News

From the Braille Working Group of the European Blind Union

Dear colleagues,

I was asked by the company Cubed Design for a help in their work. They write:

“we’re currently doing interviews on some new questions with people in the braille display space!”

If you’d be open for a 15 min interview, that would be awesome. For booking the slot, just select a time here and a member of their team would chat with you! Thank you!

https://calendar.app.google/sBrEfAF5TGcpJNKJA

They are specifically interested mostly in teachers and trainers who are working with braille or braille displays.

From APH:

The Monarch 1.4 update highlights several key areas, including continued growth in braille terminal support with PC screen readers like JAWS and NVDA, the introduction of KeyDrive for cloud file access, and meaningful improvements to eBraille reading performance and formatting.

Supporting both Google Drive and OneDrive platforms, students can now instantly access assignments and content via the cloud. KeyDrive, allows students to login to the platform of their choice to access, move, or copy files from those cloud platforms using their familiar File Manager interface. Previously only connecting to PCs using the USB connection, Monarch 1.4 now gives users the opportunity for wireless Bluetooth connectivity via the Bluetooth Braille Terminal.  Finally the Monarch’s Book Reader app comes equipped with the capability to open eBraille books, ensuring efficiency and braille format integrity. Read our Monarch 1.4 blog to learn more about all the ways these changes reflect a steady move toward making Monarch more capable, more connected, and easier to use.

February 2026 BT Speak Release Notes

Blazie Technologies is pleased to offer our first update for 2026. Keep reading to learn more about the features and enhancements we’ve added.

Quick Instructions for Updating Your BT Speak

1. Ensure that your BT Speak is connected to a Wi-Fi network. Your battery level should be at 40% or higher.
2. Type O-Chord for the Options menu.
3. Type M for the BT Speak Management menu.
4. Type U to Check for Software Updates.

Your BT Speak should tell you that a new update is available and will ask if you’d like to install it. Press the letter Y to begin the installation.

The BT Speak will download and install the update.

Once BT Speak restarts, you will be able to start enjoying the new update.

Technical Support Gateway: Receive Remote Assistance From Our Staff

Our new Technical Support Gateway allows a member of our staff to remotely access your BT Speak when needed. This can be helpful if work needs to be done on your device and you would prefer to have one of our team members handle it for you.

Note: You should only enable this support connection after a Blazie Technologies staff member asks you to do so. If you open it on your own, your BT Speak will not connect to our staff automatically. Only you can start the connection and you can end it whenever you wish. Blazie Technologies will never access your device without your knowledge or consent.

For the technically or security-minded, this support connection is established via a SSH Reverse Tunnel.

To enable this feature, go to Options, BT Speak Management, Advanced BT Speak Management, Enable Technical Support Gateway.

When you activate this option, you will be asked if you want to initiate a support channel and you will be advised to only use this service when working with a Blazie Technologies staff member. If you want to begin a support session, press Y for yes.

Improvements to the Radio Tuner

• We fixed a problem where updating the station database resulted in the database becoming corrupted, with many stations no longer being available. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. You can now update the station database and all of the radio stations will remain intact.
• The process used to update the station database has also been refined to be more reliable. You will receive an error message if something goes wrong during the update process. After updating your BT Speak, we recommend refreshing the station database to ensure that you’ll once again have the entire catalog of available stations.
• When you refresh the database, the application now tells you the total number of radio stations that are available. This additional message will help to verify that all of the radio stations are available for listening.
• We have had requests for a feature allowing you to record the stream that you’re currently listening to and this has now been added. While the station is playing, press G from the Radio Stream menu to begin recording. This is the menu which appears once you begin listening to a station. Pressing G a second time stops the recording process. In order to preserve storage space, the recording will also stop if you pause or stop the playback of a stream. The audio is saved to a folder named “RadioRecordings”, which is located inside the BTSpeak folder. In this update, recordings of radio streams are only saved internally. In a future update, we hope to provide a way for radio streams to be recorded on external media, such as a thumb drive. Of course, recordings in this folder can always be moved to an external drive at a later time.
• We fixed a problem where streams from ACB Media stopped working. You can now listen to all ten of their streams.

Easily Open Files Created in Blazie Mode in LibreOffice

The File Browser now includes a new Open in LibreOffice option. When you point to a file in the file browser, press L to import or open that file directly into LibreOffice. The file will open automatically in the appropriate LibreOffice application, such as Writer, Calc, Impress, etc., based on the file type.

Notes

• Before importing a file into LibreOffice, make sure that you have first closed the file using the editor’s close command (e-chord, c from the file).
• Braille files with a .brf or .brl extension will automatically be back-translated into plain text files once they are loaded in LibreOffice. Your original file will remain untouched.

Open Rich Text Files From Google Drive into LibreOffice

Google Drive now offers the option to open documents with rich text formatting in LibreOffice. These include files with the extensions rtf, docx, doc, xlsx and pptx. When selecting a document with rich text formatting, BT Speak will say “this file has rich formatting. Open in LibreOffice?” Pressing Y for yes will open the selected file in LibreOffice in desktop mode. Typing N for No will then ask if you’d like to open the file in the Blazie mode editor. If you answer no, the file opens in read-only mode, meaning that you won’t be able to edit the file. When the document closes, you will automatically be returned to the Google Drive app in Blazie mode. In addition, any changes that you may have made to the document in LibreOffice will sync with the file on Google Drive.

