ChromeVox and Braille Support
If you or your student benefit from braille support, for example, if you or your student's primary learning medium is braille, using a braille display in tandem with your ChromeVox screen reader may be the right choice.
What You Need to Know
A braille display offers both braille output and input. Everything that ChromeVox says will be accessible via the braille display, output. You can also use your braille display to enter text into edit fields, input.
Easily move your cursor when editing and reviewing written work by using the router buttons. Read materials at your own pace using the thumb keys.
ChromeVox has the ability to work with many refreshable braille devices, including for example, the Focus line of braille displays from Freedom Scientific and the PAC Mate™ portable braille displays. Displays will either connect via a USB cable or bluetooth. Below find instructions for pairing a display via bluetooth.
Set Up
- Plug in: Plug your braille device into any of the USB ports on your ChromeBook. After a few seconds, your ChromeBook will automatically recognize the device.
- Bluetooth: To set up your device via bluetooth, press the search key + o, then press o again. Follow the prompts. For more information, visit here.
There are a number of available braille displays on the market, and thus, a number of different device-specific key commands. For each individual display type, there are a number of ways to customize the user experience. Users may choose to use the display in a case-by-case manner, for output only, or for both input and output. For these reasons, this page will serve only as an overview of the experience offered by using ChromeVox with a braille display, and more specific information can be found in the resources section.
Resources
Using Your Chromebook with a Braille Display
This resource is a support article from Google providing options on functionality and troubleshooting your device with a Chromebook.
Setting up your braille display on a Chromebook
This Youtube video walks you through the set up of a braille display with your Chromebook and options for troubleshooting.
Using ChromeVox with the Focus braille displays
While this link is simply to the Focus40 user guide, many of the sections apply to any computer.