[Athen] Is SimBraille in Word documents compatible with refreshable braille displays?

[Michael Cantino via athen-list]

Yes! That worked for me, Sara. I was thinking that the Computer braille
setting would still apply some translation, but it worked correctly with
the little bit of testing I did. For whatever reason, I couldn't get JAWS
to output computer braille in Word, so you may have to dig a bit deeper
into your settings if you encounter this issue. JAWS did output the correct
braille when I tried this in Notepad, and NVDA did fine outputting computer
braille from Word.

Cool!!

Michael Cantino (he/him)
BVIS Technology Specialist
Northwest Regional Education Service District
(503)614-1339
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On Wed, Jun 4, 2025 at 1:45 PM Sara Larkin <sara.larkin at iaedb.org> wrote:


> Definitely try it and check with the student. The only way that I can

> think of that it might work is if it has already been translated to braille

> using some form of translation software, copied into the document, and

> converted to SimBraille or some other braille font and the student is using

> computer braille. Then it is just showing the braille cell that corresponds

> to the character. Computer braille is the only setting that will keep the

> corresponding characters without translation, but it would still require

> the translation software before copying it into the document, otherwise,

> like others have said, the translation used by the screen reader would

> change it for everything except computer braille. If you did that though,

> it may work for the braille display, but the screen reader would not voice

> it correctly. That is just my suspicion anyway. Our students have never

> asked for SimBraille or any form of braille in a Word document, since they

> would generally use the screenreader and let its capabilities and setting

> do the work for translation.

>

> Sara

>

>

>

> [image: IESBVI Logo]

>

> *Sara Larkin*

> *Statewide Math Consultant*

> (319) 310-6070

> 3501 Harry Langdon Boulevard, Council Bluffs, IA 51503

> https://www.iesbvi.org/

>

>

>

>

>

> *From:* athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman22.u.washington.edu> *On

> Behalf Of *Michael Cantino via athen-list

> *Sent:* Wednesday, June 4, 2025 3:29 PM

> *To:* athen-list at u.washington.edu;

> athen-list-request at mailman22.u.washington.edu

> *Subject:* Re: [Athen] Is SimBraille in Word documents compatible with

> refreshable braille displays?

>

>

>

> I agree with Deborah. Give the student a file, and let them determine how

> well it will work.

>

> That said, I don't see how it could work outside of a BRF file. I tested

> it with my braille display, and it did not provide me with the correct

> braille transcription. Here's a quick explanation of where this is breaking

> down.

>

>    - I typed the text "This is plain text with simbraille." into a Word

>    document. If I change this font to simbraille, you won't be able to tell

>    the difference on the braille display because only the font is changing.

>    Visually, the braille will start to look incorrect (like dots 4-6 for a

>    period instead of dots 2-5-6)

>    - This really starts to break down once you prepare the simbraille as

>    a correct braille transcription. Using the same sample text as before, the

>    sentence would look like this: ",? is pla9 text ) simbrl4"

>

>

>    - The screen reader is going to translate this text into either

>       contracted or uncontracted braille because it still thinks it's looking at

>       print. It doesn't know that it's already being provided with a braille

>       translation.

>       - The capital indicator will be translated as a comma. The th-

>       contraction (represented by the question mark) will be translated as a

>       question mark. The -in contraction (represented by a 9) will be translated

>       as a 9, and so on.

>

>

>    - Even if you write out the text as if it's uncontracted simbraille

>    and you set your screen reader settings to translate into uncontracted

>    braille, you're still going to have issues. Capitalization indicators,

>    punctuation, and other symbols will not be interpreted correctly. Something

>    like a number indicator, which is the # symbol in simbraille, will be

>    translated as the 2-cell braille equivalent (_#) in uncontracted or

>    contracted braille.

>

> Basically, you can't trick the display into not translating the print

> text. The best you could do is give it nice, clean print text to translate,

> but you'll still run into issues with symbols that are unique to braille,

> like the transcriber note indicator.

>

>

>

> Good luck! If someone else cracks this, I would be very interested to

> know.

>

>

>

> Michael Cantino (he/him)

>

> BVIS Technology Specialist

>

> Northwest Regional Education Service District

>

> (503)614-1339

>

>

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