If he's inexperienced with technology, I'd say Apple over Android. Apple products are more commonly used in the BVI community and there are a lot more accessibility oriented apps available for the platform. Apple devices are just a lot more user friendly in a lot of regards and the screeneader (VoiceOver) is really reliable if a little clunky at times.

I'm not a braille user anymore, but when I was, I had a Brailliant BI 40 and I really liked it. It's probably outdated at this point, but it's portable, lightweight, and the display size is nice. If there's something newer available, I'd buy that instead, but I wouldn't get something with less than 32 cells.

Hi! I think you should have a conversation with your school prior to purchasing anything big. It’s going to be easier to learn one system for both home and school rather than switch between two.

That said, generally Apple products are widely considered to be more accessible than Microsoft or Android. Unfortunately MS and Android products are typically used at work and educational environments because they are cheaper up front.

I’d figure out which one the school uses, get similar equipment at home, then just start digging in to YouTube videos on accessibility on that system. Hadley Institute for the Blind has great videos as well as The Blind Life and Live Accessible. Good luck, check back in if you have issues.

PS I think your son’s teacher had it right on learning Braille first. Braille is tough, and if he’d learned tech first it would have been difficult to be motivated to learn Braille.

Full disclaimer, I'm speaking as a sighted person, but I work in this field so I'm speaking more from an "industry perspective".

For mobile devices, I would recommend an iPhone. A few months ago, colleagues were excited about how Android finally had support for headings 🙄, which seems like such a no-brainer capability that being happy about it reaches fandom levels. VoiceOver on the iPhone and the desktop are fairly similar so that will get him used to that support. If he wants to communicate in real time over distance, he'll need to learn that.

Anecdotally, once I gave my best friend (who was blind) my Samsung, and he was totally disgusted. He was in his late 20s, so providing an Android to your kid will likely be a point of bullying down the road. With all the frustrations I have with my best friend as an Autistic 40+ year old, bullying is the last thing I'd want to deal with.

On the other hand, I recommend a Windows laptop for day to day tasks. Knowing how to use the built in Narrator (Microsoft's answer to VoiceOver) may get him a job there down the road (😆), but both NVDA & JAWS are used on Windows machines.

Those of us in the industry rely on these 3 screen readers to test against. I would focus on industry trends, because complaining that a company makes something that doesn't work in Orca is likely not something any court will ever look at.

Hope this helps.

I think your last Vision teacher was ind of dumb to be so brail heavy to the detriment of technology usage.

However, I will say that most successful blind people are fluent brail readers.

Visually impaired special educator here, PLEASE feel free to PM me as I have too much info to post here, but a lot is dependant on info you might not want to publish

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I would definitely recommend Apple products. While there are Android derivations and third-party apps that make them accessible, Apple products have very helpful system preferences for the visually impaired and the blind. I am assuming that your son has no sight, or with his condition, you want him to be prepared for a world with no sight?

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Definitely get connected with Talking Books and Braille Services/BARD though the National Library Services and your local Commision for the Blind. The way the IDEA is set up in most state's turns to the Commissions for services. You can even get a lot of the technology you'd need (like an iPad Pro) for free from Telecommunication Disability Accessibility Program, through a similar library program.

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So many specific tools are popping into my mind.... haha

First question: the school won't let anything go home with him? What about homework? I'm not a lawyer, but my school let me bring home everything and I believe it's legally required to do so for homework (doesn't seem like it's LRE or equal opportunity). Hell, my college let me bring their equipment overseas multiple times (not very happily, but I digress). May be worth checking in with the NFB/ACB or going over the head of whoever is making that decision. Switching between RBDs isn't going to be impossible, but it will be inconvenient.

I've used an iPhone for years and find it pretty easy and quick to connect with a RBD. Re: RBD, I've used both Focus 40 and 80s and prefer them. May not want an 80 at this age. Have you thought about a Braille Note Touch or Braille Sense Polaris at all? Both are notetakers so much more expensive, but much more powerful.

I’d recommend an Iphone and a windows machine.

I’d recommend NVDA, www.nvaccess.org it’s free and works for most applications, the school might make him learn JAWS though, so I’d talk to the disability department if the school has one.

JAWS used to be quite expensive but if you’re in the US, you can pay monthly for it, although i’m not sure if that’s an on going thing or if you pay a certain price and that’s it.

I would find out what the school uses and try to match that.

check out blind computing. The site is still in beta but has a lot of helpful tips.

https://beta.blindcomputing.org/

Braille is going out, that's why tech is so important right now. Not to diminish Braille in any way though, it still is important, and I claim that you are illiterate if you are blind and do not know Braille. My argument is that listening to something is generally a passive process, while reading is active. Braille helps you to learn spelling and grammar, which your son will need later in life. Speech is great, but homophones are an issue and when you don't know because it isn't telling you, you might tend to develop some very bad spelling habits that will be hard to unlearn. I've seen it from other blind people.

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For tech, I guess it would depend. I don't know what an RBD is, but iPhone and iPad wouldn't go amiss. iOS versus Android is very subjective though. I can use either one. I have fun with android because I can hack it, customize it to the Nth degree and so forth, but I like the iOS experience for just getting things done. It's always going to work the same, and once you get used to it, the user experience tends to transfer across most apps.

