Hello everyone,
I’ve made an iPhone app called Six, and I’d really value this community’s help testing it before it goes to the App Store.
Six teaches you to type braille on your iPhone’s screen, the way Braille Screen Input works: hold the phone sideways, rest six fingers on the glass, and press one chord for each letter. It’s for anyone who wants to start using Braille Screen Input but finds it hard to start – whether you already read braille or are learning it for the first time.
How it works
- Short lessons, starting with a, b and c, with real words after the first four lessons.
- Every finger plays its own note, so each letter has a sound as well as a shape.
- You can hold the phone screen away from you or flat on a table. Six fits the keys to where your fingers land, and keeps adjusting as you type.
- Get a letter wrong and Six plays its chord; get it wrong again and it tells you the dots. If you pause, it offers a hint.
- Letters you keep missing are explained slowly, finger by finger, and come back until you remember them. Pairs that are easy to mix up – d and f, e and i, h and j, m and n – are practised side by side.
- A short placement test lets you skip what you already know.
- It covers the 26 letters, numbers and common punctuation in Unified English Braille, uncontracted. Contracted braille isn’t in it yet.
VoiceOver
Six is built to work with VoiceOver. When VoiceOver is on, Six speaks through it rather than with its own voice, so you hear one voice, at your own rate. The typing area uses direct touch, so your fingers reach the keys directly.
I should be honest: I’m sighted. I’ve tested Six with VoiceOver myself, but I’m not a daily VoiceOver user, and I know you’ll find things I can’t. That’s exactly why I’m asking here.
Privacy
Everything stays on your phone. There’s no account, no tracking, and nothing is collected.
What I’d love to hear
- Does anything get stuck, go silent, or read in a confusing order?
- Do the spoken instructions make sense without looking at the screen?
- Is fitting the keys easy, in whichever way you hold the phone?
- Is it too easy, too hard, or the right level?
- Anything about Braille Screen Input you wish someone had taught you.
How to join
You’ll need an iPhone running iOS 17 or later, and Apple’s free TestFlight app. Then open this link on your iPhone:
https://testflight.apple.com/join/942T1Qae
You can send feedback from inside TestFlight, through Settings, then Suggest an improvement, in Six, or by replying here. I will read every reply.
Thank you,
Jonathan
Comments
Will this work
Will it work without VO for sighted people who want to learn Braille?
Exclusive BSI Gestures
I'm pretty mastered at bsi, I use it every single day to type but I'm downloading the game to give you feedback. My initial thoughts before trying it are, if it doesn't already, it should teach the specific gestures with braille screen input 'other than just typing letters, like how to space, how to do new lines, and that trick where you can hold a finger on the screen to move the cursor. Like as advanced lessons or something. Because the biggest barrier for me when learning to use braille screen input wasn't typing the letters. It was the unique gestures required.
Letters Said Weird
When voiceover tells you to type letters sometimes it says them weird. Like it says h strange and when it says n it pronounces it as on which makes me think it wants to have the word on typed. Are you writing out the letters phonetically? If so you can just write the letter, like type n. Voiceover can say individual letters fine.
Re: Will this work
Yes – in fact I built it for myself, because my sister is going blind, and I was fed up play demonstrating how people type braille on a phone: I wanted to do it proper. Really type braille. So I could encourage her to learn and not think it was really hard. But I didn’t get on with the existing apps out there, that all required Voice Over.
Re: Exclusive BSI Gestures
Thank you, Zoe – both of these are really helpful. I’m so grateful for your experience and taking the time to try it.
You were right about the letters. Six spells them out for its own voice, and it was passing those spellings to VoiceOver too. It now sends VoiceOver the plain letter, so you’ll hear “Type N”, not “Type on”. That fix will be in the next TestFlight build.
I love the idea of teaching the gestures, and I agree they are the harder part. I’m planning a set of lessons for them: new line, send, starting and leaving Braille Screen Input, recalibrating the dots, and spelling suggestions.
Could you tell me more about the trick of holding a finger on the screen to move the cursor? I’d like to teach it the way you actually use it.
Letters
Why not use the plain letters with the self-voicing option too?
Re: Will this work
When it is out, I will put it in facebook. Let us know when is in the store. Nice that will work without using voiceover. Sighted people find voiceover strange to use. Go figure.
fixes
Thank you for all your feedback.
FIXED
• VoiceOver: after fitting your fingers, focus now goes straight to Done – just double-tap. Before, there was no way to reach it, and closing sent you back to the start. (Thanks, Ashley and Harry.)
• Hold the phone either way round – charging port left or right – and the dots now come out the right way up, even with rotation lock on. (Thanks, Harry.)
• Tabletop works properly: the dots now match your fingers, and the words sit above the keys instead of under them.
• VoiceOver says letters plainly – "Type N", not "Type en". (Thanks, Zoe.)
• The read-aloud buttons now work with VoiceOver. (Thanks, Harry.)
• If you slip on a letter you find tricky, you get another go before the explanation.
• "Quick and right" is no longer said after a mistake.
• Clearer progress bar, and messages no longer run under the finger labels.
NEW
• Six notices how you hold the phone: lay it flat and it switches to Tabletop, pick it up and it switches to Screen away. Your keys move to where you fitted them, and the top bar shows which mode you're in.
• Fitting your fingers now starts with the right hand, as Braille Screen Input does, and explains which side is which when the screen faces away.
• Row six – Gestures: three lessons on Braille Screen Input's gestures – new line and send, spelling suggestions and switching modes, and starting and stopping. If a gesture isn't recognised, Six tells you what to change. (Thanks, Zoe, for the idea.)
• Using it for real: a step-by-step page, from turning on VoiceOver to sending your first message. Find it under Braille on the home screen.
• The alphabet page is now in a to z order.
Please keep telling me what you find – through TestFlight, or Settings › Suggest an improvement in Six. Thank you!
which way round?
I'm building Six, an iPhone app that teaches people to type braille with Apple's Braille Screen Input. I'd value your advice on one design question.
When the learner is asked to type a letter, Six shows a small picture of its braille cell, with the dot numbers inside the dots. The keys on screen also light up to show which fingers to press.
In "screen away" mode – phone held facing away from you – the keys appear back to front to anyone looking at the screen. Should the cell picture:
A) always show the true braille shape – dots 1, 2, 3 down the left, 4, 5, 6 down the right – as it would be read on paper or a display; or
B) be mirrored in screen away mode, so it matches where the keys appear on the screen?
We used B after early testers copied the picture onto the keys and typed the mirror image – but that was before the dots were numbered and the keys lit up. Does showing a back-to-front shape risk teaching the wrong pattern, especially for people who will go on to read braille?
Thank you,
Jonathan
Re: which way round?
I think this might be perfect for those sighted people who might want to learn. Did I got it wrong? It will be easy for sighted to see it? Will push it in facebook for people. Who knows.
No Capital
I have completed all lessons and at no point does it teach you the capital sign. In braille you put dot 6 in front of a letter to make it capital, like for a name or at a beginning of a sentence. This is especially noticeable when practicing sentences because sentences should start with a capital letter.
Braille
Would you also learn Braille grade 2?