Braille for iPhone: Typing, Displays and Braille Access

Yes, you can use braille on an iPhone, with nothing to install. VoiceOver, the screen reader built into iOS, does three things in braille: it lets you type braille on the touchscreen (Braille Screen Input), it connects to a Bluetooth braille display so you can read and type on it, and since iOS 26 it includes Braille Access, which turns the iPhone into a braille notetaker.

Below is how each one works, which iOS version brings what, and where an app like Braillito fits if you are still learning braille. Everything about iOS here comes from Apple's own documentation, read on October 27, 2026, when the current version was iOS 27.

Key points

• Everything starts with VoiceOver. Turn it on in Settings > Accessibility > VoiceOver, or ask Siri to "Turn on VoiceOver". Braille on iPhone is a part of VoiceOver, not a separate app.
• Braille Screen Input turns the screen into a braille keyboard. You lay the phone flat (tabletop mode) or hold it in landscape with the screen facing away (screen away mode).
• You choose the braille code with braille tables: contracted or uncontracted, and for a braille display, six-dot or eight-dot. In iOS 27, iPhone 18 Pro models can also take eight-dot braille on the screen.
• A braille display pairs over Bluetooth. Apple says more than 70 displays work with iOS and iPadOS.
• Braille Access (iOS 26 and later) adds braille notes, Braille Ready Format (BRF) files, a Nemeth and UEB Math calculator, and Live Captions, all on the display.

Three ways to use braille on iPhone

The last column says which edition of Apple's iPhone User Guide first documents each feature among the editions we read. It is not always the version where Apple first released it.

Type braille on the screen: Braille Screen Input

Braille Screen Input lets you type braille directly on the screen, without a physical braille keyboard: you tap the dots of a character at the same time, with one or more fingers. If you do not know yet which finger goes with which dot, our braille keyboard guide explains it.

Turn it on

First turn on VoiceOver. Then there are two ways to start Braille Screen Input:

1. The activation gesture (iOS 18 and later): place one finger from each hand at the top and bottom edges of the screen and double-tap. If nothing happens, go to Settings > Accessibility > VoiceOver > Braille > Braille Screen Input and turn on Use Activation Gestures.
2. The rotor, which works on every version: in a text field, set the rotor to Braille Screen Input. If it is not there, add it in Settings > Accessibility > VoiceOver > Rotor > Rotor Items.

To leave, slide two fingers in opposite directions, or do the two-finger scrub: move two fingers back and forth three times quickly, as if drawing a "z".

Tabletop or screen away

• Tabletop mode: the iPhone lies flat in front of you, and you tap it with the fingers of both hands.
• Screen away mode: you hold the iPhone in landscape with the screen facing away from you, and your fingers wrap around the sides to tap it.

The gestures that matter

You can review and change these gestures in Settings > Accessibility > VoiceOver > Commands > Braille Screen Input.

One change worth knowing if you learned this a few years ago: in the iOS 12 edition of Apple's guide, a three-finger swipe to the right switched between six-dot and contracted braille. In the current guide, three-finger swipes change modes, and you change the braille code with the braille table (two-finger swipe up).

Six dots, eight dots, contracted or not

What you type depends on the braille table you choose in Settings > Accessibility > VoiceOver > Braille > Braille Screen Input. Apple's tables cover many languages, in contracted or uncontracted braille. With contracted English braille (grade 2), the iPhone translates your contractions into normal text, and a two-finger swipe down makes it translate at once. If you are not sure what contractions are, start with braille contractions.

Apple's guide described Braille Screen Input as six-dot or contracted braille in its iOS 12 to iOS 17 editions. The iOS 27 guide adds eight-dot entry for some models: on iPhone 18 Pro models, you can also enter eight-dot braille by tapping with up to eight fingers at once. With a braille display, covered below, you can choose eight-dot tables too.

When the dots are in the wrong place

The dots are not fixed spots on the glass. To put them where your fingers naturally rest, tap and lift your right three fingers together (dots 4, 5 and 6), then immediately your left three fingers (dots 1, 2 and 3). To hear where each dot is, touch and hold, then drag a finger around the screen.

