Blind Reading Resources: Braille
Technology Has Made Braille More Efficient for Blind Readers
Braille has supplanted every embossed language and lettering system developed for the blind since 1821, when Louis Braille adapted Charles Barbier’s “night writing” (created for the military, never used) to create his simple, versatile language of raised dots.
The use of braille, however, has declined with the advent of audiobooks, electronic texts, and the Internet. Most adults who lose sight later in life never learn it. And no single code unifies the different forms of braille used in math and science. Yet, most braille readers regard it as the only bridge between language and life, and the only autonomous means of written communication.
Access to Braille Materials and Equipment
Most students learn braille either at a school for the blind or through mandated special education in their school district. Volunteers certified in transcription by the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) also teach braille. The NLS circular, “Braille Literacy: Resources for Instruction, Writing Equipment, and Supplies” is an invaluable resource.
Two additional sources for information on braille literacy, publications, and equipment are the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) and the American Printing House for the Blind (APH). The New York Institute for Special Education also maintains a comprehensive resource listing.
Following is a profile for equipping today’s braille reader, including popular product examples.
Writing Equipment
Manual braille writing is done using a slate and stylus, which come in various sizes. NFB’s 13-line, 35-cell aluminum full-page slate costs $16; pockets slates cost about $6.
Most writing is done on a braillewriter, which has typewriter-like keys corresponding to the six dots of the braille cell. The Perkins Large Cell Electric Brailler (Perkins School for the Blind, Watertown, Mass, ($1050) is immensely popular.
Essential supplies include braille paper (a ream of 11 ½ by 11 heavy paper costs $20), notebooks, labels, erasers, and markers.
Braille on the Computer
Computers enable braille readers to:
- Write text documents on a word processor
- Read them with a screen reader
- Translate text into braille
- Read braille documents on a refreshable display
- Print documents with a braille embosser.
Below are the most popular computer products used by braille readers.
Braille Translators
Text-to-braille translation software converts electronic text or musical notations into braille, which can be read on a braille terminal or printed on an embosser. Popular versions include:
Duxbury Braille Translator and MegaDots ($595); Duxbury Systems, Westford, Mass.
Goodfeel Braille Music Translator ($995); Dancing Dots, Valley Forge, Penn.
Braille Terminals
Braille terminals attach to computers and convert text to braille on a refreshable display, a device in which raised pins present one row of braille at a time that the reader “refreshes” by pressing to present the next row.
Alva Braille Terminal ABT3 ($3,995); Synapse Adaptive, San Rafael, Calif.
Braille Embossers
Embossers (desk or portable) turn text into braille documents. Functions such as two-side (interpoint) embossing; built-in memory, and character-per-second speed vary with each machine.
Juliet Classic Braille Embosser ($3,995); Enabling Technologies, Jensen Beach, Fla.
Screen Readers
Screen readers use built-in speech synthesizers to read aloud what’s onscreen (e.g. text, Internet) and output to refreshable displays.
Jaws 9.0 Professional, ($1,095); Freedom Scientific, St. Petersburg Fla.
Braille Notebooks
Basic portable devices have braille keypads, a refreshable display, and output to both braille and speech. Newer models offer WiFi, Bluetooth technology, and USB functionality.
BrailleNote PK ($4,750); HumanWare, Concord, Calif.
Leading Braille Book Producers
The NLS’s Web-Braille offers thousands of books and magazines in electronic Grade 2 braille (access and special equipment required) and publishes the Braille Book Review six times per year detailing recent NLS additions.
APH publishes braille textbooks, including its “On the Way to Literacy” books with print, braille, and tactile illustrations.
National Braille Press (Boston, Mass.) publishes fiction nonfiction, and textbooks and offers a Children’s Braille Book Club, and on-demand book production.
Seedlings (Livonia, Mich.) offers nearly 700 books for children aged 0-14, including beginning readers and chapter books.
The digital age has made braille more flexible and portable and thus easier to incorporate into all areas of one's life. This is important for blind and low-vision students, their parents, and instructors to consider when planning a child's education.
The Perkins Large Cell Electric Brailler
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