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Introduction

Below is an explanation of key Braille terms you will encounter whilst reading these help pages and browsing the Braille sections of the SuperNova and Dolphin ScreenReader Manual.

Braille Glossary

Blink rate

Blinking dots on your display can indicate the position of the cursor, the presence of a capital letter, and indicate enhanced characters. The speed in which the dots rise, and fall is called the blink rate. You can set a blink rate of 1, 2, or 3. The higher the value the faster the blink rate.

Braille input

Displays that support Braille input have a group of six or eight buttons arranged like a Braille writer on the display. You can use these buttons to input text on a computer. You can input using Computer Braille or Literary Braille.

Computer Braille

Computer Braille is an 8-dot Braille table that strictly uses one character to one cell representation. In Computer Braille common braille contractions such as the capital letter sign are not shown on the display. Instead, you can choose dot 7 and dot 8 to show additional character attributes such as capitalisation. If you are not using Computer Braille, then you are using Literary Braille.

Enhanced characters

Enhanced characters are characters different to the norm, for example, these may be characters that are bold, italic, underlined, or misspelt. You can indicate Enhanced characters on the Braille display using a combination of dots 7 and 8.

Hooked Areas

Braille Hooked Areas monitor parts of the screen and output this data to defined calls on the Braille display. A Braille Hooked Area is set in a Map file and is commonly configured for bespoke applications like Telephony programs.

Literary Braille

Literary Braille is a generic term used to describe the traditional contracted Braille used for reading text. SuperNova and Dolphin ScreenReader include both Grade 1 and Grade 2 tables. If you are not using Literary Braille, then you are using Computer Braille.

Logical Braille Mode

Logical Braille Mode is the default mode used to show information on the Braille display. In this mode the Braille display will show any incidental text with the focus. Logical Braille output closely reflects speech output. If you are not using Logical Braille Mode, then you are using Physical Braille Mode.

Physical Braille Mode

Physical Braille Mode shows the position of objects across the screen. You can use Physical Mode to show the characters on the current line and the gaps between them or get a more precise view of the layout by placing the characters as closely as possible to their screen position. If you are not using Physical Braille Mode, then you are using Logical Braille Mode.

Routing buttons

Routing buttons are usually a row of buttons positioned above the cells on a display. Some displays may provide two rows of Routing buttons. You can use the Routing buttons to perform actions such as Left Click, Double Click, Right Click or Describe the character at the cell position.

SAM

SAM managers the detection of synthesisers and Braille devices for SuperNova and Dolphin ScreenReader. You can enable, configure, disable, and troubleshoot the detection of devices using this program.

Status cells

Status cells are a small group of cells present on some Braille displays. The cells are separate to the main row of cells. They can be used to indicate your screen reader mode, cursor position, and text attributes. If your display does not contain status cells, then you may be able to assign cells as status cells through your SAM driver settings.

Translation tables

Translation tables is a generic term used to describe the Braille language code you use. It refers to Computer Braille, Literary Braille, and Literary Braille input tables.

Verbosity

Verbosity refers to the amount of information use to describe the current control and its state. For example, whether the current focus is a checkbox and whether it is selected or unselected. You can choose from four default Verbosity Schemes as well as create your own Schemes.