Add-on to use PC keyboard for braille entry

[cearbhall o'meadhra]

Hi Quentin,

 

Many thanks for a great webinar last Tuesday!

 

You mentioned an add-on that allows the PC qwerty keyboard to be used for Braille entry.

 

I missed the name of the app. Could you send me the name, please?

 

All the best,

 

Cearbhall

 

M: +353 (0) 833323487; E: cearbhall...@blbc.ie

 

[Sean Randall]

:) I used to use this a lot when I was a teacher. 

It's the inventively named "pc keyboard for braille input" :) 

Thanks

Sean

On 31 Oct 2025, at 16:20, cearbhall o'meadhra <cearbhall...@blbc.ie> wrote:



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[cearbhall o'meadhra]

Sean,

 

I have tried to find this add-on in the NVDA add-on store.

 

It does not appear to be there.

 

Do you know if it is still available?

 

Would you have a link to it?

 

All the best,

 

Cearbhall

 

M: +353 (0) 833323487; E: cearbhall...@blbc.ie

 

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[Rui Fontes]

Here is the direct link:

https://github.com/nvdaes/pcKbBrl/releases/download/49.0.0/pcKbBrl-49.0.0.nvda-addon

Best regards,

Rui Fontes
NVDA portuguese team

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[cearbhall o'meadhra]

Dear Rui

 

Many thanks for sending this!

All the best,

 

Cearbhall

 

M: +353 (0) 833323487; E: cearbhall...@blbc.ie

 

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[Noelia]

Hello:

I'm the maintainer of the pcKbBrl (PC Keyboard Braille Input) add-on.

To provide more info, this was originally created by Jamie (NV Access). I'm maintaining the add-on after requesting his agreement since he was not maintaining it. The fundamental functionality was created by him, i.e., the ability to use the keboard as it was a braille keyboard. Later, in collaboration with the community, other features were added, like a "one hand mode", which can be used by people with mobility impairments, but also, as I was informed, for example to read music using a hand (in printed braille) and transcript this to a digital file with the other hand.

Also, thanks to the community, in particular in the add-ons mailing list created by Joseph, support for keyboards in different languages were added.

And the ability to use some commands with space and dots. And I was also requested to add a table for Kannada language.

Thanks Rui for sharing the link. Anyway, I discourage to use direct links to install add-ons available in the store for the following reasons, since a direct link don't have the following advantages. When we submit an add-on to the store:

- Some automated checks are performed to ensure that authors aren't use non existing versions of NVDA. Using non existing versions (or technically, API versions) may suppress the ability to mark an add-on as incompatible when appropriate.

- Using the store, we are ensuring that link destination is inmutable, and, for this reason, we ensure that what we are installing is the same add-on accepted in the store, and not another one. Imagine that I change the link destination, accidentally or due to a problem with my GitHub account. If you use a direct link, NVDA won't prevent the add-on installation if the add-on is not the same file accepted in the store. But NVDA will refuse to install the add-on if it was modified after acceptation, and you use the add-on store.

- One of the checks performed in the store is with VirusTotal.

- The store can provide the last compatible version with your NVDA copy. For example, different versions of the same add-on can be stored on GitHub accounts (or other platforms, not just GitHub, the most used), and each version can be compatible with different versions of NVDA. This can be very important. For example, this add-on uses something named extension point to infer what keypresses are used, but previously, when older versions of NVDA didn't have this ability, the add-on used a different procedure.

- The store has different channels (stable, the most used, but also beta, to test new features of add-ons, and dev, to test changes introduced in alpha versions of NVDA). So, sharing a direct link cannot tell anything about the channel of an add-on.

For this reason, I only use direct links when I want to inspect an add-on as an add-on reviewer. And I advice to use the store, and, when we want to share an add-on, unless we have a strong reason to use a different procedure, I advice to provide info to find the add-on in the store.

Thanks for your interest, and I'm here in case you need help with this add-on.

Cheers,

Noelia

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[Rui Fontes]

Noelia, I have shared the link present in the NVDA add-on store...

I know, the link can be the same and the file different...

But, trusting you, I have shared the link...

Best regards,

Rui Fontes
NVDA portuguese team

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[Noelia]

Thanks. I wanted to explain what using the store can be a better idea.

But I'm grateful for your trustness 😀

Another thing available in the store is the possibility to be notified when add-on updates are available.

And talking about your confidence, years ago I didn't know that it is not a good idea to change the destination of links (many years ago). And yes, on GitHub I use double factor authentication and I cannot use SMS as a method to authenticate.

I'm a triager in NVDA's repo, and NV Access, for security, doesn't accept the SMS method, so I was temporarily removed as a triager (during some hours) until I removed the SMS method, so my account is secure 😄

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[cearbhall o'meadhra]

Dear Noelia

 

Thanks for getting in touch. Your help would be much appreciated.

 

Is there a manual for the add-on?

 

I installed the add-on, it went in smoothly with no problems. I found that I could create the letters of the alphabet perfectly. I would like to use contracted UEB Braille. Is this possible? I also found no way to deactivate the app when I wanted to use the QWERTU version of the keyboard. How do I do that?

 

Looking forward to hearing from you.

[muhammed ali çiçek]

"Hello, I am not Noelia, but I have used the add-on for a while, which is why I know the answers to your questions.
The add-on has a user guide. Open the NVDA Add-ons store, find the 'PC Keyboard Braille Input' add-on in the list, and press the application key or Enter on it. Then, press the down arrow until you find the Help item, and press Enter once you find it.
I don't have information on whether it supports contracted braille (v short-form), but as far as I remember, it used the language selected in the NVDA braille settings. And yes, the shortcut to switch back to the QWERTY layout is NVDA key plus zero ().
Best regards."

cearbhall o'meadhra <cearbhall...@blbc.ie>, 1 Kas 2025 Cmt, 19:26 tarihinde şunu yazdı:

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[Edward Green]

Hi Cearbhall,

You can access the documentation for any add-on by locating it in the Add-On Store, activating the "Actions" button and choosing the "Homepage" option.

Better still, you can install the "Add-ons Documentation" Add-on, which puts all your add-ons documentation in a sub-menu of the NVDA Help menu.

Cheers,

Ed

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[cearbhall o'meadhra]

Thanks, Ed,

 

That sounds really helpful.

 

 

All the best,

 

Cearbhall

 

M: +353 (0) 833323487; E: cearbhall...@blbc.ie

 

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[Noelia]

Dear cearbhall:

Thanks for your interest in the pcKbBrl add-on. Though others have answered most of your questions, I wanted to reply you too. In particular, about contracted braille, you can select any input table available from NVDA. The selected input table will be use by the add-on.

Hope this helps.

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[cearbhall o'meadhra]

Thanks, Noelia

 

Which NVDA table will allow me to use contracted Braille?

 

All the best,

 

Cearbhall

 

M: +353 (0) 833323487; E: cearbhall...@blbc.ie

 

From: nvda-...@nvaccess.org <nvda-...@nvaccess.org> On Behalf Of Noelia

Sent: Saturday, November 1, 2025 7:06 PM
To: nvda-...@nvaccess.org

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[Noelia]

Hello:

Looking at the source code of NVDA, you should be able to use contracted braille by choosing English tables grade 2, like Unified English grade 2, UK English grade 2 or US English grade 2.

Hope this helps.

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