I am using a BrailleNote Apex BT32 and an iPhone 4S, but I hope these basic instructions will be general enough to work with any Braille display and iOS device.

  1. With a file open in Voice Dream, move to the first element on the screen by pressing Space with dots 1-2-3 on the Braille keyboard.
  2. Move through the various elements using Space with dot 4 or an equivalent command that may be available if your Braille display has navigation keys, until you reach the words ‘Next item’.
  3. You can now start reading the contents of the file by panning the Braille display to the right in the usual way, i.e. pressing Space with dot 5 or using an equivalent command, if available on your display. Continue to pan the display to the right until you reach the end of the block of text that is currently visible. You will know that you have reached the end when the focus lands on the ‘Bookmark’ button.
  4. Now pan the Braille display once to the left, using Space with dot 2 or an equivalent navigation command. This will move the focus back into the text area and the Braille display will be blank. This step is important, otherwise the Scroll command in the next step will not work.
  5. To scroll to the next page of text, press Space with dots 1-4-5-6. This is the ‘Scroll down one page’ command and it is the equivalent of a ‘Three-finger swipe up’ using VoiceOver on the touchscreen. To scroll up to the previous page, press Space with dots 3-4-5-6, which is the equivalent of a ‘three-finger swipe down’.
  6. Once the Scroll command has been executed, the Braille display briefly shows the percentage of progress through the file, and then it goes blank. The focus is placed at the beginning of the next page of text and you can read it by panning repeatedly to the right in the usual way, until you reach the ‘Bookmark’ button. Repeat these steps to continue reading through the file.

NOTE: You will notice that the text overlaps slightly from one page to the next, so the last few words of the previous page are repeated at the beginning of the next page.

Thanks to Nicky Sanders for supplying these instructions.