Major panning problem on my Braille display after iOS 16.5 update.

This reminds me of the terrible issue we had until iOS 15.4 or so. I will test it later with my Focus 40 5th generation.

Hi. Could you give us more info about your issue? For instance: Which Brailliant are you using--the Brailliant BI 20 or 40X, or an earlier model? And, which apps are you in when you experience the panning issue. I have updated to IOS 16.5, using a Brailliant 20X in mail and am having no issues. Would love for this to be the same for you!

Just a couple questions for you:

1. Do you have full keyboard access turned on? Humanware said this can really mess with things. I have not found this to be the case either way, but thought I'd mention it. You can find Full Keyboard Access under Accessibility: Keyboards.

2. Have you contacted Humanware to see if they have an answer for you?

the only time I have had panning issues occur is when I am editing an email and focus can jump when I place the cursor routing button.

Thanks,

Chris

Hi,
I have not updated to iOS 16.5 yet but noticed that panning within Skype on iOS 16.4.1 a is a pain. I can neither type fluently nor edit within the typing field. I end up doing such things on my Windows PC only. Does anybody have this issue in iOS 16.4.1 or in iOS 16.5? Thanks.

This has happened to me as well with a Focus 14 and 40-cell displays.

What happens to me is that when I finish a chapter or section of a book, the panning buttons become unusable. i have reported this bug to Apple, and Please, please do the same. Email accessibility@apple.com or go to the feedback assistant if you are doing the beta and mention:
FB12101436
It is a huge problem that has been going on for a while now.

Hi. I can now confirm that I am experiencing the same issues with panning that you are with Voice Dream Reader and Kindle after the first page of content. After reaching the end of the page, the display just dings when I try to move on to the next page. When I manually swipe to the next page, I am still unable to scroll.

Further exploration shows that the left and right (inner). thumb keys are not behaving while scrolling in Apple Books, either. The Previous and Next keys do move me one paragraph, but when I get there, I cannot use the right or left keys to pan to the next or previous line. I cannot also scroll in a document in Pages, either. Wow! I had no idea about the state of affairs here.

This is not happening in mail which is where I spend a fair bit of time. Forgive me for not thoroughly exploring before asking questions and assuming all was well with me. It clearly is not!

Chris

Hi, all. I appreciate others' confirming the panning issues. If we can confirm that it includes multiple Braille displays with several third party apps, then it is an Apple issue and that's what they need to hear. I don't want them to pass me off and say: OH well, talk to Humanware or Orbit Research! This is why I hate to do updates! I'm always worried they are going to mess with Braille and when they do, I feel so frustrated! I wonder if calling Accessibility is better than putting in a bug report or emailing. You never hear anything back. At least I feel I've talked to someone.

Hi,

If i were you, I would do all three. The more word we get out, the better. I did them all as well. Braille is sort of at the bottom of the list as not as many of us use it, but all in all, it is definitely worth doing it.

Jenn

I have the issue with Voice Dream and my Focus 5th, but can't make it happen with books. I suspect getting it to happen with books will be the key to getting it fixed.

Hi, all. In another post, I described how this issue persists with my Orbit Reader 20-plus, as well. I got a note from Scottish Iain who suggests to turn off automatic page turning in VoiceOver Braille settings. You can also turn VoiceOver on and off, but it seems as though this page turn setting, counter-intuitive though it may be, as fixed the issue in my early testing. It was getting to the point that even my Q-Braille's panning buttons were frozen from doing absolutely anything, not even able to move from app to app or read email. In fact, the inner thumb keys froze so much that I couldn't read email or navigate my screen with my Brailliant BI X. So, turning off the automatic page turning has indeed allowed things to work. To turn the page, I just press space with O, and I'm on the next page. I relaxed with a Kindle book, much to my relief and enjoyment! I have truly lost sleep over this, wanting to find a fix. I'm so grateful to Scottish Iain for recommending this . Please do report this, though, because it still needs to be fixed. So happy to be reading and navigating again!!!

Can somebody give me exact reproduction steps? I'm not able to reproduce the issue yet with my Focus 40 Blue 5th generation. I tried it in text fields in Mail, Messages and Safari. I'll try Pages soon.

Hi. To experience the frozen thumb keys, you have to have Turn pages while panning on in Braille settings of VoiceOver. While I did experience this significantly at some point in mail and even moving about my screen in general, we experienced it mostly in Apple Books, Voice Dream Reader and Kindle. The panning keys, in my case, the inner left and right thumb keys, froze and wouldn't allow me to move. Turning VoiceOver on and off would fix the problem temporarily, I read. What has really seemed to be a game changer, along with turning VO off and on again is turning that setting off under Braille settings. I have tested the Brailliant BI 20X and the Q-Braille and they both work now in Books, Voice Dream and Kindle. And, I can also scroll through my mail, which until turning VO off and then on again was initially not working.

Yep, happens to me with an NLS EReader.

Boy am I glad I saw this post as I was just about to update to ios 16.5. I turned off automatic updates.

Thanks for providing the steps to reproduce. I'll work extensively with my Braille display tomorrow and hope the issue occurs for me so I can report it to Apple.

What is it? I am in Chicago, Il. Can you get it?

Hi. Someone ask how to turn pages if the Turn pages while panning setting is turned off. If you press spacebar with O (dots 1 3 5). this should work for you; it does for me while in Kindle, for instance.