Since the iOS 26 edition of the guide, there is also a Learn Dot Positions setting, which calibrates the dots while you type. An older setting, Reverse Dot Positions, swaps dots 1 and 3 and dots 4 and 6, for six-dot braille.

Command Mode: control the iPhone in braille

Since iOS 18, Braille Screen Input has a Command Mode: you type braille commands on the screen to move around and control the iPhone, the same commands you would use on a braille display. Start Braille Screen Input, swipe left or right with three fingers to switch to Command Mode, and type the command.

Two settings work with it. Start Automatically when Editing Text opens Braille Screen Input whenever you enter a text field. Keep Active until Dismissed moves you into Command Mode, and keeps you there, after you open an app or choose an item.

One hand, or a slate and stylus

The iOS 26 edition of the guide adds Single Hand Mode Style, for typing in portrait:

• Right Hand or Left Hand: you type one column of dots at a time, swipe right for an empty column, and double-tap to enter the cell. Right Hand is the default.
• Slate and Stylus: the whole screen is one six-dot cell, with dots 1, 2 and 3 on the right, the way you write on a slate and stylus.
• Reversed Slate and Stylus: the same cell with dots 1, 2 and 3 on the left.

Other settings worth a look

In Settings > Accessibility > VoiceOver > Braille > Braille Screen Input, all three since iOS 18: Visual Text Feedback shows a text translation of what you type, useful when someone sighted is following along; Typing Feedback gives sound or haptic feedback for each entry; and Mode Announcements says, plays a sound, or both, when you change mode.

Read braille: connect a braille display

A refreshable braille display shows the iPhone's screen in braille with pins that rise and fall, and most have a braille keyboard too. With VoiceOver, the braille you type on the display is translated into text, and the display shows it in context. How displays work and what they cost is in refreshable braille displays.

Pair it

1. Turn on the braille display.
2. On the iPhone, go to Settings > Bluetooth, turn on Bluetooth, and choose the display.
3. Go to Settings > Accessibility > VoiceOver > Braille and choose the display.
4. To see its commands, tap More Info, then Braille Commands.

Apple keeps a list of supported displays, by maker: APH, HIMS, Humanware, Freedom Scientific, Orbit Research and many more. On its accessibility site it says that more than 70 refreshable braille displays work with iOS and iPadOS. Check the list before you buy one.

Commands you will use at once

Display commands are chords with the space bar. A few from Apple's list of common commands:

Settings that change the most

In Settings > Accessibility > VoiceOver > Braille:

• Input and Output: the braille table for typing and reading: other languages, six-dot or eight-dot, contracted or uncontracted. Match Input and Output Tables keeps both the same.
• Automatic Translation: translates what you type into text soon after you stop typing.
• Equations use Nemeth Code: math in Nemeth.
• Word Wrap, Status Cells and Sound Curtain (since iOS 18), which mutes most sounds while a display is connected; emergency alerts still sound.
• Closed captions in braille: in Settings > Accessibility > VoiceOver > Verbosity, choose Braille, or Speech and Braille, to read captions while a video plays.

If you use a 2D (multiline) braille display (in the guide since iOS 18), the Braille Text Mode rotor switches between output modes, such as reading several lines of text or showing images.

Braille Access: the iPhone as a braille notetaker

Braille Access first appears in Apple's guide with iOS 26; there is no page for it in the iOS 18 edition. It needs a braille display. Apple describes it as a way to turn the iPhone into a braille notetaker, and its accessibility site says it also works on iPad, Mac and Apple Vision Pro.

