Author: Matthew Horspool

Discover how new screen reader tools from Dot transform documents, code, tables, charts and equations into tactile information.

If you use a screen reader, you already know how much effort can go into building a picture of what is on screen – one line, one cell or one element at a time.

We will demonstrate a different way to work: the new Tactile Display API for Dot Pad, with enhanced support in JAWS and NVDA.

This live session is designed to show the experience, not simply describe the technology. We will move through familiar Windows applications and demonstrate how multiline braille, tactile graphics and structured information can sit beneath your fingertips while you continue using the screen reader tools you know.

What changes for you?

Keep more context in view. Choose six, eight or ten lines, so you can read more information at once and spend less time panning.

Understand layout through touch. Explore tables, structured documents, code and diagrams as spatial information rather than a sequence of disconnected items.

Make maths and data more immediate. Feel graphs created from Microsoft Word equations or MathML, and identify trends or spikes in tactile charts from Excel.

Choose the mode that helps you read. Use braille or a hybrid braille-and-tactile-print mode to support recognition of unfamiliar characters.

Collaborate more easily. With Dot Pad Display Viewer, a sighted colleague, teacher or trainer can see the dots beneath your fingers on screen and follow the same material with you.

Who should join?

The webinar is for blind and low-vision users, educators, accessibility professionals, developers, distributors and anyone exploring better access to multiline braille and tactile graphics.

Whether you want a faster way to navigate dense material or are considering an integration for your own product, you will see where the API can make a practical difference.

The webinar includes approximately 40 minutes of demonstration followed by a live Q&A.

Reserve your spot

The DAISY Consortium is seeking views from those who produce, teach, transcribe or use accessible mathematical content, as well as technology developers who wish to support accessible mathematics.

MathCAT is changing what’s possible. This free, open-source library enables mathematical content to be delivered in existing technologies as high-quality speech and braille, with intuitive navigation through mathematical expressions. It is already integrated in, or supported by, several leading screen readers, reading apps and production tools worldwide.

We want to hear from you – and we invite you to help shape what happens next.

Get involved:

1. Complete the DAISY Survey on Producing and Reading Accessible Mathematics Content 2026
2. Discover MathCAT and watch our introductory video, and find out how you can contribute through development, testing, translation, braille expertise or financial support.
3. Join the DAISY MathCAT Working Group mailing list
4. Learn more about the history and technical details of MathCAT on the GitHub Project Page.

Please share this invitation widely across your networks – together, we can make accessible mathematics available to a much wider global community.

We look forward to hearing from you, and hopefully working with you too!

From the DAISY Consortium

MathCAT Initiative Working Group

The Braille Food Labelling Campaign is asking blind and partially sighted people across the UK about their experiences of food packaging. Medicines have carried braille for years. The campaign wants the product name in braille on food too, alongside a QR code or NaviLens for the full information. The findings will go to Food Standards Scotland and DEFRA as evidence for change. The survey takes around ten minutes and can be completed online, by phone, by email or by post.

Open the online Braille Food Labelling Survey.

Email [email protected] to receive the survey in the accessible format of your choice.

RNIB has recently worked with M&S and Tesco to produce accessible versions of their Christmas Food Magazines. If these publications would be of interest, free braille copies are now available to order from the RNIB Shop. Please use the links below to place an order:

M&S Christmas magazine 2026

Tesco Festive Food to Order 2026 – braille edition | RNIB Shop

The Braille Working Group of the European Blind Union has launched a new podcast, allowing you to catch up with recordings of all of their online events through your podcast client of choice.

The podcast is called: LivingBraille.eu

It is hosted on Spotify and is also available through Apple Podcasts and other clients which support the Apple Podcasts database.

The direct link to the RSS feed is: https://anchor.fm/s/117197108/podcast/rss

We hope you enjoy the podcast!

The first KeySoft update for BrailleNote evolve is here, bringing new ways to connect, work with Braille content and navigate more efficiently.

With the new Braille Terminal app, you can connect your BrailleNote evolve via Bluetooth and use it as a Braille display with iPhone, Mac and Apple TV using VoiceOver, or with Windows PCs using NVDA or JAWS.

