Microsoft and Apple Helped Build New Braille Display Standard (engadget.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: Today, the non-profit USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) announced a new standard for braille displays. It was developed in cooperation with Microsoft, Apple and other tech industry leaders. The USB Human Interface Device (HID) standard will make it easier for blind or low vision users to use braille displays across operating systems and hardware. It will also remove the need for specialized or custom drivers and simplify development. "We see the opportunity that advancements in technology can create for people with disabilities and have a responsibility as an industry to develop new ways of empowering everyone to achieve more," said the Microsoft's Windows accessibility program manager lead, Jeff Petty.

Comments

Open source?

[houghi]

A few years ago I spoke to a blind Linux/Unix developer who was extremely angry that there was no open source reader available. Not sure if that has changed and if both Apple and Microsoft are behind it, I doubt this will not be open source either.

I do hope for those who need it that I am wrong.

(And the blind guy also explained that he was saving a LOT on video cards by not needing to buy them, not any monitors.)

Re:Open source?

[Merk42]

They developed a standard for the non-profit USB-IF, is there really anything to be Open Source?

Re:Open source?

[Anonymous Coward]

Red Hat is a member of the USB-IF (the group that developed this standard): https://www.usb.org/members_landing/directory?step%3Aint=2&target=company&quickSearchCompanies=1&search_name%3Austring%3Aiso-8859-1=Red+Hat

While that doesn't bind them to supporting it, it does at least make it more likely.

Re:Open source?

[Anubis IV]

There's nothing much to really open source here. This is a HID standard that manufacturers implement in their USB devices. How they implement it will always be device-specific, but this change means that they won't have to deal with the other side of the wire any longer, since Apple and Microsoft are now baking the necessary support in on their ends, with Linux almost sure to follow.

For anyone who doesn't know what this is all about, there are HID standards for a number of classes of device, such as mice, keyboards, and gamepads. While you may need device-specific drivers to unlock functionality particular to a device, having a HID standard means that you should be able to plug any HID compliant device from any manufacturer into any modern computer and expect that the standard functionality will work the same across all of them. That's why you can plug virtually any USB mouse into any computer and expect that left click, right click, and the wheel will just work, even if you don't install drivers specific to that mouse. Likewise, you can take your keyboard, plug it into any computer, and expect that all of the standard keys will just work.

Up to now, braille displays haven't enjoyed that same level of compatibility. It'd be like (or, actually, is the same as) if prior to using your preferred monitor on any given computer, you first had to somehow install the necessary drivers to run that monitor...without being able to use the monitor to see what you were doing. And yet, that's what low vision users have had to deal with up to now.

Going forward, however, the hope is that it will be cheaper and easier for braille display manufacturers to make devices since they won't have to devote much/any time to custom drivers. It'll also be the first time for low vision users that they'll be able to take their braille display and plug it into pretty much any computer with a realistic expectation that it will actually work. That's a huge win.

Re:Open source?

[jellomizer]

I would think Linux would be easier, being that there is so much you can do in just a text command line interface. Compared to trying to navigate a GUI OS such as OS X and Windows. And combine that you may not be sure if that Text on the screen is actually text or a bitmap.

Re:Open source?

[tlhIngan]

A few years ago I spoke to a blind Linux/Unix developer who was extremely angry that there was no open source reader available. Not sure if that has changed and if both Apple and Microsoft are behind it, I doubt this will not be open source either.

Why do you need Open Source when you have open spec?

Apple and Microsoft worked together to make Braille displays a USB class standard, so you can plug in a compliant Braille display and have it work instantly. Being a class device means Linux devs can easily add support for it as well since the spec is easily available from USB-IF.

This is in contrast with existing Braille displays which often require their own drivers.

Now it is up to the hardware manufacturers to start to make compliant displays.

Re:Open source?

[Kjella]

A few years ago I spoke to a blind Linux/Unix developer who was extremely angry that there was no open source reader available. Not sure if that has changed and if both Apple and Microsoft are behind it, I doubt this will not be open source either.

Well this is a standard API for how to talk to a Braille display, like how to access the hardware. If it can already display "Hello World" under Linux using a custom driver this won't give you any more system/software support. And if it's like most other accessories it probably can, we had keyboards, mice, joysticks, printers, scanners, webcams etc. before the USB class compliant versions, like you could connect a webcam as a generic USB device and use a driver without it being a USB Video/Audio Capture class compliant device. Basically these standards are usually set when everyone is pretty much in agreement on how to talk to a device, they're quite conservative. Which is good, because you tend to be stuck with them for a looong time.

They're nice, in that you know you can pair any USB class X device with any system that support USB class X devices. But they're just one tiny bit of the equation and when it comes to OSS support for the blind it's very difficult for them to scratch their own itch and not much interest from anybody else to integrate it. Maybe there's some OSS developers with blind relatives who want to scratch an itch on their behalf, but even commercial operations mostly do it because they're required by law or for PR reasons. There's not much of a business case for the effort you have to put in and OSS developers aren't affected much by law/PR, so it's a lonely battle.

