I have a Kapsys Smartvision 2 phone and am trying to use it with my Brailliant BI 40 Braille display - specifically for reading books/files in the phone's built-in BookReader; but I can't keep reading with the display past a bit of the first section after the table of contents. I keep scrolling (with either panning keys (ie thumbkeys on the Brailliant BI 40 device) or space with Command5 (ie right middle command key on the device), as per the list of commands given in context Help for that device, but either way, I just get the other options of BookReader - Play/pause, Next, Previous, and even when I choose Next, it just starts the audio reading of the book, but I end up back in table of contents with the braille display. Isn't it possible to just keep reading forwards with Brailleback, or is this to do with the phone's BookReader? I raised this with Pacific Vision (the company that sell the phone in Australia) and am awaiting clarification from them when they look into this too, but I thought someone on here could clarify the situation regarding navigating with Brailleback, as the support pages on Google's site are not helpful, nor is the documentation for the phone, nor the Brailliant BI 40 documentation. I was trying to read a Word file - specifically, a book called "Braille on Display" by Jackie Brown (purchased from www.mosen.org), and I am also aware the table of contents isn't being rendered properly by the Bookreader and this has also been reported to Kapsys, but I'm hoping someone can help regarding this navigation issue. Your assistance/clarification would be greatly appreciated!
Comments
Thinking it might be a BrailleBack issue.
Answer:
Hello,
I am having the same problem with BrailleBack when reading emails, I can read the first lot of the email, however when I scroll forward any further using the pan right command on my Braille display, it moves me right to the bottom of the screen. This leads me to believe that this is a BrailleBack bug and not a phone specific bug, as I am using a Motorola Moto X Play and a Sony Xperia phone, and I'm having the same problem with BrailleBack on both devices. I have asked about this on the Eyes-Free list, and have not had any response.
P.S. Using a BraillePen 12 Touch, have also tested this with a Focus 40 Blue and an Alva BC640.
What about next BrailleBack update, and is BRLTTY an alternative
Answer:
Thank you so much, SienaT. So does anyone know then, whether this is going to be addressed in the next BrailleBack update? The information I read so far did not refer to this issue. And is BRLTTY perhaps an alternative? From what I read so far on
http://www.brltty.com/archive/Android/brltty-on-android.html#navigating-...
and on
http://www.brltty.com/archive/Android/brltty-on-android.html#using-brltty
I gather that it does not require BrailleBack and is providing screenreader functionality in its own right? (I used the Windows version some years ago with NVDA, but that was back when the Braille display I was using at that time was not directly supported in NVDA, but could be used with BRLTTY.)
brltty is worth a try
Answer:
H Vivien, You are quite right that brltty is it's own accessibility service with full screen reader functionality independent of talkback and brailleback. I use brltty braille service as my display is not supported by brailleback. I find brltty very clunky, but clearly this is some sort of systemic issue. It would help for academic purposes if nothing else to know whether the issue persists when getting braille through brltty. Who knows, you may even find you like it more than brailleback. It does have far superior device compatibility, language support, and some other interesting features.
Enjoy,
Erik
Do I need to turn BrailleBack off in Accessibility in order to u
Answer:
Thank you, Erik, for your reply to my question about BrailleBack and BRLTTY. What I'm wondering now is, do I actually need to turn BrailleBack off in Accessibility? The instructions at
http://mielke.cc/brltty/archive/Android/brltty-on-android.html#quick-start
refer to the need to explicitly add the Braille device in BRLTTY's Settings (whether using Bluetooth or USB), but I don't know if, in addition to that, brailleBack needs to be off/disabled in Accessibility? I did add my display in BRLTTY's settings (within Manage Devices), but I suspect BrailleBAck was still overriding or conflicting with it? (I haven't tried BRLTTY via USB at all yet, as I don't even have a Micro-USB Host ADapter, as required according to the info at the above link.
Brailleback should be off for testing.
Answer:
I would suggest, whenever performing any kind of testing, illiminate as many variables as possible to increase your control over the testing environment. In an attempt to keep things as simple as possible, start with brailleback turned off.
Brltty speech doesn't conflict with talkback. Instead, it seems to defer to talkback. You can play multiple sounds at once through your phones sound, as in the case of where you are listening to music while reading your email with talkback, but most bluetooth braille devices have only one bt com channel. With devices that have more than one, you have to switch channels on the display using a hotkey on the device itself. So I would say, if brailleback and brltty are both enabled at the same time only one can have the braille display, and brltty may defer to brailleback.
Unless you are so dependent on braille that turning off brailleback for a moment would leave you no access to the device at all, which can happen, you would want either brailleback, or brltty active at once. Never both at the same time.
Best,
Erik