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21 Habits of Highly Organized People (or What Super Heros Can Teach You About Success)

Looking for something to share with students struggling to learn how to be better organized? Blogger Steve Scott (the face behind the DevelopGoodHabits.com [DGH]) website, has a clever and simple Slideshare presentation entitled 21 Habits of Highly Organized People (or What Super Heros Can Teach You About Success).  

The deck presents 21 habits that can help you  be more organized and more successful  Each habit is “performed” by a favorite comic book super hero figurine.

MBraille Puts a Braille Keyboard on an iPad or iPhone Screen

Writing at About.com,  Andrew Leibs introduces MBraille, a free iOS app for an onscreen keyboard that lets blind users tweet and send text messages using contracted or uncontracted English braille.

His post is reproduced below (sans advertising).  The original About.com post may be found at this link: MBraille Puts a Braille Keyboard on an iPad or iPhone Screen:

MBraille gives blind iPhone users an onscreen braille keyboard for writing & navigation. - MPaja

MBraille displays a braille keyboard enabling blind iOS users to manage & navigate their device.  MPaja

The MBraille app’s command line enables blind persons to enter braille characters, eliminating the need to navigate menu structures on the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. It also eliminates the need for a a Bluetooth keyboard such as the BraillePen or Focus 14 Blue.

MBraille, developed by MPaja Software, grew from an earlier program, Braille Touch, developed by Georgia Tech University.

The app is also available in a “Pro” version that enables users to perform more functions via braille. including:

  • Call contacts or telephone numbers
  • Compose and send email
  • Update one’s Facebook status
  • Add calendar entries
  • Execute Google web searches and other queries
  • Automatically have typed text saved to the clipboard when you switch apps
  • Interact with other 3rd party applications.

Using MBraille
While most braille apps simply support input from outside keyboards, MBraille opens a braille keyboard (consisting of the six dots of the braille cell) on the iOS device’s screen.
MBraille on an iPhone lets users type in two ways:

  1. Place the device on a table and use the modified braille keyboard layout like a refreshable display
  2. Hold the iPhone horizontally with the screen screen facing away and placing three fingers from each hand, vertically typing away at the six dots.

MBraille has its own set of commands, e.g. dial_john finds John in your contacts and calls him. In addition to braille characters, iOS gestures facilitates data entry.

  • To enter a space, swipe right with one finger
  • To erase a letter (backspace), swipe left with one finger
  • To delete the previous word, swipe left with two fingers
  • For a new line, swipe down with one finger.
  • You can type and edit text and preview what you’ve typed. To enter preview mode, press and hold dot 3 on the braille keyboard.
  • Swipe left or right with one finger to hear the previous or next word, which VoiceOver will speak aloud to you.
  • Swipe up to preview by sentence.
  • Swipe down to preview one character at a time.
  • Note-taking, spell check, and file management features are in development — as are dot commands to work better across applications, including integration with BlindSquare.

About MBraille

MBraille, version: 1.7.1, requires iOS 6.1 or later, is compatible with iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, and optimized for the iPhone. File size: 1.7 MB.
Supported Languages: Danish, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Norwegian, Polish, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish. Italian, Portuguese, and Slovakian are supported, but with no online help.

New in iOS 8: Built-in Braille Keyboard for Six-Dot Input

Over at the Assistive Technology blog,  Brian Meesma reviews a new feature in iOS 8 – a built-in Braile keyboard for six-dot input.

iOS 8 includes enhancements to VoiceOver, the built-in gesture based screen reader for people with visual impairments. One of the improvements is a new built-in Braille Keyboard for Six-Dot input. The new feature is similar to the BrailleTouch app released a few years ago with one major difference; the built-in option can be used to enter text into any app directly. The option can be enabled in the VoiceOver rotor. The Braille keyboard will offer VoiceOver users who are familiar with Braille an alternative, and possibly much faster text entry method. iOS 8 will also offers third-party keyboards such as Fleksy which could also offer significantly faster text input for VoiceOver users.

Read the full post at  New in iOS 8: Built-in Braille Keyboard for Six-Dot Input