Hable One

The Hable One is a braille input device to operate an iOS or Android mobile device. It has 8 input keys, the standard 1 through 6 dots plus dots 7 and 8. The keys are used for typing using braille input, and to control the mobile device. It works great with both VoiceOver on iOS and TalkBack on Android. Watch the Shaun of the Shed video, Control your iPhone without touching it for a quick introduction.

This page contains all the commands common to both platforms as well as commands specific to iOS and Android. Follow the heading structure and read any notes for the section, or jump directly to tables if you already know what you’re looking for.

If you find something doesn’t work as documented, or you think something is missing, or you have suggestions for clarification, please email blindgumption@gmail.com.

Hable’s Documentation

You can access manuals for the Hable One online. And when you’re getting started, it’s a good idea to read through those. The manuals contain descriptions and initializing information not presented here. This reference is taken mostly from the manuals with some notes based on my experiences. I’ve also gone through the playlists from the Hable One YouTube channel and provided some summaries. Some videos have information already presented in the manuals, which I don’t call out as the reference is already documented.

It’s a good idea to go through the play lists at least once when learning the Hable One. You can find them easily on your own, I don’t provide any links in here to specific videos. This site is intended to be browsed quickly to look for information you might have forgotten or missed earlier, I don’t want to add link clutter.

Commands Common to Android and iOS

This section contains commands used for both iOS and Android devices. These include commands to configure the Hable One itself (e.g., change the language, switch between Android and iOS), as well as generic commands consistent across both platforms.

I’ve gone through both the Android and iOS beginners guides to create these tables. The headings below were inspired by the structure of those docs, with some changes. Hopefully it makes sense as you read through them. Some commands could arguably be in a different category, and some I’ve decided to list in multiple categories. Maybe you’ll agree with my logic, maybe not. Hopefully you’ll agree at least there are some grey areas.

Also, as of July 2025, I have very little Android experience. And, to be honest, not much depth with the Hable One yet either. I suspect as I do get more experience in general, the groupings below will change. If you’re looking for a specific action, it’s probably best to try text searching and not worry too much where it is on the page.

Note on Android or iOS

No, not a which one is better. My goal is to keep all opinions out of braille.codes, though sometimes the temptation is too much (especially regarding Siri). The point I want to make here is Android and iOS are solving similar problems, thus there are ideas consistent across both platforms. This applies to TalkBack and VoiceOver as well. A feature on iOS, e.g., rotor, might have a similar feature on Android. They might have different names and slightly different functionality. At their core though, they solve the same problem thus can be accessed using the same commands.

If you read through both the Android and iOS manuals from Hable, you’ll notice many codes are repeated. Hable has done a great job using the same codes for the same functionality, e.g., navigating around text, going to the home screen. Making it much easier to switch between an Android and iOS device.

Hable Menu: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

The following commands are for configuring the Hable One, or checking status. You need to be in the Hable menu before using any of these commands. Hold down all keys 1 through 6 until your device buzzes 4 times, then hold down the desired command, until the buzz. After you enter the command, the Hable exits the menu. If you want to enter another menu command, you must first hold down the 1 through 6 keys again. The Hable menu commands table contains only the keys for the command, not the 1 through 6 to enter the menu. Remember you need to be in the Hable menu for these commands to work.

commands in the Hable Menu

Action	Command	Notes
Enter Hable menu	hold 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6	must do this to use any of the following commands
Use ABAE codes	hold 1, 3, 6
Use UEB codes	hold 1, 5
Use Android settings	hold 1
Use iOS settings	hold 2
Battery status	hold 3, 6	1 buzz low, 3 buzzes full
Toggle braille dot/key settings	hold 1, 3, 4, 6	swap dots/keys 1 and 3, and 4 and 6
Long press delay or vibration length	hold 1, 2, 3	Repeat the action to change the settings. 4 vibrations for the longest duration, 1 vibration for the shortest.
Hable Easy Mode	hold 5, 6	changes Hable One interface significantly, go to website for details
Hable Easy One Hand Mode	hold 2, 3	changes Hable One interface significantly, go to website for details
Belgium country settings	hold 1, 2
Finnish country settings	hold 1, 4
France country settings	hold 1, 2, 4
Germany country settings	hold 1, 2, 4, 5
Icelandic country settings	hold 1, 2, 3
Netherlands country settings	hold 1, 4, 5
Spanish country settings	hold 2, 3, 4