Re:Open source?

[comodoro]

Furthermore, why build a display for blind people? If they can't see anyway, what difference does it make? Your tax dollars at work. x=Beau=x

A Braille display is a tactile device with cells representing characters by raising and lowering Braille dots (typically eight Braille dots in several tens of cells on one line). Some blind users I know use them heavily and some not at all. Open standard is a good thing since controls like buttons and their layout vary quite a bit across devices.

Re:Open source?

[narcc]

There's Orca. It's not as good as NVDA, but it's on many major distros.

It's been around a while (since 2006), so I'm surprise your friend hadn't run across it.

Ye$, it certainly i$, i$n't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

from TFA: It's really nice to see traditional rivals like Apple and Microsoft working together on something as important as accessibility.

Definitely opens the path for both companies to start billing insurance companies and medicaid/medicare when such a device is covered.

Re:Ye$, it certainly i$, i$n't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

Two companies working together to help those with disabilities??
hmm how can I spin this to be evil because my basement dwelling mind is stuck in the 90s where literately everyone who isn't me is bad and wrong?

I know!

Re: Ye$, it certainly i$, i$n't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

Where do you think you are
Microsoft could cure cancer and the grognards would still shit on them
Then proclaim this year is the year of linux on the desktop

Re:Ye$, it certainly i$, i$n't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

if apple or microsoft are doing something, it's ALWAYS because they see a profit behind it.

true, altruism and all; but they'll make money off of anything they can. sure they're helping a certain percentage of the population and everybody will immediately praise them for that (and probably stop there), and they'll of course own the patents/rights to the particular device, but more-importantly it gives them a biiig 'in' to the insurance-/medicaid-/medicare-billing industry if such a device is eventually termed a 'necessary device'.

not a lot of companies go belly-up when they can get well-into billing things for health/disability purposes.

Re:Ye$, it certainly i$, i$n't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

if apple or microsoft are doing something, it's ALWAYS because they see a profit behind it.

Translation: I've decided that any and all things Microsoft et al do are bad, even when it's something I've praised another group for doing
I've heard Microsoft employees breathe, maybe you should stop doing it since it is therefore evil and/or solely for profit.

and they'll of course own the patents/rights to the particular device, but more-importantly it gives them a biiig 'in' to the insurance-/medicaid-/medicare-billing industry if such a device is eventually termed a 'necessary device'.

Except TFA isn't about a device, it's about a standard. One given to the non-profit USB-IF, who among others, has Red Hat as a member.


I would love if one time Slashdot posted an article like this, didn't show the company's name at first, and we saw the comments before/after it was revealed

apple with force you to buy an $29.99 adapter

[Joe_Dragon]

apple with force you to buy an $29.99 adapter to use it when our new min mac pro 2020 has only micro TB4 ports.

Re:apple with force you to buy an $29.99 adapter

[omnichad]

That are also USB 3.1 ports (type C connector). No adapter needed if you buy a brand new (not even designed/built yet) device that should already have the more recent connector.

Apple has always led the industry in accesibility

[atomicalgebra]

Apple is really good with accessibility in all of their products. I develop educational apps for iOS, and I am required by law to make my software Americansd with Disabilities Act compliant. Apple software makes this easy. Their Voiceover technology makes most things compatible. A standardized braille system will continue to make my job easier.

I have worked with several kids who are visually impaired, and they are inseparable from their iPhones.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Apple has always led the industry in accesibili

[Anonymous Coward]

A question, please: have you had any experience with doing TDD in OSX? I can't find anything post-OS9 that's applicable and have an almost-deaf Mom and aunt (and so it's probably in MY future too) who I'd like to get using TDD/teletype instead of cranking up the audio with MadeInChinaland crap.

Whistler would approve, I assume

[chispito]

Braille displays always make me think of Whistler from Sneakers (apparently based on real life phreaker Joybubbles.

Re:Apple has always led the industry in accesibili

[atomicalgebra]

Sorry no experience with TDD(Telecommunication Device for the Deaf). Supporting auditory impairments is much easier the visual impairments. I am sure there is software/hardware that will meet your mothers needs.

Re:Apple has always led the industry in accesibili

[DigiShaman]

Apple is on the cusp of being the first TRILLION dollar company. Yet, the choose not to open up the Lightning connector. So instead, the world adopts USB-C.

AT&T offered more innovation to the world than Apple has.

Re:Apple has always led the industry in accesibili

[atomicalgebra]

That might be true, but we are talking about accessibility.

Re:Apple has always led the industry in accesibili

[Anonymous Coward]

Apple is on the cusp of being the first TRILLION dollar company. Yet, the choose not to open up the Lightning connector. So instead, the world adopts USB-C.

AT&T offered more innovation to the world than Apple has.

Too bad there is more disability aiding hardware with Lightning interfaces than with USB-C interfaces. Probably because Android has shitty support for USB-C hardware anyway. Reality check.