August 2026 BT Speak and BT Braille Release Notes
Introduction
Blazie Technologies is excited to introduce the August update for BT Speak and BT Braille. It features the first phase of our work to greatly enhance Braille quality and accuracy across both products. In particular, the update brings substantial improvements to English literary Braille accuracy and input feedback, plus a new comprehensive Braille help topic. The Editor now lets you keep task lists with to-do items in your documents. New links in the Editor can open web pages, headings and other files, making documents easier to organize and navigate. DECtalk speech, media, NFB Newsline, device performance and reliability have also been improved.
Quick Instructions for Updating Your BT Speak or BT Braille
1. Ensure that your BlazieTech device is connected to a Wi-Fi network. The battery level should be 40% or higher.
2. Type O-Chord for the Options menu.
3. Type M for your device's Management menu.
4. Type U to Check for Software Updates.
5. Your device should tell you that a new update is available and ask whether you would like to install it. Type Y to begin the installation.
Your device will download and install the update. Installation may take up to ten minutes.
When installation is complete, your device should restart automatically. If it does not, restart it using the power switch.
Better Feedback When Entering and Reading Numbers in Literary Braille
When entering numbers in literary Braille files, we now properly speak the letters following the number sign as numbers. This happens both when entering numbers and when reading them back one character at a time. In other words, typing a number sign followed by the letters abc will now properly speak those letters as 123.
Also, numbers with dashes or decimal points are now properly translated and spoken.
Direct Email Entry in U.S. Braille
Common lowercase email addresses can now be entered directly in U.S. literary Braille. Enter the at sign as Dot 4, then Dot 1. This direct email entry is a Blazie Technologies product convenience rather than part of official EBAE. Computer Braille remains recommended for entering email addresses; use a CBC span when the address must remain inside U.S. literary Braille and every character must be exact.
Extensive Improvements to English Braille
Braille accuracy when entering and reading text is substantially improved across the English tables. We have extensively updated the UEB Grade 2, U.S. Grade 2, U.S. Grade 1 and U.K. Grade 1 tables based on Liblouis 3.38.0.
· Mixed letter-and-number strings, dates, times and identifiers such as R2D2 and SM7B can now be entered, spoken, copied and read back without letters or numbers being confused.
· Literary Braille input and character-by-character speech now give more accurate feedback in the editor and dialog fields.
· U.S., U.K. and UEB tables include numerous corrections, while U.S. Braille gains practical CBC entry and navigation for exact computer text.
Detailed English Braille improvements appear near the end of these release notes.
A More Responsive Set of DECtalk Voices
A newer version of the DECtalk voices is now available and more responsive. To use it, go to Options, Settings, Speech, Text to Speech Engine and choose DECtalk (via Speech Dispatcher).
With this speech engine, stopping the Say All command leaves the cursor on the last sentence spoken.
Problems that caused DECtalk speech to be cut off or pause unexpectedly have also been resolved.
Improvements to the Say All Command
Continuous reading with Dots 1-2-4-5-6-Chord now supports movement by line, paragraph, heading and block, as well as backward or forward by sentence. For example, press Dot 4-Chord to move to the next line while reading continues. Press Dots 7 and 8 together to stop reading.
Task Lists in the Editor
The Editor now supports Markdown task lists, providing a simple way to keep checklists in your documents.
Creating Task Lists Using the Navigation Menu
Create a file and write several lines of text, with one possible task on each line.
After entering the text, move the cursor onto the first line.
Open the Navigation menu with N-Chord (Dots 1-3-4-5) or CapsLock+N on a QWERTY keyboard.
Select Add or Toggle Task, or press T for the shortcut.
The Navigation menu closes, and the line becomes a task marked not done.
Move to the next line, reopen the Navigation menu and press T. Repeat these steps for each line you want to turn into a task.
To mark a task as being done, move to the line containing the task, reopen the Navigation menu and press T.
Repeating the command resets the task to not done.
To find unfinished tasks, reopen the Navigation menu and press P for the previous open task or Q for the next open task. Reopen the menu each time you want to move again.
To set a priority, move to a task, reopen the Navigation menu and press R.
Enter a letter such as A or B; earlier letters have higher priority, and Space clears the priority.