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If you can, maybe go for the iPad pro because it has the keyboard and so forth, but you can use any bluetooth keyboard though, and maybe you could rig up a stand. I know for me, I'd want one if I was trying to do homework on the thing. I prefer PC over mobile for things like that, but mobile is of course, a good backup.

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As for learning them, I never really had trouble. I didn't have a phone for nearly 8 years because I couldn't afford one. The last phone I had was a slide phone and was just on the cusp of what you might call a smart phone. I went from that to an iPhone 7 without issue. It took me like 15 minutes to get the fundamentals. Then my proficiency just rose from there with my use of it. Before that, I had a few tablets and an iPod touch 4th gen. I never had anyone teach me how to use touch screen devices, so it is always a little confusing to me when I'm seeing these training resources and so forth. I'm not casting aspersions on anyone who uses those, I just never needed them myself. Once you turn on VoiceOver on for the first time, you get a tutorial, work through it the first time, it will not come back, but you can revisit in the VoiceOver settings if you need to. Also when you go there, you have a practice area at the top. Android is similar in that it gives you a tutorial when you turn TalkBack on, or god help you, voice assistant on a samsung device //cringe//.

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I'm convinced that any impediment that might exist to someone learning technology is psychological unless they have a learning disability. What you need is a desire to explore the thing, but they lack that, not because they don't want to, but because they're scared of breaking it. I've seen this over and over with family and some other people I've helped with various tech related things. It's that fear that holds them back. But the fear is groundless because just turn on the automatic backup, then if you do somehow manage to mess it up, restore from that. It's very unlikely that'll even happen though. For PCs, people should back up their data anyway, the OS can easily be reinstalled, but that's an extreme measure and will not need to be taken in most cases.

Hey I am in a very similar situation to your son, with about 15 years older than him so I feel I should answer your question.

I think what you have so far is a great start, however here are some things you definitely need to look into. If your son wants to edit his own work he will need either a Braille Display screen like the model I have the Alva bc640, or he will need a Braille printer, an Embosser like the one I have from Index Braille.

Apple is superior to windows in that they have the screen reading software built in.

I've been working my way through various OS's and here's what I can tell you.

Unless he has any particularly heavy compute needs you should go mobile. This means tablets, phone's, and maybe laptops.
He's already using an iPad at school so that's a good start and you should probably stick to that at home. If he uses Braille then definitely go Apple. Android has decent accessibility (I can personally attest to that as I use a Galaxy S9 with Google TalkBack daily) but Android has garbage Braille support. iOS is also better optimized for people with no vision whereas with Android it's really quite beneficial to have at least a little bit of sight. Not that he can't use it. Might work out for a phone for non-productivity tasks but that's about it. Voiceover is fairly easy to learn and it even gives you an area in the settings to practice commands.

For a classical OS with a desktop screen reader it's a bit harder. JAWS, NVDA, and Voiceover on Mac are all quite competent. VOiceover is probably the easiest to learn but you'll have to pay the Apple tax. In any case most apps on Mac OS are available on iOS so... yeah, iPad.

Thinking into the future it would be a good idea for him to learn a screen reader on Windows. JAWS on particular will come in handy later in life for work since that's what employers will buy. If you absolutely need a desktop OS then you can cheaply set up a Windows machine with NVDA, the only truly free screen reader. Yeah, Oiceover and TalkBack are included but you pay quite the price for the hardware those run on. It's worth mentioning that he will need to be intimately familiar with the layout of a QWERTY keyboard and be an effective touch typist to use desktop screen readers, oh and a numpad is most helpful especially for jaws. Based on what you've said it doesn't sound like he's quite ready yet. Maybe in high school. That'll be up to you and him to figure out. If you have the luxury, the ideal would be to learn multiple screen readers. Being able to fluently switch from OS to OS--desktop or mobile--is a godsend. Definitely teach him how to touch type right now. THat'll come in handy whether he uses a tablet or a laptop or what have you and will serve as the foundation for learning desktop screen readers. Hope this helps.

I'm assuming RBD stands for "refreshable braille display". I've never seen that acronym before.

Personally, I don't think it's a good idea to do homework while commuting to and from school. Listening to the synthetic speech of an iPad whilst also having to cope with the noise of other people talking would be quite challenging for someone new to technology. And reading from a braille display whilst on a bus requires an awkward hand position, the fingers are moved around when the bus moves, and there is a risk of dropping it and destroying the braille cells if the bus goes around a sharp corner or stops suddenly.

In terms of a braille display to recommend, I think it would be ideal for him to try them so he can see whether he likes the keyboard and the feel of the braille, but if this isn't possible, you should probably look into whatever you as parents or his teachth are willing to teach him. Commonly-used braille displays include the Focus 40 Blue, Brailliant and QBraille XL. If you do buy a braille display, make sure to purchase one with either 32 or 40 cells—ones with shorter lines negatively affect reading speed and proficiency.

Also, please don't discount hardcopy braille as it is still useful for math and other similar subjects.