Braille SENSE Review – More Work Needed
Published: Jun 19, 2007AccessWorld tested the Braille SENSE, also known as Braille Hanson, for their January edition. The editors of the American Foundation for the Blind have some difficulties with the accessible PDA but Hanson’s Korean producer, HIMS, promises to work on it quickly.
The Braille SENSE has a 32-cell Braille display and Braille input keyboard and an LCD screen in the middle. The software in the Braille SENSE is based on Windows CE.NET and is “easy and fast to learn for Windows users,” but AccessWorld is not convinced of that fact and at several times they found the use of the programs was not so simple.
The manual of this accessible Braille PDA is clear on every function of the device, but misses the practical part where working with the PDA is explained. HIMS will release updated material and an additional Quick Start guide in response to the article in AccessWorld.
Other areas where the Braille SENSE needs to work on are: the network connection that needed a reset of the PDA to get back online, the reformatting of the text that was very “frustrating and made reading tedious.” The Braille SENSE ‘froze’ on several occasions like opening audio files and web pages.
The total review was not too positive for the Braille SENSE PDA. The accessible PDA was difficult to learn because the manual was poorly written and the application did not behave like those of other PDAs. They are more positive on the producer’s response that their article did contribute to the ‘hopefully’ better next version of the HIMS company Braille SENSE that is available for $4,950 USD.
Source: AccessWorld – January 2005
