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June 2026 BT Speak and BT Braille Update Release Notes

Introduction

This update introduces a variety of new features and improvements across BT Speak and BT Braille, while also delivering one of the most extensive rounds of software refinement we’ve undertaken. Nearly every application has received updates, resulting in a more polished, reliable, and responsive experience throughout the system. Note: This software update applies equally to both BT Speak and BT Braille.

Building for the Future

Behind the scenes, our development team has completed substantial modernization of core software components, including improvements to help-related functions and keyboard input handling. While many of these changes may not be immediately visible, they provide a stronger foundation for future development and help ensure that new features can be delivered more quickly and reliably in upcoming releases. We are also continuing work to improve audio driver management and system configuration. As part of this effort, we are enhancing the update process used by both BT Speak and BT Braille to better support driver installation and hardware settings. Among other benefits, these improvements are expected to reduce the rare instances in which a device may start without speech.

Enhanced Speech Controls Menu

The speech controls page has been updated and is now a full menu system with some additional options. However, rest assured that all of the previous commands you already know are still available and will work as they always have. The Speech Controls menu is still accessed by pressing s-chord. Note: The legacy Speech Controls menu is still available by pressing s-7-chord, in the event of any issues with the new menu. Speech options, such as volume and speech rate, are now menu items. You can press dot 4-chord to move to the next menu item and dot 1-chord to move to the previous item, just as you can in other menus. When you move to an item, you will hear its name along with its current setting and its associated keyboard shortcut.

For example, you might hear:

  • Volume, 50, v

  • Or Rate, 2, r.

To increase the value of one of the options in the menu, such as rate, press the space key with dot 8. To decrease a value, press the space key with dot 7. For QWERTY users, the commands are CapsLock+9 to increase and CapsLock+7 to decrease. For example, if you are pointing to Rate, pressing the space key with dot 8 increases the speech rate, making the voice speak faster. Pressing the space key with dot 7 will decrease the speech rate. You will also hear hint text to remind you of these options. BT Speak will say, “press dot 7-chord or dot 8-chord to change.” Each of the options in this menu also has shortcut keys which will allow you to immediately jump to that option. Some shortcut letters adjust the value, for backward compatibility.

The shortcut keys are:

  • Volume: v

  • Rate: r

  • Pitch: t

  • Punctuation: p

  • Key Echo On/off: E or K

  • Word Echo On/off: w

  • Change the Way Words With Uppercase Characters are Spoken: u

  • Change the Way Numbers are Spoken: n

  • Change TTS Engine: g

  • Help: H

As you move between TTS engines in this menu, the name of the TTS synthesizer is announced but you will need to press enter (dot 8) to actually set that speech engine. As we mentioned earlier in this section, the new speech controls supports the older single-dot commands for adjusting speech. In other words, you can still press dot 4 to increase the volume, dot 5 to increase the speech rate, dot 6 to increase the pitch, etc. We have also removed the ascending and descending tones when changing key echo or word echo. BT Speak and BT Braille now clearly announces “key echo” or “word echo” and whether the option is on or off.

Speak Numbers

A new option in Speech Settings controls how numbers are spoken. You can press N to jump to this setting. The available choices are: • full numbers • individual digits • phone/credit-card number recognition. This third mode recognizes North American, international, Australian mobile, and 10-19 digit sequences and speaks them as digits.

New Sentence Navigation Commands

The editor and file viewer now support sentence navigation. • Move to the previous sentence by pressing the space key and dot 7. • Move to the next sentence by pressing the space key and dot 8. • Speak the current sentence by pressing the space key and dots 7 and 8. If you’re using a QWERTY keyboard, We Added the following shortcut keys for sentence navigation.

  • Move to the Previous Sentence: Caps Lock+7

  • Speak the Current Sentence: Caps Lock+8

  • Move to the Next Sentence: Caps Lock+9.

Improvements When Reading Continuously

Pressing dots 1-2-4-5-6-chord is the command to read continuously in a file. In contracted English Braille, this is the ER-sign with the space key (think of ER for Everything Read.) Reading now starts at the beginning of the current sentence and reads through the rest of the file. You can always interrupt continuous reading by pressing dots 7 and 8 together. We have improved the continuous read command in the following ways:

  • While reading continuously, one sentence at a time is now sent to the text to speech engine. This gives you a more natural-sounding reading experience.

  • When you stop reading by pressing dots 7 and 8, you are placed at the beginning of the current sentence. During continuous reading, you can now skip back or forward by sentence.

  • After pressing dots 1-2-4-5-6-Chord, press the commands for previous or next sentence to move backward or forward by sentences. Dot 7 with the space key skips back to the previous sentence. Dot 8 with the space key skips forward to the next sentence. The reading will continue from that point.

  • Press the current sentence command, all three keys on the bottom row, to hear the current sentence again in a slower voice.

New Forms navigation Commands in Blazie Mode Apps

New forms navigation commands have been added in several Blazie mode apps, including Email Composition, Phonebook and the Agenda Calendar.

