Feature Suggestion: Multi-Line Braille Support For Braille Access

In September of last year, Apple released iOS 26 bringing a lot of new features and updates. Among those new features was a suite of options called Braille Access. Braille Access, specifically Live Captions, has re-opened a lot of my world, and this is not something I state lightly. I have very little usable hearing at this point, which has lead me to not being able to enjoy some of my more audio-centric hobbies in recent months. Live Captions have re-opened those options to some extent. Not only with things like old time radio dramas, but also, since I do have some residual hearing, Live Captions have allowed me to follow audio described programming. While there is no one stream of both the dialog and descriptions exist, in a sense, Live Captions have helped make this a lower barrier. It’s also helped with things like essential phone calls and access to meetings.

However, Live Captions exists in a single-line environment, and there is currently no support for multi-line braille displays in Braille Access. What I have come to understand about the use of multi-line access to captioning, is that it speeds up the process of following braille at the regular rate of speech. Multi-line braille on Windows has made it so that I can almost match the speech rate of hearing users. It does so by allowing the user to follow the flow of conversation more fluidly without having to pan each line. This also reduces cognitive load. Further, sometimes it may be necessary to pan backward with a single line display where with multi-line access, you can just move your finger up to an earlier line. For example, in fast-moving phone calls or meetings, having only one line of braille can mean missing information as it scrolls away, with no efficient way to quickly recover context.

Also in September 2025, Dot Inc unveiled the Dot Pad X. This is a multi-line braille display which brings both multi-line braille and tactile graphics to iOS and iPadOS. At the time, it was my first exposure to a multi-line device which worked well on iOS. The Dot Pad allowed me to take books on the go and have a multi-line reading experience, something I haven’t had until that point with my Apple devices.

The only thing missing now is multi-line support in Braille Access. To be clear, this lack of multi-line support for Braille Access is not available on any multi-line displays; though I’m posting this within the context of the Dot Pad, multi-line support in Braille Access is also not available on other multi-line devices such as the Monarch and Orbit Slate.

Having multi-line support in Braille Access would Not only be great for Live Captions, but also so that those with access to multi-line devices can read BRF files in the braille-first environment Braille Access provides. While I have multi-line access to captioning for phone calls on the PC, I’d much prefer to have this on my phone, where I make phone calls.

At a webinar I attended in February hosted by Dot Inc, Dave Williams indicated that this was a request they had sent along to Apple and have encouraged other users to do the same. I have filed my feedback suggestion as FB22484975.

It is my hope that Apple will strongly consider this request, and that others may file feedback as well to help Braille Access become the best-in-class multi-line braille experience we know Apple can deliver.