Braille on Mac - Endless problems

By Maldalain, 9 April, 2020

Forum
Braille on Apple Products

I am having issues with braille on latest mac.
When reading in TextEdit entire lines may be skipped. Sometimes when I scroll down to a new line it immediately goes back to the previous one.
Using Mac latest version on Mac Air and braille sense U2.

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Comments

By Unregistered User (not verified) on Wednesday, April 22, 2020 - 12:40

Same problem here. I'm not sure if it's a Catalina problem or if Braille has always had issues on Mac. I ran into a cornucopia of bugs on a 5th-gen Focus 40 that makes Braille on Catalina borderline unusable. After getting no replies here and several hours of aggravated sanity checks I've determined that this is a problem on Apple's end as all my hardware is in perfect order and my display works flawlessly on Windows with NVDA and JAWS.

By Ben Swiggett on Wednesday, April 22, 2020 - 12:40

I got a Windows computer because of the braille support on the Mac. I still have my Mac, but I don't use it very much. Braille has been declining for several years. I don't think anyone at Apple tests the braille support.

If you use braille, I would ditch the Mac for windows. I have posted on this site for years about the terrible support, and people still by Macs. If you rely on braille, stay away from the Mac platform!

That would've been handy to know a few months ago. Absolutely nothing came up about braille support when I did websearches for it when I was shopping for laptops. Probably going to sell my MacBook and get a Surface laptop or something unless I suddenly get into Final Cut or Logic or whatever. I hear Braille is actually decent on iOS/iPadOS.

By Ben Swiggett on Wednesday, April 22, 2020 - 12:40

It kind of semes like nobody talks about it. I wonder if most blind folks don't use braille on their Macs, or what, but it is hard to find anything bad about Mac accessibility.

Braille on the iPhone, and iPad work pretty well; it has some issues, but it is better than the mac.

By Maldalain on Wednesday, April 22, 2020 - 12:40

Will be shopping for Windows laptop in summer if things don't change with MacOS.

By Life in Six Dots on Wednesday, April 22, 2020 - 12:40

I’m a heavy braille user who uses both macOS and Window machines. I find the braille on macOS to work pretty well for the most part. The only issue I’m finding with the latest 10.15.4 update is the keyboard focus isn’t synchronised with the VoiceOver cursor when panning with a braille display in Safari. There is a workaround for that, until Apple fix the issue.

Having only just moved from Mojave to Catalina I noticed that Apple has implemented a few changes to the braille settings in the VoiceOver Utility. So I think it is unfair to say that they’re not supporting braille anymore. How you setup the VO Utility will determine your braille experience on macOS. As for Windows, it has own set of problems braille users. Sadly, nothing is perfect.