This month, Dot is launching the Tactile Display API for Dot Pad, designed to make digital content easier to read, explore and understand through touch. With enhanced support available in JAWS and NVDA, users can work with familiar screen reader tools while gaining richer access to multi-line braille, tactile graphics and structured information.
For users, this means less panning, more context and faster navigation of documents, code, tables, diagrams and STEM materials right within familiar Windows applications.
JAWS and NVDA users can now choose 6, 8 or 10 lines to develop tracking skills or maximise reading efficiency by presenting more information at once.
You can use hybrid braille and tactile print mode to aid understanding and identify unfamiliar characters. Have you ever wanted to touch an emoji? Now you can! ☺
Blind students can instantly access tactile graphs including lines, curves, waves, and much more from expressions written in the Microsoft Word Equation Editor or from MathML displayed on web pages.
Professionals working on Excel spreadsheets can instantly feel a trend or spike in data displayed in tactile charts.
Sighted colleagues, teachers or trainers can collaborate by seeing on screen the dots under your fingers using the new Dot Pad Display Viewer.
Distributors, developers, educators, accessibility professionals and early testers are invited to try the API and share feedback. Your input will help refine real-world workflows, improve screen reader behaviour and shape the next stage of Dot Pad support.
The Tactile Display API is available as part of the new NVDA Add-On released in September 2026, compatible with NVDA 2026.2 and later, and as an installable component for PC’s running JAWS For Windows version 2026 and later.
If you would like to integrate the TDA API to enhance multiline braille and tactile graphics access in your own project, please contact the Dot team.