[BRLTTY] Simple Linux console for visually impaired student

[Jeanette C.]

Hi Tom,
I'm not a 100% sure, but I think Arch may now even support brltty, if a 
display is connected during installation. If not, installing the package and 
perhaps choosing the right display in /etc/brltty.conf should do it.

Once that is done, BRLTTY just starts everytime the system boots. When the 
login appears, brltty is working. Then it is just a question of finding the 
right editors and programs to use and perhaps figure out the exact key mapping 
of the Braille display, but there the website can help. Once you know the help 
and learn mode key combinations, brltty itself can help.

Best wishes,

jeanette

Tom Kirby, Oct 14 2025:

> Hello,
>
> I am a (sighted) Computer Science teacher based in the UK with a keen,
> interested and talented student who is 16 years old and visually impaired.
> He is confident with his existing braille devices, and one of them (a
> Mantis Q40) is supposed to work with brltty. (Unfortunately, his brand new
> HumanWare Monarch apparently can't do this, in spite of its amazing
> multi-line touch display *etc*.)
>
> I'm trying to set up a laptop for my student with a simple Linux console,
> connected to his Mantis Q40. I have the use of a capable enough Lenovo
> laptop that I can do as I like with. My dream is to have him able to
> interact with the Linux console and - through it - to be able to write and
> run Python programs. I think that interacting with a console, shell etc.
> would be well within his capabilities, even though some of my sighted
> students struggle with this!
>
> I don't need to have brltty start early in the boot sequence, as (for now)
> my student will have plenty of sighted help when using the laptop.
>
> Getting up and running with brltty has been far from simple. Though I would
> consider myself pretty experienced with Linux, I've struggled to get brltty
> working on Mint, and I've found it pretty difficult on Arch as well.
>
> Is there a distribution where brltty works pretty much out of the box? Or
> if not, is there a (simple) set of recommendations for getting it to work
> on a clean install of Arch?
>
> Please excuse me if I'm asking something that could be answered with a
> simple Google. I've tried engaging with the brltty web pages, but there is
> a great deal in there and I don't know quite where to start and how much of
> it is current and relevant to what I am trying to achieve.
>
> Thank you and best wishes
>
> Tom
>