Apple and Microsoft will ally for bring to market a new USB standard that facilitates the use of braille equipment by its users. This new standard, as they have advanced, will not be developed only by these two giants of the sector, but Google will also be immersed.
Large technology companies are very aware that technology must reach everyone. And this means that you should bet on making things easier; that is, to further simplify the processes. It is true that with the arrival of "plug & play" things improved a lot, especially for those users who do not usually have much computer knowledge. But there are a large number of users with vision problems. And for them there are braille equipment.
Now, the use of these computers connected through a USB port of a computer host, in many occasions it is necessary to install drivers or third party programs. And worst of all: drivers —Drivers— specific to the operating system.
And why do we say the latter? Well, because normally users tend to change operating systems throughout their day or at home; In other words, it is very possible that a user is working on a PC or Mac computer and suddenly, to continue with their work through the use of mobile devices such as an iPhone, an iPad, a tablets o smartphone Android. If the visually impaired user can use the new Braille equipment with the standard that has been announced under any platform –only connecting it to the USB–, the user experience will improve considerably.
As reported by the own USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), the standard is expected to be ready by next year 2019. And with it, the catalog of compatible equipment also increases and lowers the prices of all of them in general.
