The New BSI is Nothing Short of Game Changing...

Like the subject says, I agree completely. You can control your device as well as navigate in apps using command mode. It's nice to automatically enter BSI when you go into an edit field. I think BSI will only improve in the future. It's deffinitly more reliable than it used to be.

How do you type a space with the chord commands? I realize this is more useful on an iPad, but I'm using an iPhone 11.

I'm really looking forward to the positive changes in BSI!

Thanks Apple for this! I don't have a compatible secondary device to try the developer beta of ios/ipados on, but wwhat I read so far makes me smile! If only apple was as keen to do something useful on macos with voiceover :(

When you enter command mode, you don't need to use the space. So if you press dot 1, it would be like pressing space with dot 1, and you would move left. If you were to press dots 1-2-3, it would be like pressing them with the space, and you would move to the top of the screen. This really does give you a new way to use your device. I can't believe how stable this is in beta 1.

I hope the editing commands are powerful and well-documented, too.

I was going to try to save for a Hable 1 but now it's not worth it. I can't wait to try it out when IOS 18 comes out.

BSI is so amazing! Overall, the iOS beta has been pretty stable for me, and the addition of this new feature made me really happy!

How do you switch to command mode and back to normal mode

How do you make BSI come up when you tap a text feeld?

it's legit! Makes me feel like I'm using a completely different device and it is so snappy when in command mode moving around!

It really does seem to be really easy and quick to use. My main use case of ththinking here would be if you have to fill out a form you can just use commands to jump through to the different text fields, or if you're having a conversation in iMessage, and someone sends you a text, just switch to that and jump back up and have a read. Also a life saver if you're replying to a long message and thinking to yourself, what else did John say?

As I say here, you can now type the word for using all 6 dots at the same time. So, for the love of braille, thank you apple haha

So above, I've explained my opinion on how I think command mode could be super useful for jumping from text field to text field for form filling or just reading back through a conversation which is all good, but say I get to the other text field, is there a way I can then activate that without having to come out of BSI?

I'm not on the developer beta, but could you use dots 36 to activate it, similar to how you can use that plus the Space key to simulate a double tap when using a braille display?

I think that this functionality could be really convenient for quickly navigating between different types of controls on webpages, which is something I don't even think you can do with braille displays now. (Relatedly, is this what Quick nav is for? And if so, is there a way to use it on a braille display?)

To switch between Braille entry mode and Command Mode, perform a three-finger swipe left or right when in BSI. To configure BSI to start automatically when in a text field, go to Settings > Accessibility > VoiceOver > Braille > Braille Screen Input, and toggle the "Start Braille screen input automatically when editing text" switch on.

Just one question: when you're typing, and if you have words enabled, do you have to listen to Voiceover say space before it says your completed word? I have really, really hated that, it slows me down a lot. Really good you can type for now.

Is there a documentation from Apple on this feature?
I watched yesterday's event end to end, went to Apple's website to get more details, but nowhere it mentioned this thing.
Could it be time to get an IPad? If I can get rid of laptop, read my websites and documents with just a slim and streamlined device, with strong screen reader navigation controles, I might find that a worthwhile investment.
Also, somewhere it said that for voiceover, custom volume controles are coming. Does that mean that my media volume and Voiceover volume don't change together anymore? This issue drives me crazy.
Secondly, when I my Alexa speaker is playing music from Spotify, and I open Spotify on IPhone to see the list of songs, volume on IPhone either goes very down, or increasing it causes speaker volume to increase. Would this issue be resolved with latest updates?

hi so when say, i am filling in a form and it says first name, can i with the new command mode accept a suggested entry that is above the keyboard?

Hello, for folks using this new Braille screen input system: please tell me if there are any chances to use special characters in Braille.
The post author has an iPad, and iPad hasn't these issues because it supports 8 dots braille writing - already using it on my mini, it's same mini 6th generation; but then, on the phone, there's no way to type some characters such as #, +, ampers And, then = signs - together with curly brackets.
This is a huge trouble as I often write MarkDown!
So, I can't even imagine how lifechanging it would be, controlling the machine without having to switch input braille on and off!