The Navigation menu also provides Mark All Tasks Done with A, Mark All Tasks Not Done with U, Set Task Due Date with D, Sort Tasks by Due Date with E, Sort Tasks by Priority with O, and Task Summary with S.
Sorting moves completed tasks to the bottom.
A blank line separates one task list from another. You can place a heading above the task list, and it will be associated with the list.
For complete instructions, press O-Chord, then H, choose Task Lists in the Editor, and press Enter. You can also press H-Chord while the Navigation menu is open for help with its task-list commands.
Manually Creating a Task with Markdown
Type a dash (Dots 3-6).
Type a space.
Type a left bracket (Dots 2-4-6-7).
Type either a space for a task that is not done or x for a completed task.
Type a right bracket (Dots 1-2-4-5-6-7).
Type a space, followed by the task text, such as “buy milk” or “complete my report”.
Examples:
- [ ] buy milk
- [x] send the letter
A space inside the brackets means that the task is not done, while x means the task is done.
When you use a task command, Markdown rendering turns on automatically so the Editor speaks the task’s state instead of reading the symbols.
Creating Links in a Document
Markdown links can now open a web page, another document or a specific location in the current document. A document link can target a heading, anchor or line number.
Creating a Link to a Web Page
To create a web link, press N-Chord to open the Navigation menu.
Choose Insert Web Link, or press W.
Enter the text you want the link to display.
Enter the web address. The field begins with https:// by default and the cursor is placed after it. Replace the prefix with http:// if the address requires it, then enter the rest of the address, such as www.blazietech.com. Press Enter or Tab when finished.
The address is validated. If it is valid, the device says “link inserted” and returns you to the document.
If it is invalid, you can return and correct it or choose to insert it anyway.
Note: Links use Markdown. Press Dot 8 with M to toggle Markdown rendering. When it is on, the device says “link” before the link label.
Creating Document Links
The Navigation menu can guide you through creating a document link.
Press N-Chord to open the Navigation menu.
Choose Insert Document Link, or press N.
Enter the link label, then press Enter or Tab.
Choose the file to link to.
The list contains currently open files. Select a file, or type the first few letters of its name to filter the list.
If required, you can also choose a heading in that file as the target.
The Navigation menu also has commands for the next link, previous link and return from an activated link. To return, press Dots 3-7-Chord.
Creating Email Links
Links can also use the mailto: prefix for creating a link to an email address. Activating an email link opens the Thunderbird email composer.
Email addresses are now validated before you can continue, and you can correct an invalid address.
Help and Documentation
Browse Help Topics by Category
Press O-Chord, then H, and choose Help Topics by Category. Press Enter to browse categories such as Getting Started, Keyboard and Input, Speech and Braille, etc.
New and Expanded On-Device Help
· New on-device help explains editor links, task lists, and Using Braille on the BT Speak and BT Braille. The editor and Navigation menu help topics have also been updated and cross-linked to the relevant link, task-list and Braille Settings topics.
· Customer-written apps can now supply their own help directory, so pressing H-Chord inside them opens their own help rather than the general help.
· The Menu Navigation help topic now contains additional details.
Documentation and Language Improvements
· German, French and Spanish help topics have also been reformatted for more consistent and accessible reading.
· Spacing and layout corrections throughout the help topics, the German and French user manuals, and the BT Code lessons make them read more cleanly.
Other Fixes and Improvements
Faster Loading of Apps
· Apps in Blazie mode now start noticeably faster, including Bard, BT Code, Calendar, Dictionary, Morse, Podcasts, Radio Tuner, Smart Help and Voice Notes, saving roughly 300 milliseconds on launch.
A Faster Way to Access AI Tools
You can now Press E-Chord with Dot 8 to open the AI Tools menu directly, rather than having to first open the main Editor menu.
Improvements to AI Responses
· AI responses now contain Markdown-formatted links that can be opened from the AI result viewer. Place the cursor on a link and press J with dot 8, or Alt+J on a QWERTY keyboard, to follow it.
· You can now press dots 7 and 8 together to stop speech in an AI response.
