Mairead O'Mahony in the NCBI Labs team shares her thoughts on the Hable One
Braille Keyboard.
Item Name: Hable One Braille Keyboard
Reviewed by: Mairead O'Mahony
Description
The Hable One is a small light weight braille Bluetooth keyboard around the
size of an iPhone 6 that allows you to entirely control your smart
phone/tablet.
It has 6 braille buttons and 2 function keys for typing and intuitive
operation of Voiceover or Talkback and connects to your phone/tablet via
Bluetooth.
It is a great device if you love to type in braille, you are learning
braille or if you have difficulty controlling your phone/tablet using
gestures. Whether you are new to learning braille or are an advanced
braillewriter, you can set your preference to grade one or grade two
braille.
Unboxing / What are my first impressions of the item?
The Hable One comes in a box with a USB C charging cable, a lanyard wrist
strap and documentation. I was really impressed with how small and light the
Hable One was and was delighted that it would easily fit in my pocket.
Pairing it to my iPhone took no time at all as it was a very straight
forward process.
When pairing, the Hable automatically recognises if you are pairing it to an
iOS or Android device and puts it into the correct mode. For a braille
product, I was disappointed that it didn't come with a braille manual as it
would have been more efficient to jump to parts of the manual, I was looking
for rather than trying to find it quickly in the downloaded manual or
YouTube videos. By having a braille manual and physically reading it I would
be able to retain the commands I was looking for a lot faster.
I have been using this for a few days, how do I feel about it?
It did take a little time to get use to the feeling of how the Hable one is
held and the typing experience on it as it is like a little remote, isn't
really designed to be used on a surface so it is held in both hands with
both hands rapped around the 6 braille dots. I downloaded the manual and
straight away I was able to navigate my phone and complete tasks using the
Hable One. I started creating notes, emails, sending messages, browsing the
internet using it and found it much more efficient than using the on-screen
keyboard of my phone. As there is no braille display on the Hable one, I
found the haptic feedback really useful and some of the commands were very
intuitive. For example, holding down the letter H would bring you to the
home screen and holding down the letter B would bring you back a screen.
Once these buttons are held down for a few seconds, you will be alerted by a
vibration and Voiceover, or Talkback will let you know the command has taken
place.
Is it Accessible?
The Hable One is completely accessible. It has large keys, and they are very
well spaced out so they can be distinguished easily.
What did I like?
With an airpod in my ear and Voiceover on my iPhone I loved the freedom of
having the phone in my bag or another room and being able to unlock my
phone, send a message, check my shopping list while in the shop and email or
browse the internet without having to touch my phone. Also, the battery
lasts for a few weeks, there is a combination of dots to check the battery
status and once pressed you get a series of vibrations that indicate if the
battery level is high, medium, or low. While it might sound strange, I loved
being able to make notes while out as I didn't need to pull out my Bluetooth
keyboard and look for a surface to put it on or phone while standing.
What didn't I like?
When typing in grade 2 braille, sometimes Voiceover wouldn't read it back
properly for example, if I wrote the contraction for "and" Voiceover would
read the letter D when you typed but when you read back over it the full
word has been inserted. I found that a little distracting as I would spend
time checking over the text to see if the word was inserted and eventually,
I started to ignore that bug. I would have liked a little travel pouch to be
included as if you know you won't be using it for a while and it's in your
bag or pocket the keys won't get caught in anything or get scratched. Also,
I tried pairing it to my phone and iPad but it could only be paired to one
device at a time so I would have to turn off Bluetooth on one device for it
to work on the other.
Did it meet my expectations?
The Hable One met my expectations as I love being able to type in braille
and I was easily able to carry it around in my pocket. It wasn't just a
keyboard; it was an assistant to my smart phone.
What improvements, if any, would I like to see in this product?
For a premium priced product, I feel the quality should be more durable as
it feels very plasticky and I would be worried that if it fell on tiles it
might crack. I would love to have a manual built into the Hable One menu and
also a search function where you could type something such as turn on screen
curtain and the command would be displayed.
Would I recommend this item to others?
I would recommend the Hable One if you like typing in braille, you are
learning braille or if you have difficulty using the gestures on your
phone/tablet.
Is there other/competing technology you have tried, similar to this item?
The Orbit Writer is a similar device to the Hable One, but it is designed to
be used on a surface rather than in the air. From online research, the Hable
One seems to be more intuitive and is the preference for people who want to
use a braille keyboard.
NCBI Technology News.
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