Typing using the standard touch-screen keyboard on the Iphone can be a slow process for the blind. It either takes a lot of time to drag your finger to find the right letter or if you use voice input, it may not spell things correctly such as names. Using a great mode of typing known as Brille Screen Input makes it so you can type quickly and without making so many mistakes.
To enable braille screen input, you have to add it to the rotore. First, open the settings app and then go to accessability. After double tapping this, go to Voiceover and doubletap here. You will then go to rotore and double tap here likewise. Swipe to the right until you hear Braille Screen Input." You now have it in the rotor and can use it anytime there is an open text field.
To use braille screen input you must be editing a text field. This can be any kind such as search fields, notes, or anywhere you can type. The only place that Braille Screen Input doesn’t work is for passwords. You will need to continue to use the on screen keyboard.
Start by rotating your thumb and pointer finger in a circle on the screen. Keep doing this a few times until it says Braille Screen Input. When you do, you will need to turn the phone to a different angle to type.
The phone will now be positioned with the screen away from you and the charging port will point towards your right palm. You will hold your pointer, middle, and ring fingers of both hands over the screen. The reason for this is so that you can input the shapes of the letters of every braille letter by bringing all the required fingers to touch the screen.
Now I will give you a brief overview of A, B, and C so you can have an idea of which fingers do what. If you tap your left pointer finger down and raise it then A is typed. If you do both the middle and pointer of the left hand, this is the letter B. If you do both of your pointer fingers at the same time, this will be the letter C. You can follow this same pattern for all of the braille letters.
Something to also assist in knowing which finger to use for which dot is below: dot 1: left pointer. Dot 2: Left middle. Dot 3: left ring. Dot 4: right pointer. Dot 5: right middle. Dot 6: right ring.
To insert a space, you will swipe your right pointer finger towards your wrist. If you wish to backspace, you would swipe to the left. You can even delete entire words like this but, use 2 fingers.
The final thing to note is that this typing works with Braille contractions. If you type brl and then do a space, it will write Braille. If you even just type in C space, it will type can.
This typing method makes it so much more fluid to type things on the iphone. I’ve used this for many things such as texts, important emails, or even just posts on social media. With a tool like this, you will have the ability to type much faster even though you cannot see where the letters are.