Mobile Device Navigation

As noted above, moving around an Android or iOS device has a lot in common. They might use different terms in some cases, but the ideas are the same. For example, there’s a home screen and a list of running applications, and there’s a need to go to the next and previous items, maybe those items are controls within an app, or icons of apps on the screen.

The table below are the commands used in both Android and iOS modes to navigate the device, including selecting/activating the item currently in focus.

Commands to navigate the mobile device

Action	Command	Notes
go to home screen	hold keys 1, 2, 5	same as letter h
Recent Apps / App Switcher	hold 2, 3	if not working, try going to home screen first
Move to next item	hold 7, press 8	go to next app on the screen or next item within an app (single finger swipe right)
Move to previous item	hold 8, press 7	go to previous app on the screen or previous item within an app (single finger swipe left)
Select/activate item	press 7, 8	select/activate item with focus (single finger double tap)
Go to top of screen	hold keys 1, 2, 3	Go to first clickable item on screen. If not working on iOS, enable quick navigation (see iOS section below).
Go to bottom of screen	hold keys 4, 5, 6	Go to last clickable item on screen. If not working on iOS, enable quick navigation (see iOS section below).
Back	hold keys 1, 2	documented as going to previous page but seems to work in various other context (e.g., in iOS, escapes out of VoiceOver help, like the two finger scrub). Remember it is there and try it when you want to go back in some sense.
Notifications	hold 1, 3, 4, 5	Same as letter ‘n’, as in notification
Control Center	hold 2, 4, 5	Same as letter ‘j’, not sure why, ‘c’ was taken?
Status Bar	hold 2, 3, 4	Same as letter ‘s’, as in status

Controlling the Mobile Device

This loosely maps to Shortcuts in the Hable One docs. I think controlling is more descriptive than shortcuts. In here are commands for actions like adjusting the volume and muting the screen reader.

Commands to control the mobile device

Action	Command	Notes
Mute the screen reader	hold 1, 3, 4	same as letter ‘m’, as in mute
Volume Down	hold 1, 2, 6
Volume Up	Android: hold 2, 3, 5, iOS: hold: 3, 4, 5	need to test if these are really different
Pause Reading	hold 1	hold 1 again to resume reading
Read from top	hold 2, 4, 5, 6	note the pattern similarity with read from current position
Read from current position	hold 1, 2, 3, 5	note the pattern similarity with read from top
Play/Pause Media	hold 1, 2, 3, 4
Two Finger Double Tap	hold 3	so many uses, e.g., answer call, start/stop audio playing
Long Press Item	hold 3, 8
Lock Screen	hold 2, 5
Screen Curtain	hold 3, 4
Screen Shot	hold 3, 6	take a picture of your screen
Search Screen	hold 1, 2, 4
Activate Assistant	hold 1, 4, 5	Google Assistant (for something helpful) or Siri (for everything else)
Print	hold 1, 2, 3, 4, 8	need to test

Navigating a Document or Application

These are commands to move around a document. For example, while reading a web page or editing a text file. Actually editing the file is the next section.

When documenting the action to close a tab, I thought maybe there should be a navigating an application table as well. I decided that was starting to slice too thin. Instead I’ll expand the idea of a document to include navigating apps.

