BrailleEasy: One-handed Braille Keyboard for Smartphones

Abstract. The evolution of mobile technology is moving at a very fast pace. Smart-phones are currently considered a primary communication platform where people exchange voice calls, text messages and emails. The human-smartphone interaction is however generally optimized for sighted people through the use of visual cues on the touchscreen, e.g., typing text by tapping on a visual keyboard. Unfortunately, this interaction scheme renders smartphone technology largely inaccessible to vi-sually impaired and blind people as, for instance, it results in slow typing and a higher error rate. Apple and other third party applications provide solutions to input Braille codes that require both hands. However, Brailling with both hands while holding the phone is not very comfortable. Furthermore, two-handed Brailling is not possible on smartwatches, which will be used more pervasively in the future. We therefore develop a platform for one-handed Brailing consisting of a custom keyboard called BrailleEasy to input Arabic or English Braille codes within any application, and a BrailleTutor application to practice one-handed Brailling. Our platform currently supports Braille grade 1, and will be extended to support con-tractions, spelling correction, and more languages