¿Por qué un usuario que utiliza un lector de pantalla querría tener una línea braille?

En Why would a screen reader user have a braille display? se explica:

As he wasn’t deaf-blind, I asked why he uses such expensive equipment, when devices have built-in free screen readers. One of his reasons was, in retrospect, so blazingly obvious, and so human.
He likes to read his kids bedtime stories. With the braille display, he can read without a synthesised voice in his ear. Therefore, he could do all the characters’ voices himself to entertain his children.
My take-home from this: Of course free screen readers are an enormous boon, but each person has their own reasons for choosing their assistive technologies. Accessibility isn’t a technological problem to be solved. It’s an essential part of the human condition: we all have different needs and abilities.

Y los comentarios también proporcionan información interesante:

Comentario 1

there are so many reasons to use braille. By the way, the screen reader is also controling braille output. Among the reasons: Learning to spell and format, ability to read silently, becoming literate in a foreign language (or in one’s own,) reading music notation, not having to listen to speech synthesis, playing sudoku and other word games, and others.

Comentario 2

Reading bedtime stories to your child using a braille display, that’s a really powerful example indeed!
However, a braille display isn’t an alternative for a using screenreader. It’s the screenreader that outputs information to the braille display (and it often also doubles as a braille input device).
Most bind professionals I know, simply can’t do their job without using a braille display. Every-day tasks like editing an article, for example, is a dreadful experience when you have to rely on text-to-speech only.

Productos de HIMS

HIMS es una empresa norteamericana especializada en productos de apoyo.

En su catálogo podemos encontrar Smart Beetle, una línea y teclado braille de 14 celdas por $1.345:

BrailleSense Polaris, una línea y teclado braille, que también es anotador, por $5.295:

Y Braille Sense U2 QWERTY, una línea braille con teclado estándar por $5.595:

Ejemplo de uso de una línea braille

Corto e interesante el siguiente vídeo, La línea Braille explicada por Luis Palomares (Analista I+D CIDTA, ONCE):

 

Curiosidades sobre el Braille

En 10 things you probably don't know about braille se explican algunas cosas sorprendentes sobre el Braille:

1. Braille started out as a military code.
2. There’s an asteroid named Braille.
3. Braille takes up more space than the traditional alphabet.
4. Braille is not a language.
5. Most people who are blind don’t know braille.
6. There’s a braille “Olympics.”
7. There’s a special version of braille just for mathematics called the Nemeth Code.
8. Braille is the surprise plot twist in the 2010 movie “The Book of Eli.”
9. There are two versions of braille – contracted and uncontracted.
10. There’s a good reason why braille is on the keypad buttons of drive-through ATMs.