Hi,

                Since I believe this to be on topic, I will summarize the setup, if I may, on list. It’s not complicated and, unfortunately, only works with NVDA.

                First, Hank writes:

didn't know vnc had audio support and worked with a screen reader

                VNC does not support audio and takes no account of screen readers. I would be grateful for correction on either of these points, but expect not to get it. The only remotely similar things I’ve seen are specialized remote access, NVDA remote, Jaws tandem, remote desktop with screen readers, etc… To my knowledge, none of these work on a mobile device.

                I’m using VNC only for input. Basically, I’m routing input from my iPhone to a computer so that I can use my desktop from anywhere with an internet connection. I am also routing braille and audio output from my desktop to either an Android phone or the iPhone so that I can hear NVDA over the audio link and read braille over the USB link. This isn’t a difficult thing, everything I use is mainstream and cheap except, of course, for the braille display, which is neither, and NVDA, which isn’t mainstream.

                For input, I use Jump Desktop as a VNC client

https://www.jumpdesktop.com/

                I suspect that any client with full hardware keyboard support will be suitable. Jump is just the one I had. Note that I have yet to find any client for Android with full hardware keyboard support, shortcuts don’t usually work from the hardware keyboard on Android. There are tons of these clients for iOS, Windows, and Linux. The only problem I experience is the one that started this thread, I have to use autohotkey to remap the right alt to be the insert key. Reporting that I wanted to use capslock as a modifier to the Jump Desktop developer got me brushed off. So much for input.

                Obviously, there are two types of output which are of interest to a totally blind user, audio and braille. I need both. There are several solutions for audio. On the intranet, or anywhere else where I am not interested in how much data is sent/received, I use soundwire for Android

http://georgielabs.net/

                This produces very low-latency (latency is adjustable), high-quality audio and sends it to an Android phone. It sends all audio from the PC, so NVDA’s audio is sent just like everything else. It works with the cheapest Android devices, I have installed and used it on the cheapest Amazon Fire.

                For networks where I do care how much data is used, or when I want the sound coming out of an iOS device, I use TeamTalk

http://bearware.dk/

                I just have TeamTalk take its input from stereo mix. This gives low-latency good quality audio but uses less data than Soundwire.  

                Finally, in the case of a bad internet connection or when I want to use almost no data, I will send the audio over a phone line with, just for example, MicroSip

http://www.microsip.org

                taking its input from stereo mix. This sends very low quality audio with fairly low latency. Note that the quality is so low that I can’t use it most of the time due to hearing issues, but when I can use it, it is the cheapest method given that phone minutes are very often unlimited. All of these methods allow one to use the computer with latency low enough to type with “speak typed characters” on. It is, in my experience, usable as if you were in front of the computer, certainly over the local network and over the vast majority of remote networks (Edge and 3G networks excluded).

Finally, as for braille, I have found only one solution which works from a mobile device

http://www.virtualhere.com

allows a USB device, like a braille display, to be accessed over a network. I can connect my display to Android via USB, or connect a USB Bluetooth adapter to an Android phone, and it will display braille and take input through its keyboard for NVDA. Latency isn’t a problem, and NVDA will detect the display quickly and easily. Note that VirtualHere is the only remote access solution which works with Jaws from a mobile device for input, whether through a braille keyboard or through a normal/Bluetooth one. NVDA will happily, as I said, take input through VNC. Jaws will not, I’m not sure about Narrator. I suspect, but have not actually tested, that Dragon and Dictation Bridge can be used over TeamTalk for input/output and this form of interaction will also work with NVDA and Jaws. I am sure this works over the phone.

                I hope that summary is of use.

Aman