braille keyboard app

Hello. My name is Jessica. I am 17 years old and I live in Canada in the province of BC. I am blind and I have an iPhone 4s running iOS 6. I use VoiceOver. I am wondering if you could develop some apps for me and other people who are blind or visually impaired and who use Apple products? If you can not, then do you know someone who can? If you know someone who may be able to develop some or all of these apps, please forward this email to them and ask them to send their response to jessicabrown531@gmail.com or just tell me who they are and tell me their email address so I can send them a copy of this email. Thank you. The first app would look something like this. It would be an additional keyboard for typing braille on iPhones, iPads and iPods. It would be like the Emoji keyboard app from Awesomest Inc that we can get on the app store. It would also be like the other language keyboards that come built in to iOS and that we can enable in settings. It would be able to be directly integrated in to and used with all apps including the apps that are built in to iOS and the apps we get from the app store. Not like the TypeInBraille app from EveryWare Technologies, because I have read the instructions and I have tried over and over again and I can not even type 1 letter with that app. I think part of the problem with the EveryWare Technologies app is that it is not laid out the way a normal braille keyboard is and we can not input letters in the same way we would on a normal braille keyboard. Also, we do not get any auditory feedback as to what letter we are typing except beeps. Beeps do not tell us what we are typing or what we are about to type. All the beeps sound the same no matter what dot we are typing in. In other words, we can not tell what dot we have entered just by listening to the beeps. These apps are going to be way different. If possible, these apps would work with touch typing and standard typing. Also, I have seen some apps like Fleksy by Syntellia that we need to turn off VoiceOver to use. If it is possible, these apps would be compatible with VoiceOver so we would not have to turn off VoiceOver to use them. If you can not make them compatible with VoiceOver, then if possible, they would have their own speech system built in to them. Regardless of if the apps used VoiceOver or their own speech system, they would tell us what dot combination our fingers are on when we are feeling around the screen, and then when we lift our fingers to type the character they would say it again to confirm what we had typed or if we did not want the confirmation, we could turn it off in settings. For example- the letter c is a combination of dots 1 and 4. So if we have our fingers on dots 1 and 4, VoiceOver or speech would say c and we could lift our fingers to type the letter c, but if our fingers are on the wrong dots, like they are on dots 2 and 5 or something, then VoiceOver or speech would say 3 if we were typing in computer braille or lower c if we were typing in something other then computer braille and we could feel around and find the dots 1 and 4 and lift our fingers to type the letter c if we had this setting turned on. If this setting was off, the c would still be typed when we lifted our fingers, but VoiceOver or speech would not say c for a second time so we could have this setting on at first and if we wanted, we could turn it off when we got better at typing with the apps. There would also be a setting to have VoiceOver or speech not say anything until the character had been typed or to not say anything before or after the character had been typed. there would also be a setting for what we did and did not want VoiceOver or speech to announce after it has been typed- just words, just characters, nothing or both. The first setting would be independent from the second setting. In other words, we would be able to set what we hear before and what we hear after we were done typing a word separately from each other. There would be feedback options for after a character was typed. The options would be any combination of beep, vibrate and say the character. The beep, vibrate and say the character settings would be independent from each other, meaning that it would be able to just beep, just vibrate, just say the character or any combination of the 3, do all or do nothing. There would be additional settings for what order we wanted these 3 things to happen in. There would be a setting that could be turned on or off for predictive typing where we type a few letters and the apps guess what word we are trying to type and if it is the word we are trying to type, we could press the space bar to have the word completed without having to type the whole word. For example- we start typing the word information and we only get as far as informa and the device brings up the word information. Then if that was the word we wanted, we could just press space and the word information would be typed. If information was not the word we wanted, we would just ignore the suggestion and keep typing and the device would keep suggesting words until either it guessed the one we were trying to type or we finish typing it. Also, With apps like Fleksy and TypeInBraille, the keyboard is not integrated in to iOS, so when we are using Safari to search something on google or search something on youtube or using any other app that requires text entry, and we just want to type a few words, It is not worth it to go in to the braille app, type our text, copy it to the clipboard and then go back to Safari or youtube or what ever app we are using and paste our text in to the search box. It would probably be faster to just use the normal keyboard that is built in to iOS. However, It would be way easier if we could just type our searches in braille. Lots of times, we are in public and do not want to disturb people by talking to Siri. If possible, these apps would be keyboards that we could switch to and from just like the Emoji keyboard app and the language keyboards that come built in to iOS. Also, if possible, the apps would work in the lock screen so they could be used to type the pass code to unlock the device. They would also work with the built in spell check and auto-correct features of iOS, or maybe if this is not possible, they would have their own spell check and auto-correct features built in to them. The keyboard would look like this, The backspace key on the very left edge of the keyboard for deleting a character if we type it wrong. The return/enter key on the very right edge of the keyboard for going down to the next line or for if there is something that needs an enter key. For example- we are making a grocery list and we want each item on its own line or we have typed a web address and we need to press enter to go to that address. In-between backspace and return/enter would be the 6 keys for the 6 braille dots. From left to right, starting just to the right of the return/enter key, they would be in this order- dot 3, dot 2, dot 1, then a little space with no keys, then dot 4, then dot 5, then dot 6. Below that, there would be a space bar running from just below dot 1 to just below dot 4. The braille keyboard is usually wider then the iPhone or iPod screen is, but I still think if you made the buttons a bit narrower and a bit shorter, then on a normal braille keyboard, you could make them all fit. Maybe if there is not enough room for all 8 keys in a row, then you could move the backspace key to above dot 3 and move the enter key to above dot 6. This would not be like a standard braille keyboard, but it would be better then having no braille keyboard at all. I placed my hands over my iPhone screen in landscape orientation and it felt to me like they could all fit. Using landscape would make the screen wider. I also placed my hands over the screen in portrait orientation. I may be wrong, but I do not think the 6 keys would fit side by side in portrait orientation. The apps would have support for landscape with the home button to the left and landscape with the home button to the right. If the keyboard would fit on the screen in portrait orientation, , there would also be support for portrait and something called portrait flipped which is where the home button is at the top of the device and the sleep wake button is at the bottom. An example of an app that uses portrait flipped is sound AMP by Ginger Labs. I do not think the placement of the buttons would be a problem on the iPad, because the screen is bigger. . So on the iPad you probably would be able to make a full sized braille keyboard with all the buttons in the proper place no matter if the iPad was being used in landscape or portrait orientation. Where the space bar and backspace and return/enter keys are located does not matter as much, but the placement of the other 6 keys does matter because those are the 6 main keys used to make letters, numbers, punctuation and symbols in most kinds of braille. The little space with no keys in-between dots 1 and 4 is also important. It would be hard to keep track of which side of the keyboard was which without it. From left to right the 6 keys need to be dot 3, then dot 2, then dot 1, then a little space with no keys, then dot 4, then dot 5, then dot 6. When we type braille, we press all the dots of the letter we want to type all at the same time. For example- the letter b is dots 1 and 2. We would type dots 1 and 2 at the same time and then lift the finger from dot 1 and the finger from dot 2 at the same time. We would not normally type dot 1 and then lift our finger and then type dot 2 and then lift our finger. However, 1 thing I am not sure about is if you would be able to make the apps recognise that we are touching more then one key at a time. For example- the letter p is dots 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 all at one time. The apps would need to be able to recognise that we are touching all 4 keys. If there is no way to make the apps recognise more then 1 key at a time, then maybe you could still leave the keyboard formatted the same way, but to type the letter p, we would have to press dot 1, then dot 2, then dot 3, then dot 4 all separately. This would not be the proper way to type braille, but again, it would still be better then having no braille keyboard at all. If you were unable to make the apps recognise that we were typing more then 1 dot at a time and you had to program them so that we typed 1 dot at a time, the space and backspace keys would behave differently. The letter l is dots 1 and 2 and 3. So we would type dot 1 and then lift our finger and then type dot 2 and then lift our finger and then type dot 3 and then lift our finger. Then we would press space to tell the apps that we were done typing that letter. If we were typing a word that had the letter l at the end, for example- boil, then we would press the space bar once to tell the apps that we were done typing that letter and then again to tell them that we were done typing the word. Now here is an example of how the backspace key would behave differently. the letter b is dots 1 and 2. The letter c is dots 1 and 4. If we were trying to type the letter b and we typed dot 1 and then we accidentally typed dot 4, pressing the backspace key would not delete the whole character, it would just delete the dot 4. Then we would be able to type dot 2 and fix our mistake. If we typed the letter s, which is dots 2 and 3 and 4, the first time we pressed the backspace key, the dot 4 would be deleted. If we pressed the backspace key again, the dot 3 would be deleted and if we pressed it again, the dot 2 would be deleted. The dots get deleted in opposite order that they were typed. If we pressed it again after the dot 2 was deleted, it would start deleting 1 whole character every time backspace was pressed. Remember, please only program the apps to type this way if you can not make them recognise that we are typing more then 1 key at a time. If you can make the apps recognise that we are typing more then 1 key at a time, then please do it that way instead because that is the proper way to type braille. The backspace, return/enter key and the space bar would all have feedback settings and each button would have its own feedback setting so each button could be set to provide different or the same feedback. The feedback options for the return/enter key would be as follows. The options would be any combination of beep, vibrate, say the word new line if we typed a new line, say the word that was just typed if we typed a word and then typed a new line, or enter if we had typed a web address and pressed the return/enter key to go to that address. The say the word that was just typed if a word was typed, say the word new line if a new line or a word and then a new line was typed, say the word enter if you were pressing enter on a web address or something else that needs an enter key, beep and vibrate settings for the return/enter key would be independent from each other, meaning that it would be able to just say the word new line, just say the word that was typed, just vibrate, just beep or any combination of the 4, do all or do nothing. There would be additional settings for what order we wanted these 4 things to happen in. These settings would just apply to the return/enter key and no other keys. The feedback options for the space bar would be as follows if you were able to program the apps the proper way and you did not have to program them to use the type 1 dot at a time method. The options would be any combination of beep, vibrate, say the word space and say the word that was just typed. The say the word space, say the word that was just typed, vibrate and beep settings for the space bar would be independent from each other, meaning that it would be able to just say the word space, just say the word that was typed, just vibrate, just beep or any combination of the 4, do all or do nothing. There would be additional settings for what order we wanted these 4 things to happen in. These settings would just apply to the space bar and no other keys. If you had to program the apps to use the type 1 dot at a time method, the feedback options for the space bar would be the same as above, but there would also be some additional options. They are as follows. The options would be any combination of beep, vibrate, say the word space and say the dot that was just typed. The say the word space, say the dot that was just typed, vibrate and beep settings for the space bar would be independent from each other, meaning that it would be able to just say the word space, just say the dot that was typed, just vibrate, just beep or any combination of the 4, do all or do nothing. There would be additional settings for what order we wanted these 4 things to happen in. These settings would just apply to the space bar and no other keys. If you are able to program the apps to type properly, where we type all the dots all at 1 time, we would not need these feedback options for typing dots, because we would not have to type anything 1 dot at a time. The feedback options for the backspace key would be as follows if you were able to program the apps the proper way and you did not have to program them to use the type 1 dot at a time method. They would be any combination of beep, vibrate, say backspace and say the deleted character. The say the word backspace, say the character that was just deleted, beep and vibrate settings for the backspace key would be independent from each other, meaning that it would be able to just say the word backspace, just say the character that was deleted, just beep, just vibrate, or any combination of the 4, do all or do nothing. There would be additional settings for what order we wanted these 4 things to happen in. . These settings would just apply to the backspace key and no other keys. If you had to program the apps to use the type 1 dot at a time method, the feedback options for the backspace key would be the same as above, but there would also be some additional options. They are as follows. They would be any combination of beep, vibrate, say backspace and say the deleted dot. The say the word backspace, say the dot that was just deleted, beep and vibrate settings for the backspace key would be independent from each other, meaning that it would be able to just say the word backspace, just say the dot that was deleted, just beep, just vibrate, or any combination of the 4, do all or do nothing. There would be additional settings for what order we wanted these 4 things to happen in. These settings would just apply to the backspace key and no other keys. If you are able to program the apps to type properly, where we type all the dots all at 1 time, we would not need these feedback options for deleting dots, because we would not have to delete anything 1 dot at a time. Regardless of if the apps used VoiceOver or their own speech system, they would tell us what dot our finger is on when we are feeling around the screen, and then when we lift our finger to type the dot they would say it again to confirm what we had typed or if we did not want the confirmation, we could turn it off in settings. For example- the letter c is a combination of dots 1 and 4. So if we had our finger on dot 1, VoiceOver or speech would say dot 1 and we could lift our finger to type the dot 1, which is the first dot in the letter c, but if our finger was on the wrong dot, like it was on dot 2 or something, then VoiceOver or speech would say dot 2 and we could feel around and find the dot 1 and lift our finger to type it if we had this setting turned on. If this setting was off, the dot 1 would still be typed when we lifted our finger, but VoiceOver or speech would not say dot 1 for a second time so we could have this setting on at first and if we wanted, we could turn it off when we got better at typing with the apps. There would also be a setting to have VoiceOver or speech not say anything until the dot had been typed or to not say anything before or after the dot was typed. There would be feedback options for after a dot was typed. The options would be any combination of beep, vibrate and say the dot. The beep, vibrate and say the dot settings would be independent from each other, meaning that it would be able to just beep, just vibrate, just say the dot or any combination of the 3, do all or do nothing. There would be additional settings for what order we wanted these 3 things to happen in. Some devices do not have vibrate motors in them. The vibrate settings would only apply to the devices that have vibrate motors. The vibrate settings would be good for when we are in a meeting and don't want our devices making noise or when we are in a place where it is too loud for us to hear them. Unless specified otherwise, the settings would all be the same regardless of if you programed the apps to type all the dots at 1 time or to type them 1 at a time. If it would work, please program the apps to type all of the dots at one time, but also incorporate the 1 dot at a time method, so that if someone wanted to type, but they only had use of 1 hand, they would still be able to do it. The 1 dot at a time method would make it easier for people who can only use 1 hand to type, because they would not need to press as many buttons at the same time. People who can use both hands can set the app to type all the dots at once. There are 7 ways to do Canadian English braille that I know of. There may be more that I am unaware of. There is uncontracted braille, otherwise known as grade 1 braille, contracted braille, otherwise known as grade 2 braille, grade 0 braille, which is a type of simplified computer braille, 6 dot computer braille, 8 dot computer braille, Nemeth braille and braille for writing music. All kinds of computer braille do not use contractions. In 8 dot computer braille, the backspace key becomes dot 7 and the return/enter key becomes dot 8. When we are typing in 8 dot computer braille and we need to use the backspace or return/ enter keys, we press the space bar and then the backspace or return/enter key and then the space bar again so it is not interpreted as dot 7 or dot 8. So for example- if we were using 8 dot computer braille and we pressed the space bar and then the return/enter key and then the space bar again, the typing would go down to the next line just like it would if we were typing in something other then 8 dot computer braille and we pressed the return/enter key. If we are typing in 8 dot computer braille and we want to put a space in-between 2 words, we have to press the space bar twice in a row. When we are not using 8 dot computer braille, we do not need to worry about pressing the space bar when we want to use the backspace or return/enter keys. It would be nice if the apps could support all 7 ways, because the more ways it can support, the more things we will be able to use the apps for, but if you can only make it compatible with some of the ways, that will still be better then nothing. Or maybe if you can not make all the kinds of braille work with 1 app, you could make 1 app for each kind of braille. Then the keyboard layout and the settings and everything else would be the same. hopefully, the only thing that would be different is what kind of braille the apps use. If it is possible, just put all 7 kinds of braille and all languages all in 1 app. Only split it up in to more then 1 app if you have to. If you know of more kinds of braille or you find another 1 when you are researching, please add it in to the apps if you can. Then there would be settings for each of the kinds of braille that the apps supported, so that we could tell the apps which kind of braille we are going to type with. I do not know anything about braille in other languages, but it would be nice if there also could be apps that support other languages for people in other parts of the world, or just combine all the languages in to 1 app. Then there would be a setting so we could tell the apps which language we are going to use for typing. Me and the other blind people who use Apple products can and do achieve this functionality by using braille displays, but the braille displays are way bigger then just the iPhone or iPod by itself. Having to pack around braille displays just so we can type in braille on our iPhones and iPods really takes the mobile out of mobile device for us. We can not take advantage of the small size of the iPhone and iPod if we have to lug around big braille displays as well. Most braille displays are bigger then the iPhone and iPod. If these apps were developed, they would allow blind people to take full advantage of the iPhone and iPod. Sure, we can type with the keyboard that comes with iOS, but it is way slower for us, because the sighted people are used to a standard keyboard, like the one built in to iOS, but we are used to braille. I think these apps would make iPhones and iPods way more useful for blind and visually impaired people then they already are. The iPad is actually bigger then most braille displays, but if these apps were developed, it would still be better for blind and visually impaired people who use iPads, because they would only have to pack around 1 machine, not 2. The second app, if possible, would be a similar app to the iOS app, but it would be for the Mac computer. Since Mac computers do not have touch screens, you could use some of the letters on the keyboard as the keys for the braille dots. Just like the iOS app, the Mac app would be able to be used with VoiceOver on and if this was not possible, then it would have its own speech system built in to it. Also , it would work in the apps that come built in to Mac OS X, as well as the apps from the Mac app store. It would also work with the spell check and auto-correct features in Mac OS X and if that was not possible, then it would have its own spell check and auto-correct features built in to it. It would be as similar to the iOS app as possible. Hopefully the only thing that would be different is that we would be using the buttons on a normal keyboard that sighted people use but we would be typing braille instead. If you can not get the Mac to recognise that we are pressing down more then 1 button at a time, you may have to use the solution where we have to type 1 dot at a time, but again, only do it that way if you have to. Hopefully, the Mac app would also be able to support all kinds of braille in all languages, or if you can not make all kinds of braille in all languages fit in 1 app, then just split it up and develop more then 1. Also, If you have any other ideas for features or functions for these apps, please include them in the apps when you develop them. If you need to take out or modify some of the features I have requested in order to make these apps work, feel free to do that, but please try your hardest not to have to do that. The more features these apps have, the more useful they will be for blind and visually impaired people. If you need to take out or modify a feature, but you are not sure how to modify it in a way that would not effect the usefulness of the apps for blind and visually impaired people or you are not sure which features the apps could stand to lose without becoming considerably less useful for blind and visually impaired people, please ask me. Also, if you have any general questions about the features or functions of these apps, please ask me. I have tried to explain the features and how they would work in a clear, easy to understand way, but because these apps are so complex and so specific, it still may be hard to understand how I want the apps programmed. That is ok. If there is something you do not understand, just ask me and I will do my best to explain it better. I have also tried to figure out what problems you might run in to when you are developing the apps and to provide solutions to them, but you may experience a problem that I did not predict happening. If you run in to a problem, please tell me what it is and I will try to help you solve it. My email address is jessicabrown531@gmail.com. To learn more about what combinations are assigned to which letters, numbers, punctuation marks and symbols in the different kinds of braille, so that you can program them in to the apps correctly, Here are links to some websites. Some of the websites are just for english braille and some of them also have information on braille in other languages. www.brl.org. http://www.brl.org/refdesk/conlookup.html. www.Hadley.edu. www.braille.org. www.nfb.org/braille-resources. dots.physics.orst.edu/gs_sebfig_text.html. dots.physics.orst.edu/gs.html. dots.physics.orst.edu/gs_bs_seb.html. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braille_ASCII. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braille. www.brailleauthority.org. www.nationalbrailleweek.org. www.nationalbrailleweek.org/page/learning-braille. www.perkins.org. www.perkins.org/search/search.jsp?query=braille. www.braillebug.org/default.asp. www.braillebug.org/braille_deciphering.asp. www.braillebug.org/foreign_language_braille.asp. www.omniglot.com/writing/braille.htm. libbraille.org/alphabet.php. http://libbraille.org/spanish_alphabet.php. www.99main.com/~charlief/brl/brl2.htm. www.99main.com/~charlief/vi/braille.html. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Braille. www.dotlessbraille.org. www.dotlessbraille.org/fatalflaw.htm. www.brailleinstitute.org. www.nbp.org. http://www.nbp.org/ic/nbp/braille/alphacard.html. www.braille.com. and www.braillenovelts.com. Here are a couple of videos about braillle. 1 is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqQ3gdE7ks0&feature=related. The other one is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9hUmlXyabk&feature=relmfu. As well as the links I have suggested, some of the other links that you will find when you go to the links I have suggested are also good sources of information about braille. I tried to find sites that just have information about braille, but I could not find many sites like that. Most of them have information on braille as well as information about other things related to vision loss. However, you should look through the links on the sites I have suggested. I have tried to find the links to the pages that are about braille and put them beside the link to the main, or home page of the site, but I probably missed some links that lead to good information. Also, try looking for other sites then the ones I have suggested if you can not find all of the information you need on the sites I have suggested. I know lots of stuff about English braille, so you could also ask me questions about English braille and I could try to answer them, but I do not think I know enough about braille that I could tell you so you could program the combinations of dots in to the apps. I could definitely help with some of it though and get you off to a good start. For information about braille in other languages, you will have to do some research, because I only know English braille. Hopefully between the stuff I know and the research you do, you will be able to find all the information you need to program the dot combinations in to the apps so the letters, numbers, punctuation marks and symbols come out properly when they are typed and they do not come out as something they should not be, for example- you try to type the letter b and you get the letter l. As for names for the apps, I am not sure which names are available and which ones have been used. Just go ahead and find names that are not in use and use them. If possible, I also would like to help with the beta testing. I can beta test the iOS apps with my iPhone 4s, but I can not beta test the Mac OS X apps, because I do not have a Mac. If you are not able to develop some or all of these apps, but you know someone who may be able to develop some or all of these apps, please forward this email to them and ask them to send their response to jessicabrown531@gmail.com or just tell me who they are and tell me their email address so I can send them a copy of this email. Please contact me with your response using the email address jessicabrown531@gmail.com. Thank you for taking the time to read this and consider my ideas. I am looking forward to your response. Sincerely, Jessica.