For the third time in my life, I'm contemplating entering the market for a new braille display. I'm not in a hurry. Hardware recommendations from participants in this mailing list would be most welcome and much appreciated. I've recently had an opportunity to benefit from demonstrations of several displays, but, in order not to bias the discussion here, perhaps it would be better if I were to introduce my own observations after reading comments from others.
I'm considering another 40-cell display. My current display (Baum SuperVario 40, as sold by HumanWare around 2005) is excellent. However, it lacks a braille keyboard, which would be desirable for working with modern operating systems and applications, particularly on mobile devices. In addition, I'm interested in basic document reading or editing functions, as are now available on some displays, without buying a full note taking device - they tend to have a smaller number of cells (typically, 32) and provide features such as networking that I probably don't need. Foremost among my priorities: durability and reliability/quality of the hardware, as well as good vendor cooperation with the BRLTTY project, of course. I'm looking for a manufacturer who will stay around and provide very good support for the device in the coming years. If there is anything new about to enter the market that I've somehow missed, I'm interested in that also. These days, I use a combination of various operating systems - Mac OS, Linux, Windows, iOS and Chrome OS to varying degrees - some at home and some at work, so broad cross-platform support is desirable. Most braille displays have this feature, of necessity, I suppose, as it's a small market that the manufacturers are serving. Comments are most welcome. _______________________________________________ This message was sent via the BRLTTY mailing list. To post a message, send an e-mail to: [email protected] For general information, go to: http://brltty.com/mailman/listinfo/brltty