  • You can now press tab or shift+tab to move between fields in a form, making it easier to review and correct text written in these fields. Tab is dots 4-5-chord. Shift+tab is dots 1-2-chord.

  • In most cases, pressing enter still advances to the next field.

  • In some places, pressing enter confirms a field or opens a control, such as selecting an attachment.

  • Phonebook and the Agenda Calendar now supports our new forms navigation commands when creating a new entry.

Improved email composition in Blazie Mode

Email composition in Blazie Mode has been enhanced with the following new features:

  • The compose email interface is now a standard form or dialog. This means that you can press tab (dots 4-5-chord) to move forward from one field to the next. You can also press shift+tab (dots 1-2-chord) to move back to the previous field.

  • We now check to ensure that the email address that you enter is written in the correct format.

  • The message body now uses an inline editor for multiline composition. This means that you are now free to press enter while writing your message to move to a new line.

  • The attachment selection now uses an updated file browser interface. This should make it easier to choose a file that you want to attach to your message.

  • In the editor where you write the text of your email message, you can now switch your Braille Grade input with dots 2-3-chord or dots 5-6-chord. Note, this is an exception for the inline editor, as it always converts literary Braille into uncontracted text once you move away from the edit field. If you return to the edit field, you will be able to review and edit the uncontracted text version of the message which will be sent.

  • Pressing the tab key does not generate indents or spaces in this inline editor.

Send Emails Directly from Blazie Mode

Previously, after composing a message in Blazie Mode, you would be switched to Desktop Mode to complete the sending process in Thunderbird. With this update, selecting Send from the Blazie composer completes the entire process for you and automatically returns you to Blazie Mode when the message has been sent. Behind the scenes, Thunderbird briefly opens in compose mode, assembles the message, sends it, and then closes. During this process, you may hear Desktop Mode speech output while Thunderbird is working. Error handling has also been improved. If Thunderbird is unable to send the message, you are sent to Desktop Mode and be notified that the send operation could not be completed. You can then investigate the issue and send the message manually if necessary.

Upgraded Morse Code App

We’ve significantly expanded the Morse Code app with new features and capabilities. The following options are available in this updated version.

  • Play Text: t

Allows you to enter your own text and hear it in Morse code.

  • Play File: P

Allows you to choose one of your files. Once you select a file, that file will be played back in Morse code.

  • Guessing Game: G

The app plays a letter or number in Morse code. It is then your turn to write the correct character. This is a great way to test your Morse code knowledge.

  • Frequency: F

Allows you to adjust the frequency or pitch used to generate the tones. Press dot 8-chord to increase the value and choose a higher frequency. Press dot 7-chord to choose a lower frequency.

  • Speed in Words per Minute: S

Allows you to speed up or slow down the tones used to generate Morse code. Press dot 8-chord to increase the speed in words per minute. Press dot 7-chord to decrease the speed. Spoken character names have also been improved. For example, “f” is now spoken as “f”, instead of “Latin small f”.

Improvements and Bug Fixes

Editor and AI tools

  • We fixed a bug where spell checking removed parts of large files.

  • AI tools now detects and announces errors, such as “quota exceeded”, includes AskCody, and gives better reporting on status and changes.

  • Indent command speech no longer includes commas.

  • We fixed a bug where punctuation setting changes were lost when in help files.

  • We fixed a possible misplaced cursor issue when using Execute inside the editor to paste shell output.

  • We fixed a crash when undoing markdown heading changes.

  • We fixed AI tools editor output so the first line of a reply is spoken when the response opens.

  • We updated the model for ChatGPT used in editor AI Tools to chat-latest.

  • We fixed cursor calculations when the cursor is at the end of a line.

Menus, settings, and device information

  • We Improved the wording of prompts when changing a setting.

  • The Settings menu contains a new option called UI Colors. This gives users the ability to set menu colors and fonts. This is useful for individuals, such as sighted teachers and parents, who are connecting a BT Speak to a monitor using the mini HDMI port for teaching a student or for examining the student’s work.

  • T-Chord can now be used to announce the title in menus, in various fields such as input prompts and the editor.

  • In the Advanced BT Speak Management menu, we added a new option called “Send device info to support”. This sends a log to us which contains a variety of information about your device, such as available storage, what TTS engine is being used, Wi-Fi signal strength, etc. Please do not submit this info unless you are asked to do so by a member of our support team. Information about your files or text from those files is not sent to us.

  • Pressing O-chord, I for the About This BT Speak/BT Braille page now loads the page faster and has been optimized.

  • We added the MAC address to the Wi-Fi status page. (located by going to Options, Settings, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Status).

  • Improved counting of entries in the user menu.

Media and online services

  • We have restored the audio quality of the Dec-talk voices, as well as audio from the YouTube Stream app.

  • We have made improvements to YouTube error handling.

  • We have fixed an error message sometimes encountered when attempting to sign in to Pandora.

Persistent Login Improvements to NLS BARD

We resolved the issue where NLS BARD required users to log in again after every update. After installing this update, you will need to log in one more time. Future updates should no longer require you to keep signing in unless you sign out of NLS BARD or have not used the application for an extended period.

