- From: White, Jason J <jjwhite@ets.org>
- Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2019 19:06:00 +0000
- To: Joanmarie Diggs <jdiggs@igalia.com>, Peter Krautzberger <peter@krautzource.com>
- CC: "public-aria@w3.org" <public-aria@w3.org>
I wrote the Python code below to create Unicode braille files from arrays of integers representing cell contents. I then created a file and accessed it in gedit with Orca.
The Unicode characters (encoded as utf-8) were correctly displayed, even though UEB translation was enabled. The speech output also announced the dot patterns for each character.
On the Mac, I had to turn off contracted braille (i.e., Grade II translation) to display the Unicode characters.
# Convert braille cell dot specifications to Unicode braille.
def cellToUnicode(cell):
"""Convert an array of integers (1-8) denoting dots to the corresponding
Unicode braille code point."""
dots=0x2800
if len(cell) > 8:
raise ValueError("Cell too large:", len(cell))
for dot in cell:
if dot < 1 or dot > 8:
raise ValueError("Dot out of range", dot)
dots |= 1 << (dot-1)
return chr(dots)
def cellsToBraille(cells):
"""Convert an array of cells to a UTF-8 braille Unicode string."""
output=""
for cell in cells:
output += cellToUnicode(cell)
return output.encode('utf-8')
def writeUnicodeBraille(filename, cells):
"""Write the specified cells as Unicode braille to the file given."""
output=cellsToBraille(cells)
with open(filename, 'wb') as outputFile:
outputFile.write(output)
On 2/7/19, 12:13, "Joanmarie Diggs" <jdiggs@igalia.com> wrote:
Thanks Jason!
We don't need a page per se. It should be sufficient to put some braille
unicode characters in a text editor like gedit or notepad.
--joanie
On 2/7/19 12:07 PM, White, Jason J wrote:
> I can perform the test on multiple platforms, including Linux/GNOME/Orca. Is there a test page already, or should I create one?
>
> On 2/7/19, 12:00, "Joanmarie Diggs" <jdiggs@igalia.com> wrote:
>
> Indeed, for translation. But Unicode braille characters shouldn't be
> translated. So one question is: Is liblouis smart enough to not
> translate those? The second question is: Is the library used to
> communicate with the display (in my case that would be BrlTTY) smart
> enough to handle those characters?
>
> I would hope that the answer to both questions is "yes." And I went to
> verify that this morning for my platform, but when I powered on my
> ancient braille display, it made all sorts of noises and gave up the
> ghost. :(
>
> A quick test I did suggests liblouis *might* be translating those
> characters, but I'm not positive. Since you (Jason) happen to use Orca,
> and presumably have a not-dead refreshable braille display, could you
> please do the test for me to answer both the first question and the
> second question?
>
> You should be able to answer the second question by disabling
> translated/contracted braille. That will cause Orca to send the
> characters directly to BrlTTY unmodified. If what's on the display
> matches the unicode braille dot patterns in the test text, then we know
> BrlTTY is good.
>
> To answer the first question, re-enable translated/contracted braille.
> If those unicode braille dot patterns are still preserved, then liblouis
> is also good. If liblouis isn't good, we should fix that in liblouis,
> but that's something I can work around in Orca by looking for characters
> in the braille dot pattern range and not sending them to liblouis. As
> far as I am aware, I don't have control over what BrlTTY does with the
> characters I give it.
>
> Thanks in advance for doing these tests. And sorry for having to ask
> you. My braille display picked a fine morning to kick the bucket.
>
> --joanie
>
>
> On 2/7/19 9:06 AM, White, Jason J wrote:
> > Besides Apple, I think everyone is using liblouis at this point for translation. I don't know what Apple's Mac OS and iOS implementations use. I think it would be reasonable to expect everyone to support the Unicode code points for braille rendering.
> >
> > On 2/7/19, 09:04, "Joanmarie Diggs" <jdiggs@igalia.com> wrote:
> >
> > Do we know if all the braille libraries used by the platforms support
> > Unicode block?
> >
> > On 2/7/19 8:57 AM, White, Jason J wrote:
> > > Braille ASCII varies between countries, hence between the braille tables
> > > loaded by screen readers – so it can’t be used to specify a desired
> > > braille representation reliably.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > For example, if the author assumes North American ASCII braille, but the
> > > user’s system is configured for one of the European codes, the result
> > > won’t be what the author would expect.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Only the Unicode block is unambiguous.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > *From: *Peter Krautzberger <peter@krautzource.com>
> > > *Date: *Thursday, February 7, 2019 at 08:43
> > > *To: *"White, Jason J" <jjwhite@ets.org>
> > > *Cc: *"public-aria@w3.org" <public-aria@w3.org>
> > > *Subject: *Re: properties for exposing custom Braille descriptions
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Hi Jason,
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > This question is mentiond in the list of questions at the end of the
> > > page. My apologies if the page was not accessible enough to make it there.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Speaking for myself, I'd very much hope that Unicode Braille would work.
> > > But Braille ascii might be a useful consideration. As I understand it,
> > > NVDA's prototype back in May pushed the raw value out (and Sina's test
> > > files used grade 1).
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Best regards,
> > >
> > > Peter.
> > >
> > >
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Received on Thursday, 7 February 2019 19:06:27 UTC