[Colorado-talk] Fw: Introducing BrailleTouch - an iPhone app for typing inbraille on your touchscreen

[Everett Gavel]

Just sharing a good thing I thought all those 
interested in Braille might appreciate. ;-)

Hapy New Year! (sorta, kinda, maybe)
Everett

----- Original Message ----- 
From: viphone at googlegroups.com
On Behalf Of BrailleTouch
Sent: Thursday, December 27, 2012 7:32 AM
Subject: Introducing BrailleTouch - an iPhone app 
for typing in braille on your touchscreen

Greetings and Happy Holidays!

My name is Caleb, and I'm one of the developers of 
a new iPhone app called BrailleTouch. 
BrailleTouch allows you to type using braille on 
your touchscreen, and is based on the standard six 
key braille keyboard.  We are excited to announce 
that BrailleTouch will be on the App Store by the 
end of January! We hope that you will like 
BrailleTouch and find it useful.  I'm happy to 
answer any questions you may have, and I've 
included some more information about the app 
below.

With BrailleTouch, you can send text messages, 
emails, and tweets from the touchscreen braille 
keyboard.  You can also copy text you type in 
braille to the clipboard and paste it into other 
apps on your iPhone.  There is a free version of 
BrailleTouch, so you can try it before you buy it. 
The free version lets you type in braille and hear 
the text you entered.  Many braille instructors 
have told us that they would like to use 
BrailleTouch as a teaching tool, which the free 
version will support.  Additional features are 
available as In App Purchases.  The Messaging 
Upgrade allows you to send text messages, emails, 
and tweets from the touchscreen braille keyboard. 
The Clipboard Upgrade allows you to copy text from 
the touchscreen braille keyboard and paste it into 
other apps on your iPhone.

BrailleTouch is based on research conducted at 
Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, where I am 
a graduate student.  My colleagues and I tested 
the software with eleven volunteers who are blind. 
We found that people who knew the standard Perkins 
braille keyboard were able to master BrailleTouch 
within an hour of practice and type at an average 
of 23 words per minute using Grade 1 braille.  We 
received such positive feedback that we were 
inspired to take this research out of the 
laboratory and release BrailleTouch to the public. 
We hope this software will provide a helpful 
alternative to the VoiceOver split tap keyboard, 
and that it will help improve the mobile computing 
experience for people
in the blind community who use an iPhone.

BrailleTouch is fully compatible with VoiceOver. 
It works on the iPhone 3GS through the iPhone 5, 
iPod touch models since the 3rd generation, and 
requires iOS 5.0 or a later operating system. 
BrailleTouch is only for the iPhone and iPod 
touch, and is not supported on the iPad.  The 
first release is based on North American English 
Grade 1 Uncontracted Braille.  You can choose to 
hear speech feedback for each character you type, 
each word you type, or both.

More information about BrailleTouch is available 
on our website:
http://brailletouchapp.com/

The website includes a User Guide and Frequently 
Asked Questions. You can also sign up for our 
email list, and we will notify you when we have an 
exact release date in January for the app.

With the free version of BrailleTouch, you can try 
out the touchscreen braille keyboard and hear the 
text that you typed read back to you.  The 
Messaging Upgrade allows you to send text 
messages, emails, and tweets, and costs US$9.99. 
The Clipboard Upgrade allows you to copy text from 
the braille keyboard to paste into other apps, and 
costs US$9.99.  You must have the Messaging 
Upgrade first before you can get the Clipboard 
Upgrade.

I am happy to answer any questions you may have. 
We are very excited about the upcoming release of 
BrailleTouch on the App Store.  I hope that you 
will like BrailleTouch and find it useful.

Best wishes and happy holidays,
Caleb
The BrailleTouch Team