A Little Touch of Braille

This Tech Doctor podcast begins with Allison letting us know that she is enjoying working with the Microsoft Surface Pro. She also tells us how she is now carrying two iPhones to meet her entertainment and communications needs. She is enjoying both the iPhone 12 Pro Max and the iPhone SE 2020. David tells us about how he has taken his product demonstrations to a new level by producing videos. Don’t worry, he is still providing excellent audio description in these videos. To check out the new videos, go to David’s Vision Australia Blog. Robert tells us that there is now a way to use SuperDuper to backup Macs that are running Big Sur. You can read all about this on the Shirt-Pocket Blog. Robert also lets us know that setting up the M1 Macs to work with the Rogue Amoeba products is fully accessible with VoiceOver. The remainder of the podcast is spent discussing electronic Braille. There is a lot happening with Braille these days. The Tech Doctors discuss the trend away from Notetakers and toward hybrid Braille displays which have some minimal note taking capabilities but mostly rely on a connected computer or mobile device to do the heavy lifting of making word processing, email, web browsing, and so on available in Braille. The Tech Doctors acknowledge that for this hybrid approach to work well, the interface between the Braille display and the computer or mobile device has to be consistent and reliable. The Tech Doctors feel that there is a bright future for this way of working with Braille but there are some growing pains to get through. The Tech Doctors are delighted, however, to see the cost of refreshable Braille coming down. The Tech Doctors are excited about several new Braille displays. They discuss the Mantis from APH, The Orbit Reader from Orbit Research, And the new Brailliant displays from HumanWare.