Please read the Google Drive help file section entitled “Open files for reading or editing” to learn more about this new feature.

Note: Some files, such as spreadsheets, cannot be opened in the Blazie editor.

Announcement of Indented Text

The BT Code editor now reports indentation levels while writing code. When a line of text is spoken, BT Code announces the number of tabs and spaces before reading the line’s content. Indentation is only spoken when it changes relative to the previously read line, reducing unnecessary verbiage. This behavior applies only within the BT Code editor.

In addition, WH-chord with dot 8 now reports the current line’s indentation (number of spaces and tabs) on demand. This command works in any file in the editor, not just in BT Code. These features should make it much easier to review Python code you have written.

Bug Fix in the Agenda Calendar

When adding a new event, pressing z-chord from the “Time?” prompt generated an error. This has been fixed.

Concluding Remarks

As always, we appreciate and welcome your feedback regarding this update. Please email your feedback to [email protected] or call us at (772) 214-1616.

The Blazie Technologies Team

A significant number of new features are included in these releases.

• Activator Release Notes
• Activator Pro Release Notes

Wednesday 4 February 2026

NLS has discovered an issue that is intermittently causing BARD to become nonresponsive. This may result in BARD web pages and download requests timing out. Users might experience these issues at any time on any BARD platform.

NLS has found the root issue, but it will take time to deploy a fix. Unfortunately, this means the intermittent problems may continue for a while.

We realize this is a critical issue and apologize for any frustration it is causing. Thank you for being patient while we work to correct the problem.

A2I transcription services has written a blog post about how they transcribe braille music.

The Round Table conference program is now available on the conference website, and the Round Table Executive and Program Committee are delighted to share it with you for the 2026 Round Table on Information Access for People with Print Disabilities Inc. Annual Conference (#roundtable2026).

The 2026 conference will explore how innovation and collaboration can open doors to greater independence and inclusion for people with print disabilities. Together, we’ll look at practical ways to ensure everyone has the tools, resources and opportunities they need to access information on equal terms, so that information access is not only a recognised right, but a lived reality for all.

Don’t miss our keynote speakers:

• Jonathan Craig, Understanding the Cohort: What We Know about the Prevalence of Blindness and Low Vision in Australia.
• Dr Frances Gentle, More Braille: More Empowerment – A Global Campaign for Braille Literacy.
• Dr Cary Supalo, The progress in STEM globally.

And our feature speakers:

• Aasha Rose, Braille: More than just literacy, it’s dignity, identity and freedom.
• Dagmar Reinhart, Accessibility of Museums for BLV: International Initiatives and Guidelines.

Dates

• Australian Braille Authority (ABA) Annual Meeting – Saturday, 23 May 2026.
• Conference, – Sunday, 24 May to Tuesday, 26 May 2026.

Registrations – Early Bird Registrations are open and close on Friday, 28 February 2026

To register, please complete the on-line delegate registration form. Take advantage of our early-bird registration, available until Friday, 28 February 2026. After this date, standard registration fees will apply.

Conference Updates

Conference updates will be posted on the Round Table conference website and Round Table mailing list.

The Tammy Axelsen Lifetime Achievement Award

A gentle reminder, nominations for this annual award are open. The nomination form and further details can be found on our website by following this link: Tammy Axelsen Lifetime Achievement Award

Listen on the Accessible World website

Watch on YouTube

RNIB is delighted to announce the 2025-26 season of the Gardner’s Trust Braille Music Literacy Awards. Administered by the RNIB, these awards are dedicated to assessing the reading, understanding, and performance of Braille music. They provide music Braillists with a valuable opportunity to receive expert feedback on their specialist skills and to demonstrate their musical independence.

The awards are open to Braillists of all ages, as previous age restrictions have been removed. Candidates are also permitted to retake levels they have previously attempted.

There are five levels of assessment available. All participants will receive a detailed report and a certificate of entry. Outstanding entrants at each level who meet the required standard will be awarded a prize, ranging from £10 for Level 1 to £50 for Level 5.

Test dates and application deadline

Tests will take place between the 2^nd of February and 30^th of April 2026. You can enter an application at any point up to the 16^th of March 2026.

Feedback and certificates will be issued in June 2026, at which time we will also announce the prize winners. Candidates may choose to take the exams either in person at a location of their choice (subject to examiner availability) or online.

New for 2026

We’ve made some small changes to the higher-level tests to make them fairer for candidates, such as extending the practice time for some tests. You can read more about the specific changes in the downloadable Infopack on the RNIB’s website. Look for the document called “GTLA Updated Guidelines 2025-26”.

We have also included a new guide “What to expect from an online GTLA test” to help prepare candidates who are sitting the test via Teams or Zoom.

Further information

Specimen tests, along with general regulations and requirements in both Braille and print, can be obtained from the RNIB.

For more information, please visit: Gardner’s Trust Braille Music Literacy Awards | RNIB.

To request the information pack and application form, please contact us at: [email protected]