Confirming that I suffered the same issue. I got to the bottom of the page and no thumb keys would work at all on my Brailliant BI20X and an iPhone 13, using the Kindle app. I haven't tried the turning pages when panning setting off yet but will do so when i return from work.

Some of you might have seen that i have posted this issue on the Brailliant Facebook group and have a reply from Humanware thanking me for reporting the issue. Perhaps I am innocent and naive, but if Humanware flag this to apple it might help get the thing resolved? We also need teachers to be on the earhole about it. If bingo can't read Pearls, girls and Monty Bodkin, that's one thing, but it's far more persuasive when a student can't read Latin Via Ovid - which, incidentally, is a very strange textbook from a pedagogical standpoint.

When I get to the bottom of the page I'm reading, my panning keys stop responding altogether, even after leaving the kindle app. The only way I can get the panning keys to work again is to restart VoiceOver. I'm using a Focus 14 with iOS 16.5 and the latest version of the Kindle app. Turning Pages While Panning off seems to fix the issue, pressing space with o is an added step, but it does land me at the top of the next page.
I am able to read several pages of a book in Apple Books without trouble, whether Turn Pages While Panning is enabled or not.

I am from Belgium on an iphone xr and can confirm this tramendous bug with a smartbeetle.
Please folks do not ask yourself questions or seeking for a bad setting in your iphone or toggle VO on or off this is an awful Apple bug which must be reported over and over day by day repeatedly until they fix it!
DO REPORT NOOOOOOW!

Oh, this is an unpleasant one. I'll have to decide whether to use the rotor and speech and leave page turning on since it still works with autoscroll, or turn page-turning off. I can confirm the panning key issue with my Humanware eReader.

Well, that is not good.

It resolved it for me, but I am very sorry for those who have tried this without success. This is a really rotten bug, this one. As well as reporting it to Apple, make as much noise as possible to ensure the various assistive tech companies are aware of it. Humanware already is aware but more representations to this effect can't hurt.

It also doesn't hurt to remind Humanware of the standing issues since iOS 16.0 specific to the displays that runn their firmware including the Brailliant, Chameleon, and NLS E-Reader. I'm referring of course to the lack of ability to insert a new line reliably, the lack of ability to use many editing keyboard commands and the lack of ability to carry out commands such as the command key with n for a new message/note.

Scott, I would remind them of all of that but by the time I get to the end of that rather substantial list I've forgotten the beginning and need to be reminded. Oh well - at least I can read again.

This happened to me overnight, so I have no idea why. I didn't do anY major resets or installs, etc. Very odd.

I have had so many accessibility issues this week that I thought it must be me. This one is doing my head in. I will have to start finding books with very long chapters, I think. Are use a focus 40 blue braille display. The only way to get around it is to go out of Apple books, Turn off VoiceOver, turn it on again, and then go back into Books. This is one of the worst bugs I’ve seen, for what I use my phone.

I don't know whether you've read the whole thread, but have you tried turning the turn pages when panning setting off? That worked for me. I agree, this is a thoroughly anoying bug and it is apparently affecting lots of students so hopefully educational institutiosn will be on the earhole about it.

I still use page-turning when I read Kindle books. This freezes the panning keys until I either reload VO or unpair and pair the Braille display. It seems to work consistently in my case; YMMV of course! HTH

I have the Iphone 13 pro max running the latest IOS software (16.5) and the braillenote touch plus as well as the focus 40 blue fifth gen and am experiencing the same issues.

I'm using a Braille Edge 40 and Ipad Mini 5th gen, v16.5.1.

Tried the suggested fix, turned off the setting for page turning while panning, restarted everything, and nothing changed. Panning in Kindle doesn't work, at the end of a page.

I thought I had automatic updates turned off, and am usually cautious about updating, not sure how this happened!

I really count on this to read with and teach my sighted kids for homeschool; I'll have to find some other work around, now.

At least I have ways other than Kindle, for my own reading.

I have been using the betas for a while, and although I don't use much braille, I believe I checked this problem in the beginning of 16.6 and it was gone. You might want to upgrade to the 16.6 beta if you want it fixed.

I'm not seeing this bug in the 16.6 beta either. I was able to pan through a kindle book just I always have, although I don't use Voice Dream Reader so don't o if it still shows up there. Using a Humanware NLS Ereader and turn pages while panning is set to on.

Hi, all. I turned on "Turn pages while panning," and can turn pages in both Kindle and Voice Dream Reader books. I am using a Brailliant BI 20X as well as a Q-Braille 40. I also found the responsiveness to be better in edit boxes. I'm a very fast Braillist and it keeps up just fine. Also, placing the cursor to edit content was much more responsive. I only had one instance of focus jumping up to the top of the window. In my testing, initially for editing, I was in the Mona app for Mastodon. I did not have any issues while in Apple mail.

Here's hoping all remains while and that all of us get relief from this nasty bug when the final version of 16.6 is released to the public.

No available update yet for Ipad. It says I'm up to date at 16.5C.

Can only be a matter of time, surely, since they've fixed it elsewhere. I'm glad to hear this news.

16.6 isn't publically available yet. RC was released this week, so the final version should be available to everyone early next week, probably Monday or Tuesday morning.

Good, because edit field responsiveness really really needs improvment in my oppinion