Press and hold the Home button to seamlessly switch between your connected device and your last-opened evolve application.

Finding your way through Braille content is now easier. Use Find, Find next and Find previous in BRF files opened in KeyBRF or Victor Reader. KeyBRF also adds new Find and Replace functionality for even more flexibility when working with Braille files.

Updated browse-mode commands help reduce shortcut conflicts when navigating Microsoft applications and web browsers.

Update 1 also includes improvements to Outlook attachments, Braille IME, Braille tables, NVDA, Word, external displays, localisation and overall system reliability.

Get KeySoft Update 1 now:

All apps > KeySoft Control Center > Update all

Then press ENTER to discover everything included in the first KeySoft update for BrailleNote evolve.

I am pleased to announce the release of BrailleBlaster 3.2.5. For most users BrailleBlaster should update to this latest version. Should you find BrailleBlaster does not auto-update for you, then as usual you may download this release at the brailleblaster.org website. Below is a copy of the release notes outlining what has changed in this release.

BrailleBlaster 3.2.5 Release Notes

Welcome to BrailleBlaster 3.2.5. This release brings updated braille translation and math libraries, and a newer version of Pandoc.

Bug Fixes and Improvements

• Updated the Liblouis braille translation library to version 3.3.90
• Updated the MathCAT math library for improved math braille output.
• Updated Pandoc to 3.11 for improved document importing.
• A number of other minor improvements and bug fixes.

What’s Changed

• Update to pandoc 3.11 by @mwhapples
• Update MathCAT4J-JNI to 0.7.6-rc.4-1 by @mwhapples
• Update Liblouis 3.3.90 by @krperry

Full Changelog

https://github.com/aphtech/brailleblaster/compare/release/3.2.3…release/3.2.5

We’ve just released BrailleDB version 1.1. The full announcement post with changelog can be found on our website here.

iOS and iPadOS come with a feature that lets you type in braille right on the touch screen. It’s called Braille Screen Input, or BSI for short. It supports all the same codes and languages that work with supported braille displays. BSI can do several useful things:

You can type braille in your preferred language and code, right on the touch screen

you can search for and open apps from the home screen just by typing part of their name

you can issue commands using braille, just like you would with a braille display connected

you can use letters to move around a webpage, such as typing a braille h to move to the next heading

you can type braille to search for on-screen controls, similar to VoiceOver’s Item Chooser

you can move around and select text you’ve written

you can quickly send messages with a gesture instead of having to find the Send button

Braille Screen Input doesn’t output braille, of course. It’s all on the touch screen, and you still have to use speech or a connected braille display for output. Still, for those who know braille, BSI is a game-changer. Typing can be far faster than with the normal on-screen keyboard, finding and opening apps is very convenient, and command mode lets you navigate your device while staying in BSI. You can even re-assign gestures, such as giving yourself quick access to cut/copy/paste.

Read the full guide

For decades, my experience with refreshable braille has been shaped by a single line of text. I’ve made it work, but it has also required a constant rhythm of panning, repositioning my hands, and mentally reconstructing the surrounding context. Sitting down with a multi-line display for the first time felt like a shift in how I interacted with information. The additional space immediately made the structure of a document more apparent. Paragraph breaks and indentation stood out naturally beneath my fingers, making it easier to understand how a document was organized at a glance. Reading also became more fluid since I could spend more time focused on the content itself instead of advancing the display every few seconds. One can, of course, configure automatic scrolling, but that introduces a different challenge. I found myself reading to the rhythm of the device instead of at my own pace, leaving little opportunity to pause and process what I had just read before the next line appeared. Tables and other structured information were finally something I could explore spatially rather than line by line, opening a richer understanding of how data relates across rows and columns. Even something as simple as rereading the previous sentence or checking a point from a few lines earlier was enhanced because the surrounding text remained available without losing my place. As someone who relies on braille as my primary reading medium, these seemingly small changes added up to a noticeably more productive and enjoyable reading experience.

Read the full review