BRLTTY - Details

Details

Requirements
Restrictions
Supported Braille Displays
Supported Speech Synthesizers

Requirements

BRLTTY has been tested on an incredible range of computers, Linux distributions, and kernel versions. It runs with a good response time on a machine as pitiful as a 386SX20 with 4MB RAM. It has been used on laptops, desktop PCs, a DEC Alpha running Alpha Linux, and a few Linux-based PDAs.

Kernel 1.1.92 or newer is required. 2.0.x kernels work fine.

BRLTTY does not depend on a specific distribution of Linux. It has been installed on top of Debian, Knoppix, Mandrake, Red Hat, SlackWare, and SuSE. It has also been used in the barest of boot/root disk sets.

BRLTTY needs to run as root in order to gain access to some of the console functions. It runs as a daemon, and does not need to be set-uid or set-gid.

Restrictions

BRLTTY cannot be used on its own within graphical environments like X-Windows and svgalib. Screen readers for these environments can, however, communicate with BRLTTY via its BrlAPI interface. Orca is an example of just such a screen reader which uses BRLTTY via BrlAPI in order to make the X-Windows environment accessible to braille users.

Supported Braille Displays

The following braille display models are supported. If you discover that any other displays and/or models work, or if you know the technical details required to get another one to work, then please let us know.

Albatross

46/80

Alva

ABT (3nn)
Delphi (4nn)
Satellite (5nn)
Braille System 40
Braille Controller 640/680

Baum

Inka
Vario/RBT
SuperVario/Brailliant
PocketVario
VarioPro
EcoVario
VarioConnect/BrailleConnect
Refreshabraille

BrailComm

BrailleLite

18/40/M20/M40

BrailleNote

18/32

CombiBraille

25/45/85

EcoBraille

20/40/80

EuroBraille

AzerBraille
Clio
Esys
Iris
NoteBraille
Scriba

FreedomScientific

Focus 1 44/70/84
Focus 2 40/80
Focus Blue 40
PAC Mate 20/40

HandyTech

Modular 20/40/80
Modular Evolution 64/88
Active Braille
Braille Wave
Easy Braille
Braille Star 40/80
Bookworm
Braillino

HIMS

Braille Sense
SyncBraille

HumanWare

Brailliant 32/40/80 bi

Iris

LogText

MDV

MB208/MB408L/MB408S (protocol 5)

Metec

BD-40

MiniBraille

MultiBraille

MB125CR/MB145CR/MB185CR

NinePoint

Cebra 20/40/60/80/100/120/140

Papenmeier

Compact 486
Compact/Tiny
IB 80 CR Soft
2D Lite (plus)
2D Screen Soft
EL 80
EL 2D 40/66/80
EL 40/66/70/80 S
EL 2D 80 S
EL 40 P
EL 80 II
Elba 20/32
Trio 40/Elba20/Elba32

Pegasus

20/27/40/80

Seika

40
Mini (16)

TSI

Navigator 20/40/80
PowerBraille 40/65/80

VideoBraille

VisioBraille

20/40

Voyager

44/70
Part232 (serial adapter)
BraillePen/EasyLink

Supported Speech Synthesizers

The following speech synthesizers are supported. If you discover that any other synthesizers work, or if you know the technical details required to get another one to work, then please let us know.

Alva: Delphi (4nn)
BrailleLite
CombiBraille
eSpeak: text to speech engine
Festival: text to speech engine
FestivalLite: text to speech engine
Mikropuhe: text to speech engine
SpeechDispatcher: text to speech server
Swift: text to speech engine
Theta: text to speech engine
ViaVoice: text to speech engine