VIDBE-Q Volume 69 Issue 1
Today we have single line braille displays that do their best to handle BRF,
but the user gets a less than ideal experience, with awkward reading flow due to
odd line breaks, poor navigation capabilities, and no way to connect the braille to
any potential stack of graphics.
In addition to single line displays, we also have multiline displays on the
horizon, which include APH's Monarch. The Monarch is 32 cells by 10 lines and
represents just one new potential page size. There will be other multiline displays
and we should avoid having our braille libraries segmented based on the page size
supported by specific hardware. Without a new file type, the same material would
have to be transcribed repeatedly for each device, whether it be an embosser, the
Monarch, or a different multiline and so on, making the process expensive and
disorganized.
The eBraille file type hopes to address these concerns. The primary way that
it improves on BRF is through markup. Markup is tagging that tells the reading
system that something is, for example, a heading, list, or paragraph. Using markup
means the file formatting is no longer tied to the page's size. For example, a
centered heading can be adjusted dynamically for a 40, 32, or 20 cell line as
needed. An added benefit is that a user can also utilize markup to navigate the
document, just as they do with a screen reader on a well-made webpage when
jumping to a particular heading, link, or item on the page.