Commands to navigate a document or application

Action	Command	Notes
Move to next character	hold 7, press 4	move past the character to the right of the cursr and speak the character
Move to previous character	hold 4, press 7	move past the character to the left of the cursr and speak the character
Skip next word	hold 7, press 5	move past the word to the right of the cursr and speak the word. Cursor is now immediately following last character in the word.
Skip previous word	hold 5, press 7	move past the word to the left of the cursr and speak the word. Cursor is now immediately before first character in the word.
Search in document	hold 1, 2, 4, 5, 6	hold 2, 6 to scroll search results
Scroll Search Results	hold 2, 6	documented in search document, not sure if applicable in other search results
New	hold 2, 3, 4, 5, 6	Hable docs just say “new” for Android but suggest iOS apps where this will create a newe Note, or email or other stuff. Maybe just know this exists and try it when you want to create a new of something.
New Tab	hold 2, 5, 6	documented specifically for browsers, maybe it applies to other tab based apps?
Close Tab	hold 2, 3, 5	documented specifically for browsers, maybe it applies to other tab based apps?

Editing a Document

First, a quick note on typing the contents of your document. Once you’re in an editable document/field, you enter text using the keys using the braille codes. Those codes are on the tables of braille codes page. The page also has explanations of how to generate capital letters, words, and sentences, how to type digits, and a fairly complete list of punctuation. None of that is repeated in this section. Here we will focus on topics like highlighting, copy/cut and paste, and deleting.

Commands to edit a document

Action	Command	Notes
Use contractions	hold 1, 2, 4, 5	2 buzzes is entering contractions mode, 1 buzz is leaving it. See Troubleshooting regarding contractions.
Dictation	hold 2	hold until buzz, release and speak, hold 2 again to end dictation
Enter	press 1, 8	In some contexts, this will send a message (e.g., whatsapp). See below for shift-enter for a newline in a message
Shift Enter / New Line	press 2, 8	For example, add a new line in messages without sending the message
Space	press 8	inserts a space character (no pins I guess)
Backspace	press 7	this deletes the character immediately left of the cursor. To move back a character without deleting,see navigating a document.
Undo	hold 1, 3, 5, 6
Redo	hold 1, 3, 4, 5, 6
Select All Text	hold 2, 3, 5, 6	in editable fields only
Select Character Right	hold 7, press 4, 5	in editable fields only
Select Character Left	hold 4, 5, press 7	in editable fields only
Select Word Left	hold 4, 6, press 7	in editable field only
Select Word Right	hold 7, press 4, 6	in editable field only
Copy Selected Text	hold 1, 4	letter ‘c’
Cut Selected Text	hold 1, 3, 4, 6	letter ‘x’
Paste	hold 1, 2, 3, 6	letter ‘v’
Format Bold text	hold 1, 2, 8	works on highlighted text
Format Italics Text	hold 1, 3, 8	works on highlighted text
Format underline Text	hold 2, 3, 8	works on highlighted text

Android Commands

Following are commands specific to Android. Some of these might have analogues to iOS commands, with different terminology (e.g., reading line setting vs VoiceOver rotor). I’ve chosen to include them here thinking people might look for Android specific terminology.

Commands to navigate Android

Action	Command	Notes
Talkback Menu	hold 2, 4
Next Reading Line Setting	hold 7, press 5, 6	note similar pattern to previous reading line setting
Previous Reading Line Setting	hold 5, 6, press 7	note simlar pattern to next reading line setting
Next Item in Reading Line	hold 7, press 6	note similar patter to previous item in reading line
Previous Item in Reading Line	hold 6, press 7	note similar pattern to next item in reading line
Page Up	hold 2, 3, 6
Page Down	hold 3, 5, 6
Line Begin	hold 1, 4, 5, 6	similar to line end
Line End	hold 3, 4, 5, 6	similar to line begin

iOS

Below are commands used to control an iOS based device.

