To be honest, the thought of transferring Braille to a mobile app has never even crossed my mind. But it exists, it’s available, and it’s brilliant. SwiftBraille is a mobile app where the keyboard is customized for the blind and visually impaired so they can type in Braille using one or two fingers to connect Braille dots to form letters on the touch screen.
In case you’re not too familiar with Braille, it’s a system of raised dots that can be read with the fingers by people who are blind or who have low vision.
SwiftBraille is an ongoing project which began in early 2016, and Mohammad AlBanna, a Palestinian Web developer, announced the release of the improved SwiftBraille 2.0 version in September after extensive beta testing since the first release in February.
Offered in English, Arabic, Spanich and French, this app has five keyboards with letters, characters, numbers, math symbols, and other special symbols as well. Among the list of features, there is a training session for new users and there are also certain customization settings for the visually impaired, such as size and color changes to the Braille dots. A new feature in the 2.0 version which looks incredibly useful, is a voice-to-text option so if users aren’t in the mood to manually connect the dots they can just use good ol’ speech instead.
The app is also compatible with Google’s TalkBack app and the best part is it’s totally free to download and use.
Interested in getting the app? You can download SwiftBraille on Google Play. For more information on the app and to see a good video explaining the dynamics of the app, check out this SwiftBraille website for all the details and access to the creator’s blog.