Editor and File Browser
Improvements to the File Browser
· Files that are open in the editor can no longer be changed from the File Browser. This includes deleting, renaming, protecting or unprotecting the file. For example, if you try to delete a file which is opened in the editor, a warning reminds you that the file is still open. Once you close the file, you will then be able to make these changes.
To close a file from the Editor, press E-Chord, choose Close Current File, or press C. This saves any changes and closes the file.
Close All Open Files
In the Editor menu, Close All Files, shortcut L, immediately closes all open files and returns you to the Welcome screen.
Apps, Media and Storage:
Fixes to NFB Newsline
· Newsline catalog loading and publication searches are faster and handle malformed service data more reliably. Problems affecting automatic Newsline downloads have also been fixed.
· Downloaded publications are reformatted for easier reading.
· Markdown headings now identify the publication, its sections and individual articles, making it easier to move through a publication with heading navigation commands.
Improvements to the Radio Tuner
· In the radio tuner, recordings made from the ACB Media menu, and from other stations, were saved as .ts files which could not be played. This is now fixed. Recordings are saved in their proper format, so a station that broadcasts in MP3, such as any of the ACB Media channels, is now recorded as a genuine MP3 file. As a bonus, the size of the recording is about a third smaller than before. Recordings you made before installing this update are not changed, so those will still need to be renamed with an .mp4 extension if you want to keep them.
· Stations opened from the built-in station menus, such as the Blindness Community stations, are now recognized as stations from the other menus, allowing you to vote for those stations, as well.
Media, USB Storage and Speech Synthesizers
· Pausing or resuming media with Dots 1-2-5-6-Chord (the ou sign) now responds in about 15 milliseconds instead of 250 milliseconds.
· Media files and folders containing square brackets, asterisks or question marks in their names can now be played correctly.
· We fixed the problem where USB drives and SD cards were appearing in the file browser, even after those drives were ejected or removed. Once a drive is removed or ejected, those entries are now automatically removed.
· Problems uninstalling speech synthesizers have been fixed. If the selected synthesizer is currently in use, the device now explains that you must choose another synthesizer first. Saved profiles that would prevent successful removal are handled automatically.
Speech, Braille and Navigation
· Dynamic menus, such as Speech Controls, now interrupt earlier speech and announce the new menu as soon as it opens.
· Words typed in all capitals are now read the same way in dialog boxes as they are in the editor.
· Spelling a word now tells you about capitals. Press dots 2-5 chord repeatedly to read the word, spell it, then spell it in the spelling alphabet. The spelling alphabet now says "cap" before a capital letter and announces "all caps" once for a word written entirely in capitals.
· A cell that is part of a contraction is no longer named as the first letter of the word the contraction stands for. Moving over the cell that spells “blind” used to say “b”; it is now read as the Braille character it actually is.
· Entering data into LibreOffice Calc with Braille input (Dots 3-5-8-Chord) no longer sends the cursor back to cell A1.
Device, Localization and Reliability
Agenda Calendar and Time Zone Fixes
· Agenda event times are now communicated correctly.
· Changing the time zone now keeps the device’s time zone records synchronized. This prevents conflicting time zone information from causing date-parsing problems.
Device Updates
· The updater is much faster now and provides clearer announcements about the current stage of the update process.
General Improvements
· Dates written in ISO form (year-month-day) are now always accepted, whichever country your device is set to.
· Non-English confirmation questions now use the correct keys. In German, for example, the device asks for J or N rather than Y or N, so Shut Down, Restart and other confirmation questions work correctly.
· More of the interface has been localized: some strings that could never be translated before are now translated, and corruption in several existing translations was fixed in German, French and Portuguese.
· The vibrations now stop reliably when an app exits, and vibrate can be given a value of 0 to stop it immediately.
· A clearer message is now given when the time zone lookup service is busy and refuses the request, instead of a generic failure.
· Installation and storage preparation now work correctly when the device uses a non-English locale.
· The Italian Braille table was renamed in Liblouis 3.38 and the setting has been updated to match, so Italian Braille keeps working after the upgrade.
· The battery voltage reference has been recalibrated against the MAX17260 fuel gauge for more accurate readings.
BT Braille Improvements
· Plugging headphones into the 3.5 mm jack now mutes the built-in speaker.
· When accessing certain BRF files, Dot 7 is now removed from certain Braille characters.
· Audio recovery is more reliable when the internal bus misbehaves or audio is lost on certain kernel versions.
· The BT Braille battery gauge now resets its state of charge correctly after reinitialization or recalibration.
· Panning left no longer skips the capital letter at the start of a line.
· Panning at the end of a file now stops instead of wrapping to the beginning of the line.
· A rare problem that prevented some key sequences from being recognized has been fixed, particularly for O-Chord, L1-R3 and the cursor routing keys.
· The correct internal sound device is now selected for each product, and reset-audio-sink has been corrected.
· Pico firmware has been updated to version 0.48, improving correlation between Pico and CM5 battery reporting.
· BT Braille now reliably announces that it is ready after a full startup.
Detailed English Braille Improvements
General Braille Accuracy and Input Improvements
· Mixed letter-and-number strings, dates, times, decimals, addresses, slash-separated and hyphenated groups, and identifiers are now more likely to remain correct when entered, spoken, copied or read back.
· Dotted abbreviations and initialisms such as e.g., i.e., U.S., Ph.D., SD and LLC are preserved more accurately. Link targets such as file:/, view:/ and audio:/ are preserved, and compact dot-number labels such as Dot 3456 are no longer read as "ble" in the legacy U.K. and U.S. Grade 1 tables.
· Literary Braille single characters are now decoded and spoken correctly for the full character set, not just numbers and capital letters, both as you type them and when reading them back, in the editor and in dialog boxes.
U.S. Braille Improvements
· In U.S. Braille, instructions ending with a named letter now retain the required letter sign. For example, "press the letter r." no longer comes back as "press the letter rather".
U.K. Braille Improvements
· In U.K. Braille, attached commas, semicolons, colons, full stops, exclamation marks and question marks now return as punctuation instead of being reported as numbers or unrelated contractions. If you had poor results with the U.K. table in the past, please try it again; numerous Braille accuracy problems have been corrected.
Email Addresses and Exact Text
· Email addresses, web addresses and supported links are preserved more reliably in both U.S. Braille and UEB, including their punctuation, common suffixes and link targets.
· Some URLs, web addresses, email addresses, paths and similar exact content may be stored inside Computer Braille Code spans in a U.S. literary Braille document. CBC uses its own start and end indicators and is not the same as eight-dot Computer Braille. See the detailed CBC section near the end of these release notes.
Using Computer Braille Code (CBC) in U.S. Braille
Computer Braille Code, or CBC, is a six-dot code for exact computer text within U.S. literary Braille. It is different from the device’s eight-dot Computer Braille mode, is not selected as a Braille table, and is currently supported within one logical line.
URLs, email addresses, paths, filenames, commands and code may appear inside a CBC span.
CBC Quick Reference
· Start CBC with Dots 4-5-6, then Dots 3-4-6.
· End CBC with Dots 4-5-6, then Dots 1-5-6.
· Move through the stored cells with Dot 3-Chord or Dot 6-Chord, and speak the current cell with Dots 3-6-Chord.
· Data cells are spoken as their computer characters. Capital, emphasis, continuation and span indicators are spoken as dot shapes.
Entering CBC Data
· Inside a CBC span, enter lowercase letters, digits and punctuation with familiar six-dot Computer Braille cells. Most are the same as eight-dot Computer Braille, but some symbols differ.
· Add Dot 7 to a letter for a capital. The device stores the official two-cell CBC capital form and treats it as one input action for undo.
· CBC entry supports common computer symbols including the at sign, brackets, backslash, braces, caret, vertical bar, grave accent, tilde and underscore. The on-device Braille help gives the exact cells and shifted pairs.
· Enter every required space because spacing is significant in computer text.
Capital Letters
· For multiple capitals, start capital lock with Dots 4-5-6, then Dots 3-4-5.
· Enter the letters using their lowercase cells.
· Release capital lock with Dots 4-5-6, then Dots 1-2-6.
Capital lock also ends at the next significant space or the CBC end indicator.
For complete guidance, including exact symbol forms, see the Using Braille help topic for your device in the on-device help.
Contact Information
Blazie Technologies
Email: info@blazie.net
Phone: (772) 214-1616
Web: www.blazietech.com