I couldn't agree more! I own a Perkins Brailler, and I repair and donate them. I believe that these machines are an important tool for anyone that may benefit from it's use. everyone should have access to the tools they need to be successful in life.

@@Dobby2487 i am sighted with vision issues btw. i am mostly fluent in 8-dot computer braille. this is because i made an iPhone case with a 4x4 mechanical keyboard on the back-side (ie: thumbs on glass, fingers wrapped around the back). the two middle rows are 8-dots, and the other 8 keys are for chording. It appears to the iPhone as a normal US querty keyboard, and i usually use it with screen-reader turned off. i wrote an online 8-dot typewriter, so you can make cryptic posts in computer braille on twitter pretty easily. it works by stacking a font to have Hyperlegible on top, and big 8-dot underneath it; quite a unique font imho. i also made 8-dot templates that actually work (the APH 8-dot template 3D prints are just... wrong. they dont take the shape or size of the stylus into account. it's parameterized so that you can make small ones for your backpack, or ones for whole pages of 8-dot computer braille on paper. i really really wish that 8-dot Perkins was exactly as normal as 8-dot braille displays. When I am on a 6-dot Perkins typewriter, I just write in computer braille, where I use dot-456 to mean "the next char has dot-7" enabled; because I just can't use UEB. You have to be very familiar with UEB to use it on a computer. It's too hard for a self-taught sighted person like me. i own: Orbit Reader 20 ($600), Orbit Reader 40 ($1600), a used FS Focus 80 ($300, but keyboard doesn't really work; but the braille just works with JAWS on my windows machine). I have also been experimenting with LLMs as a replacement for screen readers. I altered Linux Orca to write Braille and Speech out to a text file. There are a lot of problems with Orca. Porting it to Mojo might make it fast enough that small changes can convince most Linux users to leave it on 100% of the time; which can't happen when it's a slow Python program. Also, the whole concept of a screen reader is kind of wrong right now. it needs to be a text-based shell that captures your keyboard input; so that you can ssh into the screen reader. This is because you want to be able to invite in an agent like ChatGPT to come in and help you do tasks; especiallly since an agent can have computer-vision.

You figure it out?I’m trying right now😂

Jeremy. What you need to remember about devices like the orbit-writer or a newer device called The Hable One, is they are braille style keyboards. If you know braille, this makes typing text messages for example, much easier. I can type in contracted braille on my Hable One which is very cool. Unfortunately, I have to type in UEB which isn't much fun, but I'm slowly getting used to it. I also like how portable these devices are. I can put the Hable One in my pocket and use the device even if my phone isn't readily within reach. It is very cool. I can control different aspects of my iPhone and not have to touch the screen. Also, I'd say few qwerty bluetooth keyboards even if they are cheaper, are as small as the orbit-writer or the Hable One that I use.

@@joshuahendrickson4854 I agree it's a lovely device although my partner hasn't used it as she still can't get full grade 2 braille working .. :D I don't know that much but it's the ing's and similar she can't get all the words working. I was going to email orbit and ask them about it. :) Thanks. I do wonder though how much is handled on the phone and how much is handled on the keyboard itself. I'm still curious about the blittab. That always felt a bit off to me and I mocked up designs which seemed to magically be integrated in videos... I don't think the product ever materialised.. it's a shame as a full braille kindle would have been awesome.

There is already a touchscreen braille keyboard on the iPhone and iPad

orbit reader 20 paired with the iphone is pretty useful, actually. sometimes it is a pain to get it to bluetooth bind (both for headphones and the braille display). it can be confusing that it's not connected like a normal bluetooth device, but via accessibility/voiceover. you can ask siri "hey siri, enable voiceover". i haven't figured out getting siri to get devices hooked up right; which must be maddening when it doesnt work while you are blind. but once in voiceover, it's exactly like using orbit 20. some apps have issues with tab order set (ie: Safari Twitter, tweet button is not in tab order, so you can only reply to existing tweets, etc.). But the Perkins keyboard is actually really useful. I can see (badly), and actually prefer to navigate my phone with the orbit keyboard when i can. for catching up on email backlogs and browsing twitter, it's pretty good. having the orbit device be completely separate is a bit awkward though. i put my phone in my pocket and was using the orbit keyboard; and always had some issue where i had to take the phone out of my pocket to thumb around the screen to actually accomplish something. as i mentioned in a previous comment, for this keyboard.... i would prefer to have a design in which the keyboard is a case in which the phone is mounted; and you type on the BACK of the device, with thumbs on front. that way, you don't need to be sitting at a table the whole time.