Night-Light

Accessing Ancient Language Text on a Braille Display

Sarah LaRose in an outdoor background

The downloadable table on this page provides braille support for all characters needed to view pointed Hebrew and polytonic Greek as taught in biblical studies programs. The table has limitations regatdint character order. Some characters will not be displayed as they are transcribed on paper..

Please also consult the page regarding writing in Hebrew and Greek using your keyboard.

JAWS Screen Reader and Biblical Languages (Pre-LibLouis Version)

The resources on this page have provided access to ancient language text for users of the JAWS screen reader since 2009. As of 2026, tables have been developed that provide wider access to text using any screen reader that uses the LibLouis braille system and a braille display. These systems are still undergoing some revision, but several people are using them with satisfaction. To that end, instructions for all systems are available here so that you can use the one that provides the best access for you.

In the JAWS screen reader, the display of characters in braille is controlled through the use of braille tables, files that instruct the program regarding the relationship of computer characters and braille dots.

Download the table: right-click to download. After downloading it, right-click the downloaded file in your computer and unzip it. Make sure you know where it is unzipped.

Note: In order to access this file, you need to be able to see and work with system-level program files. These files are hidden by default. Additionally, you need to be able to identify the correct file by its extension (the .jbt part). The following steps will make this possible.

  • Open the control panel and go to folder options. (If you are in Windows 7 and your control panel is arranged by category, click on appearance and then on folder options.
  • Go to the view tab.
  • In the tree view,
    • Check “show hidden files and folders.” In Windows 7 this automatically turns off “don’t show hidden files and folders.” In XP, you must uncheck this box.
    • Uncheck “hide extensions for known filetypes.”
    • Uncheck “hide protected operating system files.”

Note: Screen readers may announce that a checked item is “on” and an unchecked item is “off.”

Note: After implementing these changes, it will be possible to delete important files that Windows needs in order to function correctly. If you do not trust yourself in this area, reverse these changes after setting up the JAWS table. If you leave the changes in place, be very careful what you delete.

Instructions for Installing the Table

  • Go to the start menu and explore JAWS to locate and open the program folder.
  • Copy the downloaded bib_studies.jbt into the JAWS program folder.
  • In the JAWS window, open file and go to braille options.
  • Go to the advanced button and press enter.
  • Open general, translation.
  • Check biblical studies and make primary.Uncheck US English – Unified. (This is included as part of biblical studies.)
  • Set braille translation mode to computer braille.
  • Press ok.
  • Restart JAWS.

Troubleshooting Problems with Display of Hebrew and Greek

In general it is better to use the polytonic Greek keyboard for input rather than the Logos Greek keyboard on Windows 64 bit systems.

If you have installed a working version of JAWS and Hebrew characters are still not displaying correctly in MicroSoft Word, do the following:

  • Press F2, go to Settings Center, open Text Processing/General.
  • Make sure that the following are all checked:
    • detect languaged
    • generalize dialect
    • enhanced edit support
  • Finally, be sure that caps lock is off when typing in Hebrew.

The display of characters in Hebrew and Greek may also be negatively affected by the use of fonts that don’t support Unicode characters. A number of Unicode fonts are available. To display Greek characters, a font which supports precomposed diacritics may be needed. I have used Cardo, Gentium, and Ariel Unicode, all of which support both Greek with precomposed diacritics and Hebrew. If you are technically inclined, do some research and try some fonts. BibleWorks fonts, e.g. BWHebb do not support Unicode, and the BW keyboards will generate gibberish with JAWS.

A final note regarding the display of Hebrew characters in braille using JAWS: when Hebrew is inverted for display in braille, some of the characters are displayed with slight variances from what we would expect in hardcopy (e.g. dagheshes to the right instead of to the left of their consonants, shin and sin displayed as two sets of dot patterns, etc. These variances are caused by Unicode problems–the characters in question are created by the compiling of two characters into one; and in the inversion the characters are broken into their separate components.

JAWS with LibLouis<.a>

  • Press Ctrl+Insert+B or Insert+V to open the Adjust Braille Options dialog.
  • Press Alt+O to open the Options menu.
  • Press tab several times to navigate to navigate to the “Braille” settings.
  • Press down arrow to select “Advanced”, then press right arrow to expand the “Translation” level.
  • Press down arrow to locate the option to change the language. Press space until you hear "ancient languages"
  • Press down arrow to find “Output Mode” and “Input Mode.”. These are two separate options. You may change them by pressing the spacebar.
  • Press down arrow until you hear "language profiles" Press space to enter the dialogue to select the ancient language profile of your choice.
  • Inside this dialogue you can tab to "details" and select between the U.S. and Borger (German) systems as well as optional profiles for Hebrew.

NVDA Screen Reader

  • Press the NVDA key + N to open the NVDA menu.
  • Select Preferences > Settings > Braille.
  • Choose language
  • Press the tab key to navigate to the Braille Output Table and Braille Input Table combo boxes.

Iphone and IPAD

  • Launch Settings.
  • Navigate to Accessibility > VoiceOver > Braille > Braille Tables.
  • Double tap the “Add Braille Table” button.
  • Find desired language in the list and double tap.

Mac and Biblical Languages

  • Open VoiceOver Utility. The easiest way to do this is by opening Spotlight (Command+Space) and typing “VoiceOver.”
  • In the “Utility Categories” list, use the Up and Down Arrows to navigate to “Braille.”

    • ,li.Using VO+Left Arrow, navigate past the “Braille Translations” list to the Add button.

  • Click the button (VO+Space).
  • Use the Up and Down Arrows to select the desired language.
  • Press VO+Left Arrow to move to the “Translator” list.
  • Use Up and Down Arrows to select desired translator table.