For the last several years, Apple has announced the major new accessibility features on a page on their website on Global Accessibility Awareness Day.

The feature will not be documented until September when iOS 18 is released to the public.

I don't use any external speakers, but I wonder if you could address the issue you're having with the Audio Destination option you can add to the VoiceOver rotor.

Oh and another thing, contracted braile is gon, i only have uncontracted brail in the settings

Are you writing with your braille code set to English or Italian?

English braille has official ways of writing these symbols in 6-dot braille.

I'm not familiar with Italian braille, but a quick check shows that there are symbols for all of the characters you mentioned in your message. Could you use at least some of them?

The symbols I found are:

• # is dots 3456
• + is dots 235 (although I found that this symbol also seems to be used for !)
• & is dots 12356
• = is dots 2356
• { is dots 46 26
• } is dots 46 35

Apologies again if I have missed something due to not being familiar with Italian braille.

firstly I'm not too sure if you could accept the suggesttions, But what I do know is you can switch to command mode, jump to each text field, dot 1 to go back and 4 to go forward, and then dots 3 6 to activate that text field, VO then switches back to braille entry mode.
I have no issue with the + or = if those are the signs you mean, I'm sorry if not, but please do feel free to explain it a little more.
As for contracted braille, go to the braille settings in voiceover, select braille table, it should be set to UEB, click on it, it will present you a list of options, in there is UEB contracted braille. The reason you'll have to do that is because the previous command has been re-assigned to switch braille modes.
As for on the iPad, you should be fine with using braille and this new method, if you switch into and out of command mode, it should work well.
As for documentation, I'm not too sure, I'd imagine there may be more on that at a later point, you could also give the new VO tutorial a shot, it could be furtheron in there, although I'm not massively sure, I did take a look at it to see what it was about, but I can't say I had the time to complete it or anything, it was just a quick little look out of curiosity.
I hope this has helped even a little bit, but if not just drop your questions that this gives you and I'll come back to answer, we'll get there eventually with our combined knowledge I'm sure!

Hi, just a quick one, the media with Alexa and Spotify is most likely unrelated to iOS. It's using Spotify Connect, and opening spotify when you have music playing on a connected speaker often hands over your volume control for as long as you're in that app, this will be the cause of why your speaker volume is changing.
As for your voiceover and media question, yes, in the audio ducking settings, you can change the voiceover volume related to media in the bottom of that setting, the options change slightly for how you can use that depending on if you have audio ducking on or not, but either way yes you do have a volume control for adjusting your VO volume in relation to your media

Damn, if I ask a question, there is a reason - yes I use italian keyboard but the signs aren't there.
In iPhone's Braille keyboard, for example if you type the 3-4-5-6 dots combination, it types the number zero because it's the associated combination for number sign - the symbol used previous to numbers.
Same for the +, corresponding to exclamation mark, then the equal sign doesn't appear as that combination is used for open and close square bracket.
the other signs have other dots combinations but they're all occupied.
Now the only thing I found quite reliable but not the best, is creating keyboard shortcuts from settings -> keyboard, where you write abbreviations for long sentences.
But it's not the right way to work
It's almost 10 years that this problem exists, I also reported it to the bug report when it was there, and no one does anything.

Hi.

I'm typing this out with BSI, though in English. I unfortunately know nothing about Italian translation tables though.

hashtag in UEB is dots 4 5 6 followed by 1 4 5 6

• You can make lists too
• brackets are dots 4 6 followed by 1 2 6. Close the bracket with 4 6 followed by 3 4 5.
• parenthesies are dot 5 followed by 1 2 6, and closing paren is dot 5 followed by 3 4 5.

Hope some of these help, at least when you're writing in English.

Sorry for double posting, but I found Apple's Braille display commands and thought I'd share them here.

As far as I can tell, most, if not all of these work with BSI.

You can Find Them here!

Hope this helps!

If this thing works, well, Apple really gave me a gift!
Some of these functions can be found in an Android app called ABK, Advanced Braille Keyboard. But everything seems better here...
I can't wait to try!

