-s.com. Thanks for joining us.
The preceding program is copyright 2018 by Mystic Access. All rights reserved. For further information regarding the comprehensive tutorials, personalized services and fully accessible products offered by Mystic Access, please visit www.mysticaccess.com.
The preceding program is a presentation of Mystic Access, where the magic is in learning. To contact us, please visit www.mysticaccess.com. Call us, (716) 543-3323. Email us, info@mysticaccess.com. And follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/MysticAccess.
Thanks for listening. We hope you have enjoyed this program.