Braille

Help promoting Braille literacy while taking a Caribbean cruise!

The following announcement is from the National Federation of the Blind of Virginia:

Have you wondered why is there Braille on a drive-through ATM machine? Blind people, after all, won't drive there to use it.

The answer is not legislation, even though in general ATMs have to be accessible to people with disabilities. The solution is cost effectiveness.

MERRIMACK – Some restaurants in town are now better prepared to serve visually impaired customers, thanks to the efforts of a civic group.

The Merrimack Lions Club, in conjunction with the New Hampshire Association for the Blind, has spearheaded a project to provide large-print and Braille
menus at 10 restaurants in Merrimack.

Reading your electronic documents using your hands instead of your eyes may sound almost impossible. However, this is actually what many blind persons do. This is done through a device known as a Braille display.

Braille displays are hardware that enable users to read in Braille the text displayed on the computer screen. Using this device, blind people can navigate through the computer’s desktop, create and edit documents, and browse the Internet.

February 22, 2010 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- The first Braille American Flag in Illinois was unveiled Monday at City Hall in Chicago.

The event was sponsored by the Blind Service Association, Kansas Braille Transcription Institute and the Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities.

We just looked at what is Braille, and how it is used in modern technologies. Now, let's see if Braille is in practice a good idea, or worth using for blind people.

Recently, we have seen a significant decline in Braille literacy among blind people in the U.S, and also in some other countries. At the same time, we have seen instances wherein blind people attain success in education and employment. This led to the belief that blind persons can now do without Braille.

Let us find out if Braille is indeed something which the blind can live without.

After taking a look at what Braille is, let us find out its current status and the interesting innovations related to this reading and writing system for the blind.

The widely accepted definition of Braille is that it is a touch reading and writing system for the blind and visually impaired. This may be clear and straightforward enough. But looking past this definition, we will find that Braille offers so much more than just a way for blind people to read and write. We will also see that behind this system lies a story of hope, perseverance, and ingenuity.

A part-time artist from Flintshire has been given permission to reproduce Beatrix Potter`s famous drawings so that blind people can enjoy them.

For the 107 years that the drawings have been copyrighted, very few people have been allowed to use them commercially and they have never been redesigned.

But worldwide merchandising agent for Beatrix Potter, Chorion, has made an exception.

Colin Antwis, a former civil engineer from Mold, will remodel the characters by drawing them on heat-sensitive paper with a thick black pen.

TUNISIAONLINENEWS- Tunisia continues to give a particular interest to the disabled people in order to ensure their effective integration into everyday life.
In a view of the Tunisian-Canadian cooperation, the regional union of the blind in the governorate of Gabes, printed textbooks materials into Braille,
a tactile written system of communication for the blind or visually impaired.

This cooperation has also provided computer rooms for two primary schools and a college in the southern region of Tunisia. The regional union of the blind
in the governorate of  Gabes has also received a Braille printer as a gift from Canada.