Am I normal, or is there anyone else out there like me?

i just use dictation. worst comes to worst i just type on my mackbook

I have an Orbit writer. It is faster using a physical keyboard. so yes there is someone like you.

I do use my phone for about 90% of text input, like right now. I'm typing using BSI. But yes, the onscreen kb systems, even things like FloType, will never replace the confidence and realism of real keys or a physical braille keyboard. And that's fine :)

I haven't bothered too much with bluetooth keyboards; there's quite a lag compared to typing on a pc or Mac. Plus if typing rapidly, bt keyboards can miss letters resulting in a few more minutes of corrective checking afterwards. Just not worth it to me. Either BSI or I'm on my desktop for those long, plodding texts like essays or other multipage documents.

I've been an iPhone user since 2010 and, while I can work the touch screen, I use a Bluetooth keyboard most of the time. Braille screen input feels totally strange to me because it feels nothing like using my Perkins Brailler. It feels like trying to Braille on a table, which just does not work for me. I actually don't have much trouble with dictation, but don't use it in public. I don't know how to do multi finger multi taps on a Bluetooth keyboard, so the touch screen is how I do them. But the touch screen has always been the slowest and most tedious entry method for me.

Would say that, for me, BSI is the best input method or, at least, bridges the gap. I do realise that might not be the right thing for everyone if they haven't ever learned brail. I think it's a good reason to though.

We are all different. Don't let anyone call you abnormal, or force you into a state of so-called normality, just because you're being you.
Now to answer your question. Yes, I also find typing on the phone to be a chore. Navigation is a pain - I don't know how to get to the beginning or end of a line of text, nor do I know how to highlight, cut, copy, or paste, and can only type at a maximum speed of about 2 chars a second. That assumes I know where every single character is and I don't need to keep cycling between numbers, letters, symbols etc.
I have tried bluetooth keyboards and have found that they do nothing but freeze, leaving you with incomplete words or heavily duplicated characters because key-up messages are lost.
I have tried dictation and always end up having to correct about half of it so even that's no good for me.
That's why I prefer voice messages or emails. I always tell people "you can text me but I can't reply other than by ringing you, sending you a voice message, or emailing you."
It has taken me under five minutes to type this out on my keyboard, and that includes pauses for thought while I consider what I'm going to write next and so on. I wouldn't even attempt sending something like this on my phone without knowing of a way of doing it that is much more efficient than anything out there that I'm currently aware of.
As it happens I thought I was the outlier for a while. I only got the hang of using an IPhone back in 2021, after three attempts over a ten year period and a lot of coaching by a friend of mine. Unfortunately my journey wasn't particularly smooth sailing because of poor fine motor skills that took nearly two years of corrective work that got me to where I am now. I am very thankful that I can use it as well as I can at the moment otherwise my methods of communication would be limited indeed.
Hope that helps.

I have two of them. I refuse to be tied to a cord while it is charging. I also have the cases from Turtle Back. They are nice and work wonderfully. Yes you can use while in the case. I do it all the time.

I'm not saying you'll ever get to the point where typing really long stuff is fun or anything. But it does get more bearable, the more you do it. But I mean, yeah, I have a Bluetooth keyboard for a reason.

It helps to look at the phone like a stopgap. What I mean is, take web browsing, not necessarily the greatest experience either, IMO. I'm doing 99% of that on the Mac. But I try to do some on the phone to get used to it and see how it works. Why? Because the better I get at it, the more I know that if I'm out somewhere and only have my phone, I can do it if I need to or really want to.

It's just another tool. It's going to be better at some things and not so great at others. I actually like dealing with mail on the phone more than I do on the Mac, not that I don't like it on the Mac, but it's faster to go through larger numbers of messages and delete, for instance.

Here's one of my two tips for learning. Do it when you don't have to. Write yourself notes or something. Send messages back and forth to a friend. I'm not super into typing on the phone, even with BSI, but I don't dread it or anything, the way you seem to. I used to though, well I wouldn't go that far, but it seemed really pointless to me, why would you type like that when you have a perfectly usable keyboard?

And the way you get past that is to do it when you're not trying to do anything. What I mean is, say you're reading this forum, and you go "man I want to post"! Well just like "all of a sudden I have to fill out this form" or something, that's pressure. You're putting stress on yourself, because you're trying to accomplish this thing, and this dumb typing is getting in the way.

While I'm writing a mini novel, here's the other tip. Treat the thing as the thing. Your phone doesn't type like a computer keyboard. Great. You either figure out if you can deal with that or not. And I'm going to guess a lot of the reason it's hard for some people to deal with is that they do it when they have to, I want to post, now i need to type in this long password, whatever.

The way to get past that is to just experiment/do it a bunch. You need to get used to the new way of doing things, the new motions, are there motions that are better for typing this way, that kind of thing. You still might end up thinking typing on the phone is horrible, my point isn't that if you do this, you'll love typing on the phone and get rid of all your keyboards.

My point is to get as comfortable with it as you can. I know, you're going, didn't you read? I've owned an iPhone for ages! Me too. I didn't type on it much until pretty recently. This is how I started. It's how I started using BSI, when at first I couldn't get it working to save my life. This is how I ended up switching to the Mac, because I just said "it's gonna do Mac things", and stopped worrying about how OMG I used to do this on Windows, why can't I do this like I did it on Windows!

Well you can't. It's not Windows. You need to decide if you can deal with that or not. Maybe you can, maybe you can't. But again, the trick is to do this when you're not trying to do anything else. I doubt I'd ever write this on the phone, I'd be using a keyboard too. But the more comfortable I am with the phone, the more likely it is that i could, if I really had to.

I would add, this absolutely holds with dictation, something I haven't done a whole lot. So let's say I wanted to start. I'd be looking at things like, how do you start it, how do you stop it, I know how those work, I'm just breaking down this process. How do you speak to make it as accurate as possible? How do you insert spaces, punctuation, stuff like that? If you're doing longer stuff, do you dictate in stages? How do you tell it you're doing a new paragraph then? Can you do headings and so on? How do you correct mistakes? I suspect that's more typing/editing with the phone, not dictating them.

Now hopefully you can see why you want to do this stuff when you're not trying to accomplish something. Because if you just start dictating and it comes out like an unholy mess of gibberish, you're just going to be frustrated and have no idea how to fix it. Dictation will seem just as pointless as typing on a screen.

I should add, I am absolutely speaking from experience here. I had trouble learning totally new things for years, still do in fact. This is what's making it easier and more possible for me to do that. Maybe it will work for you, maybe it won't. I started learning this from pottery, of all things, when I saw the quote "the way to make good pots is to make a bunch of bad pots". This is my extrapolation from that.

P.S.

Not only wouldn't I have written this on the phone, I couldn't. So I'm still learning too. Good luck, and HTH a bit.

what would be your definition of normal

Have you noticed?
However, Ramy, I much prefer to type on a regular keyboard, though the Logitech is all right with the phone, in an OS that has the commands I'm used to, in an app that is not so mushy as some of the iOS writing apps. I don't think my validation helps with your normality, but... still hope it helps.
I'm going into a novel writing cycle, and feel much mor chatty on-line, so this is a major frustration for me at the moment. Such is my life.

If I am going to type long respond, I use my windows PC or my iPad 9 with slim folio but it is not consistent with the folio.

I hated typing on an IPhone until the introduction of BSI on iOS. At some stage I considered buying the RIVO Keyboard, thanks to import delays into South Africa, and the fact that there was no high demand amongst blind people, I never laid my hands on that keyboard.
Nevertheless, I will never type any serious document on an iPhone. I mainly use my phone for socials, and reply to emails on the fly, especially when I am out of the office, and do not have time to switch on my laptop and wait for JAWS start up.
Anyway, I don't own any Apple product other than my iPhone.

The iPad 9 does not work well with slim folio. Typing yes, but if you want to use the commands, no. I think a Mac be better. Right now I am using my PC to respond to you.

Normality isn't something I aspire to. LOL
Yes, my Mac is for typing. If I need to write or edit much I want to use it. I do like the ability to send stuff back and forth because I find I often need both for a task to be completed efficiently.

I use dictation fairly often, but hate doing it in public because someone always talks and messes me up. And we all know the results aren't perfect. Since I'm a perfectionist that is painful and requires editing.

I have a bluetooth keyboard that works great when it works. It's an old Logitech solar keyboard that has been through more than a keyboard should be required to survive so it no longer is fully reliable about connection or charge. The key action is just so nice. Oh, it is also too big to have with me anywhere but home.

I have both an NLS EReader and an Apex Humanware display that I sometimes type with, but I don't want to cary or connect the Apex, which is the better display, all the time. The Reader has firmer keys that tire me out when typing a lot with it. Editing can also be flaky on iOS.

I use Braille screen input in away mode. That works well for me if I can have the phone resting on my pinkies or my lap, but I can't type with it while standing. I've never been able to keep the dots right when in table top mode, but that doesn't matter since it needs a table even more badly. I have something to hold my phone around my neck, but it is something I 3d printed so it is a bit hokey for using away from home. I still might sometimes.

I am thrilled that flow type is being developed because I like that typing method for text messages while out and about. That requires a hand to hold the phone and a hand to type, but it doesn't feel as painfully slow and delicate as normal on-screen typing. The problem is that it is necessary to hear well or you end up accidentally writing the weirdest things that are exactly the length of what you meant to type. LOL

For the person who wanted a braille keyboard that's easy to cary, there is the Hable. It is very small and pretty expensive. I haven't tried one, but have heard good things about them from friends.

I have something weird I wish I could share, but that would require my husband actually getting around to having the time to produce the product commercially. I basically have a prototype 12 key macro-pad that I find very helpful. It's keys and functions can be edited in python. I won't explain all that I use it for to save my wrists and make things more convenient. It has many layers that do different things.
My latest attempt worked way beyond my expectations. I was somewhat surprised that programing it didn't leave me with permanent brain damage. I assigned keys to be the letters on a keyboard that are used for braille input on a qwerty keyboard. now I can hold that macro-pad like I hold the phone for braille screen input, but somehow real keys are a little more reliable and can do more functions. I put it on a lanyard around my neck to make that possible while standing. Yeah, people who want to be normal can't have some things. It still isn't perfect because it requires carying it around and connecting it and putting in my AirPods to hear well enough in public.

None of the 7 different ways of entering text on my iPhone is perfect, but different things are nice in their own way. It probably means I never get quite as fast as I could get with any one system if I used it exclusively, but it is better for preventing repetitive stress injury, or becoming boring.

I'm typing this on my Windows computer. I do email on my computer as well. I have a blue tooth keyboard which I use on my iPhone if I need to type in passwords or long texts, but I mostly use dictation on my iPhone. I am pretty comfortable with the on-screen keyboard of my iPhone for short entries or correcting dictation errors when I don't want to bother pulling out my BT keyboard. But I much prefer a standard keyboard on my computer for any extensive typing.

I'm a writer , and I was very excited when I got my first iPhone in 2012 to be able to write on the go. Only to find out that while a Bluetooth keyboard does make things easier, it was still nowhere near as comfortable as my PC. I haven't tried it in recent years, but I do find long form writing of any kind still more tedious than I'd like it to be. Braille Screen input is fantastic, but it's easy to make mistakes sometimes. It's especially hard when you're on any Bluetooth headset, Even airpods because of the delay. Doable, but not comfortable.

I never use a bluetooth keyboard with my iphone, I never use dictation either to be honest unless I want to say 1 word that I can’t spell to save my life. I use the mac for what I need it for if I need a keyboard but with the iphone, its typing or Braille screen input. I’ve seen people use dictation and not have edited text all over the place for years, for me, I’d rather just type than sit there editing something when typing was quicker for me anyway. But, its personal choice, there’s no normal, its whatever works best for you

Well if you see my comments, is not AI, any grammar issues is earn. Typing from my windows PC.

I am strictlyqwerty myself. Have yet to really feel the desire to learn how to type on the screen. Just can't seem to get my head around that, partly due to having space perception issues. So, if I don't have a bt keyboard at my disposal, I'm just about S.O.L. So, in one room I have a keyboard which connects to not only my iPhone, but my windows desktop. In the other, I have a smaller keyboard, but one that still allows me normal typing real estate. And when I travel, I carry around a folding BT keyboard with my phone in one of these cute zipper pouches I bought from the now gone, but very much missed #SpeedDots.com. <sigh> Needless to say, this girl is all about the physical keyboard. I did kind of figure out how to use BSI, but, since I'm too much of a qwerty keyboard hound ... So, whether you're normal or not, that's another story. Normal is boring, to me. You are just you with your preference, which is refreshing, to say the least. So, invest in maintaining the you that you are proud of being. 😀 For traveling, or just having a keyboard at your disposal, you can find some folding keyboards, from such companies as iClever.

Same here. When possible, I use my PC to write long texts, though I'm getting a bit more comfortable with the virtual keyboard now.

I am also a guy who types on a physical keyboard, and I feel the most satisfaction when doing so. There is nothing like typing on a keyboard, whether it is a laptop keyboard or a Bluetooth keyboard. The tactile feedback I get from pressing real keys is unmatched and makes the writing experience much more enjoyable for me.

I have to say, I really do not like typing on a touchscreen. It is the worst for me because it does not give me the tactile feedback that I look for when I am writing. Without the feel of actual keys under my fingers, I find it much harder to type accurately and comfortably. For me, nothing beats the experience of using a physical keyboard.

Yes, I definitely feel your pain. This is precisely why I use dictation. I wish there was honestly a better solution than that, but there isn’t at least for me without having to carry a separate device and I really don’t wanna do that. She’s not practical for my case. Hope you can find something that works better for you if you have something you wanna do.

If someone texts me and I'm out and about, I simply don't reply back because I assume that texts and E-mails are not urgent and hate typing on a touchscreen. If it's urgent, people should just call me. If I can't answer, which is rare, I'll leave the notification on the lock screen and return the call as soon as possible. I have a full-sized Apple keyboard at home to type on my Mac, and that's usually the only place where I actually type.

Unfortunately for many people their phones are their only computers, so they need to get used to typing on a touchscreen, even if it's slower. I hate typing on the touchscreen even back in my sighted days, it never really registered with me, and neither did phones with hardware keyboards. It's either a desktop keyboard or nothing for me, and being blind has little to do with that.

As for being normal, if you are blind then you aren't normal. Normal means standing somewhere within the norm, which is defined as the average plus or minus the mean deviation. As blind people, we're definitely way too different to be normal, making us statistical outliers, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I'm a totally blind guy who messes around with computer graphics and computer vision, so I'm an outlier even among the blind in a good way.

Agree. This is why people have phones.

Aw, no, Ramy, don't be sorry. Most of us just wanted you to feel like it was usual among us to hate the screen typing.
You gave us the space to express that we don't feel normal about various things either.
We thank you for that. 🫂

But for me, it really helps to think about it as not typing. You're not typing. You're doing touch screen input. Again, I don't know that it changes how you feel about it, ultimately. But I think for me, it gets past that keyboard hurdle. You know if you're thinking of it in terms of a keyboard, it's easy to go, it's slow, no tactile feedback, and so on.

But for me if I just go, this is a touch screen, well you've got three different typing modes, BSI, and handwriting if you know letters well enough and want to try that. SO you've got five different input modes to play with. It will never be as fast as a keyboard, it isn't for sighted people either.

But I'm with the poster who mentioned replying to emails on the go. There, maybe you do a few sentences or a paragraph or two. You still need to know how to use it for that, how do you edit, how do you correct things, stuff like that. So I just see it that way, OK, if I have to use it, can I get good at BSI? Can I use dictation well enough to get stuff corrected and correctly formatted?

BTW, if like me you suck at the rotor gesture, I switched mine to two finger swipe left and right. Because of that I found something out the other day that I probably knew but forgot. If you move to text selection it defaults to characters, but if you swipe up or down with one finger, you get other options like words.

I doubt I'll ever *enjoy* dealing with text on the phone. But stuff like that at least makes it way less painful. I'm trying to look at the phone more like that, you know, what's possible, what can I actually do with it. Whether I end up doing any of it isn't the point. The point is it's a fairly powerful device you can fairly easily carry around.

I figure it makes sense to explore what's possible rather than just rejecting stuff out of hand because it's annoying or whatever. You know, give it a chance. I can, after all, reject it at any time. Of course it's going to be different from just about any other device we use. So I'm just trying to lean into that and treat it as its own thing.

If I take a couple weeks or a month and really practice dealing with writing, and get better at it, nothing forces me to only use the phone and never use a Bluetooth keyboard or something. But if I can manage it, well, at least I'll know how to do it, if it comes up. And even for basic editing, e.g. correcting email addresses or whatever, it will help.

Maybe I totally misunderstood what was meant here but a couple of you in this thread mentioned typing on your computer to do things on your phone, how does that work? Btw if it matters I have a Dell laptop and use an old external USB keyboard for typing.

I can't remember when I started using an iPhone but to give some idea my first phone was a 5S. I don't use my phone for a lot of things, I still prefer getting online on my laptop for example, and like a lot of you I have a bt keyboard for typing passwords etc. When I send texts I will use siri to dictate what I want to say, but sometimes my brain and mouth don't stay on the same thought so a lot of times my texting isn't the cleanest thing in the world. I find that if I go to my contacts app and find the person I want to send a text to and dictate that way I do better but if I'm in a hurry and the text is short I'll just use siri and let my mistakes stay in the text. I never have learned how to use the braille keyboard on the phone either.

I don't know what iPhone models you have gone through. However, during my iPhone usage days, I used iPhones 6 and 7 Plus. During that time, I mastered split typing. Knowing where the keys are on the onscreen keyboard wasn't difficult to develop muscle memory for. I was just working with one hand and using all four out of five fingers. If you already have an idea of what you wanted to type, then you can begin placing your fingers accordingly and go from there. Now that I'm back in the iOS ecosystem, specifically iPad OS, a physical keyboard is necessary for certain areas of my workflow.

I can use the keyboard quite proficiently on the iPhone, but there's something about being behind an actual computer with an actual keyboard which makes things flow. Whether it be typing (this is why I loved it when whatsap had a proper desktop app, at least on windows), or searching for something, or listening to audio or video or playing games; I'll do it on the computer if I can and move to the iPhone only if I have to. Can I do it on the iphone with no problems? Yes. I just don't like to.

To respond to this question, or sharing in a post from facebook I am using my windows PC. Same for messenger. If my iPad 9 is working I use my bluetooth keyboard to type. Slim Folio from logitech. Anything else such as Mona, PC. I am using a wireless keyboard from my couch. I like the feeling of pushing the keys. My grammar is not perfect but all of you will know is not AI helping me. Is just little old me.

I like the way you use grammar, Holger Fiallo. It gives your posts an interesting tone. No idea of your background, but reminds me of European ways of speaking English I have heard.

I would not attempt to type out a post on the screen of my phone, and would use the Logitech. I might be doing that because the power company is supposed to shut off my neighborhood's power for a while today to repair some storm damage. I'll be on my phone. Also, sometimes the internet is down in my area and I have to use the phone network.

Latino from South America. Learn my English from TV. One day I was watching cartoon and I realize I understood what that crazy rabbit said. That was a long time ago, last century.

Ah, that crazy rabbit... I learned many things from Bugs too.
Thank you for sharing that. And you just be you.

Actually the subject field says it all, but I would like to explain my sellf. :)

In most of my usecases, I prefer my mac. Using an iPhone is good, scrolling thrue Instagram, mannedging my bank acounds ETC... However browsing on the internet, watching tv or films, especially writing and reading... These are all activities that I prefer doing with my computer. Sure I can use whatsapp or other messaging apps with BSI and it's fun, however using safari on iPhone or a watching youtube video on the phone? No thanks.

I always have a Bluetooth keyboard nearby. The onscreen keyboard is certainly useable when I'm standing somewhere with my iPhone. I can use it well but it always feels slow to me. Meanwhile, I can type around 90 words per minute on a Bluetooth keyboard. Even a somewhat more cramped folding keyboard like the Protoarc KX4 is preferable to the onscreen keyboard. However, if you want me to type for hours, get me my Nuphy Air75 V3 or Air65 V3. With the Blush silent switches, it's the best typing experience I've ever had.