The challenge with Braille is that you need to know the specific combination of dots to perform a task, unlike a QWERTY keyboard where the layout is clearly labeled. I wish I could ask Siri for help with some of these combinations, but unfortunately, virtual assistants don't always provide accurate information.

nothing works - maybe english is documented and italian not

Hi all. Command mode makes no sense for me, at least now. I don't have any issue switching between braille screen input and other rotor options, plus I always use my phone in one hand except of when I need to type with BSI. But I am glad that finally typing with 6 dots all together is finally fixed, it means that we can normally type letters like é in french braille table for example. Is there a way to switch braille tables in BSI edit mode?

Good morning,
In order to switch Braille tables, perform a 2-finger swipe up.
If you missed the table you wanted, just repeat the gesture, until the one you wish to use cycles back around.

Greetings. I have been using ios18 beta for about a day and I can easily say that my device usage habits have started to change. Doing almost everything on the device in braille makes it faster and feels like a more private experience. Below I am writing the braille codes you need to know in order to use the device, so you can memorize them now and be ready when the full version arrives. the working logic of the codes is just like computer keyboard shortcuts or physical braille keyboards.
Codes
1: Go to previous item.
4: Go to the next item.
3: Previous rotor element.
6: Next rotor element.
1 2: Exit.
2 3: Previous rotor.
5 6: Next rotor.
1 2 3: First item.
4 5 6: Last item.
1 3: Start help.
4 6: Notification center.
1 4: Copy.
2 5: Control center.
3 6: Activate .
1 2 6: Volume down.
3 4 5: Volume up.
1 5 6: Magic touch.
2 3 4: Go to status bar.
1 3 4: Turn mute on/off.
1 2 3 4: Turn speech on/off.
1 4 5 6: Swipe down.
3 4 5 6: Swipe up.
1 2 3 6: Paste.
1 3 4 6: Cut.
2 3 4 6: Repeat.
1 3 5 6: Undo.
1 2 5: Home screen.
3 5: Go to previous visible app.
2 6: Go to the next visible app.3 4: Read item summary.
1 3 5: Swipe right.
2 4 6: Swipe left.
1 2 3 5: Read all from current content.
2 4 5 6: Read all from the base.
1 2 3 4 6: Tag the item.
1 2 3 4 5 6: Turn the screen curtain on/off.

want to buy an ipad :)

What I am wondering, with this command mode and standard BSI mode, how does text editing work? Does it still work the same as in iOS 16 or 17, where you tap and hold a dot with your left hand, and use two or three finger swipes from your right hand to perform cursor navigation or text selection? Or has this changed?

The braille command structure sounds really good, but when you are filling in the web form if the phone can auto suggest say your first name, last name, email address et cetera, how do we get those suggestions? Also, do we need to set the default keyboard to be braille screen input in order for the tap on the left and the right side of the screen To Work? Or is that just for when you are using the phone in the normal way, and you double tap on a text field, the braille keyboard comes up?

I have had a lot of trouble with BSI and entering passwords, particularly with it not switching popperly between uncontracted and contracted braille, which of course makes it tricky in situations where you can't hear what you're typing. Is this a smoother experience? Or am I alone in having this trouble in the first place?

Wow!! Thanks for those codes. I'm going to start memorizing them so that when the public release comes out in September, I'm one step ahead.

I think BSI really needs a tutorial like the voiceover one

BSI is super confusing, i really want to like it but no where in settings is a list of gestures that i foundne

Although it's not a full tutorial, you can access a list of some of the gestures and commands you can use in BSI by going to Settings > Accessibility > VoiceOver > Braille > Braille Screen Input, and double-tapping the "Learn more" link.

You can find a list of gestures by going to settings>Accessibility>Voiceover>Braille>Braille screen input>Learn more.
Hope this helps

Judy Dixon produced a very good tutorial on Braille Screen Input for Living Blindfully, when it was still called Mosen at Large.

It's in episode 144. Here is the episode transcript, and if you don't have the podcast in your podcast app of choice, you can get the audio here.

These new BSI changes are brilliant.

Thanks guys