Commands to navigate iOS

Action	Command	Notes
VoiceOver Help	hold 1, 3	this is the four finger double tap. It puts you into a state to try gestures and VO will tell you what they will do (without performing the action). This is also a great way to practice using the Hable. Go into help and try various Hable inputs.
Toggle Quick Navigation	hold 3, 4, 6	you’ll hear an upbeat sounding tone when quick nav is enabled. It’s probably best to keep quick nav enabled. I’ve run into places (e.g., holding 1, 2, 3 or 4, 5, 6 to move to top or bottom of screen) that do not work if quick nav is not enabled.
Next Rotor Setting	hold 7, press 5, 6	note similar pattern to previous rotorsetting
Previous Rotor Setting	hold 5, 6, press 7	note simlar pattern to next rotor setting
Next Item using rotor Setting	hold 7, press 6	note similar patter to previous item using rotor setting
Previous Item using Rotor Setting	hold 6, press 7	note similar pattern to next item using rotor setting
Single Finger Swipe Down	hold 7, press 6
Single Finger Swipe Up	hold 6, press 7
Copy Speech to Clipboard	hold 1, 2, 3, 5, 6	seems to only copy last spoken text, no option to scroll back
Edit an Item’s Label	hold 1, 2, 3, 4, 6
Beginning of Document	hold 2, 3, 6
End of Document	hold 3, 5, 6
Scroll Page Down	hold 1, 4, 5, 6	if not working, enable Quick Nav (hold 3, 4, 6)
Scroll Page Up	hold 3, 4, 5, 6	if not working, enable Quick Nav (hold 3, 4, 6)
Scroll Page (Screen) Right	hold 1, 3, 5	if not working, enable Quick Nav (hold 3, 4, 6)
Scroll Page (Screen) Left	hold 2, 4, 6	if not working, enable Quick Nav (hold 3, 4, 6)
Item Chooser	hold 2, 4
Press and Hold	hold 1, 5	letter ‘e’. used in many cases, e.g., voice message in Whatsapp
Reply to Email	hold 1, 2, 4, 6	even works on Outlook on iOS
Send Email	hold 2, 3, 4, 6
Toggle Keyboard Visibility	hold 1, 4, 6	show/hide virtual keyboard
Single Letter Quick Nav	hold 1, 2, 3, 4, 5	docs say “in browser”, curious if it works in other apps
Spotlight Search	hold 1, 6	global search
Switch Keyboard	hold 1, 5, 6	for mobile device keyboards. does not work for me, maybe I don’t have any keyboards to switch to.
Turn Off VoiceOver	hold 1, 2, 3, 8	does not work for me. A comment in the Hable doc says use full keyboard access and hold 1, 3, 6. that seems to work, but full keyboard access conflicts with VoiceOver.
Tab backward	hold 1, 2, 5, 6	probly most/only useful within a browser navigating through elements with non zero tabstop
Tab Forward	hold 2, 3, 4, 5	probly most/only useful within a browser navigating through elements with non zero tabstop

Troubleshooting

I’m typing single letters but sometimes get complete words or multiple letters

You are almost certainly in contractions mode. Hold down the keys 1, 2, 4, 5. If you feel a single buzz, you have gone from contracted mode back to single letter (grade 1) mode. Try typing again and see if that fixed the problem.

If you feel two buzzes, you have gone into contracted mode and I have no idea what the initial problem was.

The commands simply don’t match this reference, including typing simple characters

You might have accidently swapped the braille dots/keys. That is, you were in the Hable menu (held down 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) then held down 1,3,4, 6. It seems unlikely to have done that accidently, but when you’re messing around trying to learn, it can happen. The command to swap braille keys/dots is a toggle. Try the above again and see if it’s better.

You can check the braille key/dot settings by pressing the 1 key in a text editing field. If you get an ‘a’, the dots/keys are in standard configuration. If you don’t get an ‘a’, they are probably swapped. Try pressing the 3 key. If that results in an ‘a’, cells are swapped.