To open it, connect the display, turn on VoiceOver, and press dots 7 and 8 together (with an eight-dot table, dots 7, 8 and the space bar). Pressing dots 7 and 8 again closes it. The menu has:

• Launch App: open any app, such as Mail or Wallet, by typing on the display.
• Choose Item: pick something on the current screen.
• Braille Notes: notes and folders in braille, synced with iCloud.
• BRF Files: open and create Braille Ready Format files, search them and add bookmarks. Braille Access creates a BRF Files folder in iCloud Drive.
• Calculator: calculations in Nemeth or UEB Math, two braille codes Apple notes are often used in math and science classes.
• Live Captions: the iPhone listens and shows what it hears in braille on the display. Live Captions needs an iPhone 11 or later and is not available in every country or region. From its context menu you can also pause, use Type to speak to have the iPhone say what you type, and, with Apple Intelligence on, get a summary. In iOS 27, Apple Intelligence needs an iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max or any iPhone 16 or later.
• Time.

Inside the menu, the usual display commands work: dot 4 + space for next, dot 1 + space for previous, dot 8 to select, and dot 7 for a context menu: move, pin or delete a note; find, bookmark, move, rename or delete a BRF file.

What changed in each version

If you are learning braille: where Braillito fits

Everything above assumes you already know braille. VoiceOver will not teach you which dots make the letter h. If you are starting from zero, or helping a child or a student start, that is the gap an app like Braillito tries to fill. This section is written by the Braillito team, about its own app.

What it is: a braille course for iPhone and Android. In English it has 59 lessons in 8 worlds, built from exercises inside each lesson, with lives, levels and a daily streak. It teaches uncontracted braille (grade 1), letter by letter; it does not teach contracted English braille. There are no games outside the lessons.

Tools besides the course: a braille translator and a braille dictionary.

With VoiceOver: the app detects VoiceOver by itself, announces each braille cell by its dots ("Braille sign, dots 1 and 3") and turns off its own voice so it does not talk over yours. What it does not have: input from a braille display, and an external accessibility audit. We also know of three screens that are still silent under VoiceOver on iPhone. The details, and how to report a barrier, are in using Braillito with VoiceOver and TalkBack.

What it costs: Braillito is a subscription, with no free version. Depending on the plan, it starts with a free trial or with a discounted first period, if it's your first subscription. The price depends on your country, and the plans screen and the App Store show it before you pay. More in is Braillito free? Without paying, the braille translator and the braille alphabet on braillito.com work in any browser, and our free braille printables (an alphabet chart, A–Z flashcards and a UEB chart) print at home.

An app teaches the system, which dots make each letter; reading by touch is trained on paper, a slate or a braille display, because a glass screen has no raised dots. Once you know the letters, Braille Screen Input is a good place to practice writing them.

Frequently asked questions

Can you type braille on an iPhone?

Yes. Turn on VoiceOver, start Braille Screen Input with the rotor or, in iOS 18 and later, by double-tapping with one finger from each hand at the top and bottom edges of the screen. Then tap the dots of each character at the same time, with the phone flat on a table or held with the screen facing away.

How do I delete or send a message with Braille Screen Input?

Swipe left with one finger to delete the previous character. In Messages, swipe up with three fingers to send. A one-finger swipe right types a space, and a two-finger swipe right starts a new line.

Can I connect a braille display to my iPhone?

Yes, over Bluetooth. Pair it in Settings > Bluetooth, then choose it in Settings > Accessibility > VoiceOver > Braille. You can read and type in contracted or uncontracted braille, six-dot or eight-dot. Apple says more than 70 displays work with iOS and iPadOS, and keeps a list of supported models.

Does iPhone support contracted braille (grade 2)?

Yes, both on the screen and on a display: you choose a contracted braille table in VoiceOver's braille settings. On a display, dots 1-2-4-5 with the space bar switch between contracted and uncontracted.

What is Braille Access, and what do you need to use it?

You need iOS 26 or later and a connected braille display; Live Captions also needs an iPhone 11 or later. Braille Access is a braille notetaker built into VoiceOver: braille notes, BRF files, a Nemeth and UEB Math calculator, Live Captions and an app launcher, all used from the display. You open it with dots 7 and 8.

Is there an app to learn braille on iPhone?

Braillito is one: 59 lessons of uncontracted braille in English, built to be used with VoiceOver. It is a subscription; depending on the plan, it starts with a free trial or a discounted first period, if it's your first subscription. It does not teach contracted braille. Our comparison of braille apps lists the others.