Improved Date Entry in the Agenda Calendar

The issue with entering new dates has been fixed. Date entry is now much more stable and flexible, including support for natural language inputs such as “Tomorrow” or “Next Week.” Please review the Calendar Help File for supported date formats and examples.

Using SD Cards

  • The Eject Removable Storage command has been re-written.

  • After using the Eject Removable Storage command, the SD card can be reinserted later without restarting.

  • Added a new Detect Removable Storage menu option. This finds and mounts external storage devices which have not been detected automatically, which should avoid the need to restart. This is located in the BT Speak or BT Braille Management Menu.

  • Added automatic file-system checking when an SD card is mounted.

  • Improved detection of unmount errors.

Note: Please continue to use the Eject Removable Storage command before removing an SD card or USB drive. This command can be found by going to Options, BT Speak Management.

Maintenance and Device Support

  • Added a Reclaim Space option to the BT Speak/BT Braille Management menu. This removes disk space used by logs and caches.

  • In the Info About This BT Speak/BT Braille page, we fixed a bug where the amount of memory was calculated incorrectly.

Stopwatch and Countdown Timer

  • Added natural language entry for the countdown timer when being asked for the start time.

  • The Stopwatch help file has been updated.

Logs and support

  • We added the ability to view older archived log files. This is located in Options, BT Speak or BT Braille Management, Advanced Management, Review Older Log Files, with O being the shortcut.

  • You can also review recent log files generated within the last 4 hours. You’ll find this in Options, BT Speak or BT Braille Management, Advanced Management, Review Recent Log Files, with R being the shortcut.

  • We added Raspberry Pi hardware and firmware information to the logs that get sent to us from customers, which gives our support staff additional diagnostic details.

General fixes and improvements

  • We have made improvements to the startup and shutdown time, causing starting up and shutting down to be slightly faster.

  • We have added numerous corrections to the U.K. Grade 2 translation table, improving round-trip translations of the following words: beneath, behind, below, beside, between, and beyond.

  • We fixed the U.S. Braille table to correctly translate times such as “12:30”.

• When renaming a file in the file browser, the current file name is now pre-filled and selected by default. If you immediately begin typing, the original file name will be removed and replaced by what you type. This also gives you the ability to edit the existing file name. Just move your cursor first and you can edit the text.

  • In Phonebook settings, you can now display and sort your contacts by first or last name.

  • We improved the formatting when converting PDF files.

  • We fixed an error with the time zone when it is set incorrectly.

  • Wi-Fi connected messages are always heard after your device has started.

  • We removed the error message reported when resetting the home directory.

  • We added registration checks for the AI tools.

  • Speech is no longer lost when resetting Bluetooth.

  • Speech controls are no longer available in Desktop Mode. This was an error. Desktop Mode uses the Orca screen reader’s speech settings.

  • For QWERTY keyboard users, the Say Date command used to be Caps Lock+8. It has been moved to Caps Lock+Shift+8 in order to not conflict with the command to read the current sentence.

BT Braille improvements

  • Charging tones have been added to indicate when charging starts or stops. This works when the CM5 is off. Some units may not generate these tones.

  • The Braille display is cleared on sleep and restored on wake.

  • Fixes were made for inconsistent sleep and wake, where the Braille keyboard would sometimes stop working.

  • Battery reporting has been improved, including battery level, cycle count, time to empty, time to full charge, and remaining battery life.

  • We fixed duplicate announcements when cutting text in the BT Braille editor.

  • The About BT Braille page now reports more detailed battery information on BT Braille.

  • We improved navigation in the Radio Tuner, BT Learn, media playback, and the Bible app which used old menu voicing. These apps now work properly with self-voicing behavior. You can now navigate through these apps with the L2 and L3 nav keys. Also, when speech is turned off, these apps will now be silent.

  • Added an option to resynchronize BT Braille headphone volume when changing system volume.

  • We fixed a bug where some pop-up messages were being displayed twice.

  • We fixed a bug where speech was being cut off when deleting a file.

  • The welcome file has been updated.

  • Fixed a bug where menu titles were not always being shown in Braille.

  • Fixed a Braille display issue where some writes could be lost during self-voicing transitions.

  • Fixed an issue where the dot 7 indicator appeared for every character in some Braille files, notably Bookshare titles.

  • When jumping to the end of a line, Braille text no longer splits words unnecessarily.

  • Removed a duplicate message when using the Word Count command (d with dot 8).

  • Automatically sets the device in low power mode when the battery is low.

  • BT Braille now detects when it is plugged in but not charging. For example, when the battery is fully charged or overheating.

  • BT Braille now vibrates when the power cable is inserted or removed.

  • Added boot progress behavior based on the last boot time.

Concluding Remarks

The new features and improvements in this update are a direct result of your feedback. Please continue to reach out to us and submit any feature suggestions, along with any bug reports that you might encounter.

Email: info@blazie.net

Phone: (772) 214-1616

The Blazie Technologies Development and Support Team.

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