On 25th February 2026 TAVIP Trustee Paul Porter shared his experience of how to use Braille input and output on smart phones and tablets. The focus was mainly on Apple products, but Android was also mentioned.
Paul covered using Braille on the touch screen as well as using external braille devices for input and output such as the Hable One, Orbit Writer, Brailliant devices and others that connect by Bluetooth.
Paul Porter has been involved in technology for many years. He worked for 25 years in RNIB’s technical team providing information and support for individuals and organisations looking for advice on what products were available.
Paul says “Technology has always played a major role in my life. Growing up in the 60s and 70s, there was little technology to help blind and partially sighted people. I remember buying my first book at RNIB in London and my family were amazed at the number of volumes. I used the Perkins, Talking Book player and cassette players extensively for school and university work.
Looking back, my technology journey has been a long and fruitful one. Technology helps me in every part of my life from looking up information, choosing what to listen to, shopping and getting around, and I am excited to see where will tech take us next.”
Below is a summary of the session and key commands, links to some further resources, and finally an audio recording of the session on Audioboom and as a downloadable mp3 file.
Summary of the session
Braille Screen Input (BSI) is a function of Voiceover that turns the touch screen into a braille keyboard. Text can be written in braille when searching, producing emails, texts, documents etc. In command mode it is possible to control the device as if a braille keyboard were connected.
There are two ways to turn bsi on. Add braille screen input to the rotor. This is done in the rotor settings found in settings/accessibility/voiceover/rotor.
Once set up, use the rotor to navigate to braille screen input.
BSI is then selected. To use BSI, the phone should be in landscape mode.
To stop using BSI, use the rotor to navigate away from braille screen input.
It is also possible to turn bsi on by placing 2 fingers diagonally apart at either end of the screen and performing a double tap. To exit BSI slide two fingers in opposite directions, i.e. move two fingers towards or away from each other.
There are two modes for input. In tabletop mode the screen behaves like a Perkins-style keyboard. In screen away mode the keys are arranged vertically with dots 1 and 3 at the top and dots 3 and 6 at the bottom of the screen.
To use the phone in table top mode have the device flat. To change to screen away mode have the screen facing away.
Braille Screen Input allows you to type using the six-dot braille system. Each finger represents a dot, and combinations of finger taps form letters, numbers, or punctuation.
Dots 1-3 are controlled with the left hand, and dots 4-6 with the right.
Some commands are:
- Swipe right with one finger: Insert a space.
- Swipe left with one finger: Delete the previous character.
- Swipe up with one finger: Move to the previous item or line.
- Swipe down with one finger: Move to the next item or line.
- Swipe left with 2 fingers delete word
- Swipe right with two fingers: Enter or send (in messaging apps).
- Swipe right/left 3 fingers toggle between command and braille entry
Braille input/output is available through a number of braille notetaker like devices such as the Mantis q40, Brailliant bi series, Orbit series, BrailleSense and more.
In such devices input is through the keyboard on the device and output is through the braille display.
Braille input is available on braille keyboards such as the Hable One and Orbit Writer.
Commands for controlling the phone are performed by using chord commands. Press a braille letter with the spacebar. Some commands are:
- Space l move to top
- Space 456 move to end
- Space dot 1 move up move up 1 element
- Space dot 4 move down 1 element. E.g. on home screen these commands move between options.
- Space 1 3 opens highlighted option e.g. open folder, app etc.
- Space and h exits app and goes to home screen
- Space and h twice opens app switcher.
The same commands are available in bsi command mode but the space is omitted. I.e. press dots 123 to go to the top of the screen.
To connect a braille device go to settings/accessibility/voiceover/braille. A braille device in pairing mode should show up there.
Braille devices are paired using this setting rather than the standard Bluetooth pairing mode.
All voiceover and braille gestures can be found in voiceover settings either in speech or braille sub sections. All gestures are shown in the relevant commands sub section and it is possible to configure gestures too.
Some useful web resources are:
https://www.applevis.com/forum/braille-apple-products/list-commands-bsi-ios-18
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/118665
What’s new in iOS 26 from Applevis
https://www.applevis.com/blog/whats-new-ios-26-accessibility-blind-deafblind-users
The session recording: