We can now read text formatting in Braille

By Devin Prater, 29 March, 2023

Forum
Braille on Apple Products

In iOS 16.4, we can now read text formatting in Braille. This is most easily noticed in the Books app. To enable it, go to Braille settings in VoiceOver settings, and enable Text Formatting. You'll now see any italics, bold, ETC in your book. This works with apps that present text in a page format, not separating formatting into different elements. Kindle does not appear to show the text formatting to VoiceOver, only the plain text. Safari and other apps put differently formatted text in a different element on the page.

So for Braille readers who like to see formatting, we now have this option. If you don't like it, you can keep it off and not worry one bit about it.

Options

Comments

By Scott Davert on Friday, April 21, 2023 - 19:57

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

I wasn't able to find anything that would yield success with this feature, though I tried it a few times throughout the release cycle. It doesn't work in email, Notes, Pages and many other places. I'll have to find a book in the Books app which shows this type of formatting. Here's hoping it works in more places moving forward!