the u2 QWERTY is a solution, though it will not eliminate the braille
issues, as the qwerty keyboard still goes through the same process
when it's translated with VO. There are distinct advantages to having
a separate BT keyboard, like being able to use the quicknav navigation
keys in Safari. While braille support for these is available, there is
no command to toggle the quicknav keyboard commands on and off. On the
bt keyboard, it's VO plus Q. There are other things you cannot do with
braille displays as well such as keyboard commands for the two finger
double tap (VO dash), double tap with one finger and hold, (Vo shift
m) and the aformentioned VO plus Q for turning navigational quicknav
keys on and off. The issue with running a separate bt keyboard with
iOS 8 and later is that when you are typing with the bt keyboard, you
can only see a letter or 2 at a time on the braille display until you
finish typing. What you will see is the last letter or 2 after a full
8-dot cell at the far left, and another at the far right of the
display. Highly annoying if you are someone who is deaf-blind who
wants to use this as an option for communicating with the sighted and
hearing world, not only because of this new limitation, but because
until iOS 8, it was never a issue to have to consider. It's also worth
noting that many displays on iOS have the same issues, because the
development of the braille driver for VO rests within the
responsibility of Apple themselves. That is one advantage of Android,
that the manufacturer of the display can implement whatever braille
keyboard mapping things they want, and then submit it to the
developers of BraillBack, the primary app used for braille support on
Android. However, the translation issue, again, falls with the
developers of BrailleBack.
My point with this is that each system where the braille display is
serving as an external device, has issues. There is no support like
what you will find in a native braille environment. Apple seems to be
the best mobile solution at this time, and it's pretty good overall,
but it still has its issues.

Scott

On 6/20/15, Terry-Ann Saurmann <[email protected]> wrote:
> Yes, from a cost point of view, I would agree.  In addition, you would still
> have excellent portability, though you are now dealing with three devices.
> Terry
>
>   ----- Original Message -----
>   From: Flor Lynch
>   To: [email protected]
>   Sent: Saturday, June 20, 2015 7:09 PM
>   Subject: Re: Do any of the Braille displays use a QWERTY keyboard? RE:
> Replacing Braille Notetaker with iDevice
>
>
>   Succinctly put, and in context.
>
>   From: Andy Baracco
>   Sent: Sunday, June 21, 2015 12:49 AM
>   To: [email protected]
>   Subject: Re: Do any of the Braille displays use a QWERTY keyboard? RE:
> Replacing Braille Notetaker with iDevice
>   It would be much cheaper to get a small bluetooth Braille display and a
> bluetooth keyboard for your QWERTY input.
>
>   Andy
>
>   From: Terry-Ann Saurmann
>   Sent: Saturday, June 20, 2015 3:08 PM
>   To: [email protected]
>   Subject: Re: Do any of the Braille displays use a QWERTY keyboard? RE:
> Replacing Braille Notetaker with iDevice
>   Actually, with such note takers as those from Humanware, Hims and Freedom
> Scientific, that use a Braille display and a qwerty keyboard, you can type
> on the keyboards using the standard typing mode, or you can convert the
> qwerty keyboards to Braille writer style keyboards, which then use letters
> f, d and s to represent the keys for dots 1, 2 and 3, and keys j, k and l to
> represent the keys for dots 4,5 and 6.  When using the keyboard in this way,
> you press the keys simultaneously, to make your characters, just as you
> would, if you were writing, using a Perkins style keyboard.  Terry
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