So ... I can't help noticing that Microsoft provides perfectly good Braille drivers in Windows that nobody uses but Narrator. (I'm looking into this in the context of contemporary support of Braille on Windows-on-ARM, but of course it applies equally to Intel.)
What's it about? If you are a Braille user on Windows, do you mind having to use multiple drivers to get support from all your screen readers including Narrator? If you're primarily using NVDA, have you considered installing BRLTTY on Windows and then using NVDA's support for BRLTTY to get seamless switching between NVDA and Narrator?
It seems absurd to me that Microsoft provides a perfectly good driver ecosystem with the platform that nobody seems to be using. Nowhere is that clearer than with Windows on ARM, but still, in principle it just seems like a total waste of effort (and wasted opportunity).
Comments
Seeking clarification?
Are you saying Microsoft provides Braille drivers that no other TTS engine takes advantage of, or are you saying that Microsoft only allows their Braille drivers to work exclusively with Narrator?
Just seeking clarification here. 😇
BRLTTY
As I understand it, Narrator uses BRLTTY, which is a, open source I believe, braille "driver" that supports many different braille displays. NVDA has support for it as well, as noted by the OP.
I actually used BRLTTY with NVDA many years ago before it had a dedicated driver for my display. I changed because, at least then, BRLTTY did not support all the buttons on that specific display, so if that still is an issue with some displays that might be one factor why people don't bother setting upp BRLTTY.
Clarification
@Brian Basically it's like this: you have to have a kernel driver recognise a Braille display for an application (running in user space) to talk to it. Microsoft ships a load of them, which BRLTTY and Narrator can use, but everyone else wants to use the vendor drivers from the manufacturers. You can't use two drivers at the same time for the same hardware, so you have to switch manually or automatically so your active screen reader has a working driver to communicate with your display. But the available drivers vary by device and functionality, duplicating effort and making it harder to standardise on one driver for every screen reader that's supported directly by Windows with acceptable support for all devices from manufacturers who would simply contribute their protocol specs to BRLTTY from which these drivers are derived. So there are a load of drivers that we could theoretically make use of, if only everyone agreed to do it. Using BRLTTY makes sense if one of those drivers makes a display available that otherwise wouldn't be, because then you just install BRLTTY and have NVDA talk to your display through BRLTTY's API. And Narrator just shares the same infrastructure. If JAWS did too, suddenly the case for pitching into BRLTTY would be unarguable, and from then on Microsoft would see to it that the Windows Braille support always included the latest set of drivers for any screen reader to use.
@Blindpk Thanks, yes, I can certainly appreciate that if the NVDA/vendor support is superior, then of course you will want that. I hope BRLTTY, which I generally find works fine for my displays, continues to improve, especially for those displays that are no longer in widespread circulation where testing it is going to be tricky without more volunteer manpower.
@Sebby
Ah ok, so people are just stubborn and/or stupid. I understand now. Thanks for explaining. 😇
@Brian Indeed, isn't it always?
Sadly, although I don't think it's an iron law of nature, I find myself of an age where I, too, am beginning to yell at the clouds and demand to get off the bus ...
But I'd hope never to be the cause of unnecessary resistance to progress. I just think a lot of change is itself stupid, driven by people who think that being stubborn and/or stupid is the best way to deal with stubborn and/or stupid people ...
Welcome…
Welcome to human nature.
Oh, and get off my lawn! 😃