Braillecast

You don’t have to have been in the blindness community very long to have come across HumanWare and their two flagship brands: Victor Reader and BrailleNote. Indeed, on the second episode of this podcast, we talked extensively about the BrailleNote Touch, which has since been succeeded by the BrailleNote Touch Plus. BrailleNote is not the ... Read more

Based in Houston, Texas, Dr Robert Englebretson is widely recognised for his contribution to braille research. In 2008, his work on updating the Braille International Phonetic Alphabet was published by the International Council on English Braille, and in 2019 the Braille Authority of North America made him a recipient of the Darleen Bogart Braille Excellence ... Read more

If you’ve been following Braillists Foundation events recently, you’ll be aware that we’ve been hosting a number of sessions thanks to a grant from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust. But why is the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust interested in the Braillists Foundation? In September 2017, Ed Rogers, Managing Director of Bristol Braille Technology CIC and ... Read more

Judy Dixon is something of a braille icon. She is Consumer Relations Officer at the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, part of the Library of Congress in the United States; President of the International Council on English Braille; and has written a myriad of books for National Braille Press relating to ... Read more

On 4 January, people across the world celebrated World Braille Day. This day, which marks the birthday of Louis Braille, is an important one for blind people and those connected to the blind community, so the Braillists Foundation couldn’t let it pass without recognising it and the significance of braille. The Foundation hosted a panel ... Read more

Happy new year, and happy World Braille Day! Today (4 January 2021) is the 212th birthday of Louis Braille, inventor of the code that revolutionised literacy for blind people all over the world. In spite of intense opposition in Louis Braille’s lifetime, the code has been adapted for use in dozens of languages and disciplines ... Read more

Index Braille is synonymous the world over with braille embossers. Founded by Bjorn Lofstedt and Torvald Lundqvist as Polar Print Production in Sweden in 1979, its first incarnation was as a university project to develop a braille typewriter with copy function. The company took shape in 1982 and, by 1984, a small batch of Index ... Read more

Christmas is coming; the goose is getting fat; and some of Santa’s most trusted helpers have been sent, on secondment, to the Royal National Institute of Blind People, where they’re busy writing letters to visually impaired children in accessible formats. Co-ordinating this effort on behalf of RNIB is Racheal Jarvis, News Agent Team Leader, and ... Read more

Based in Boston Massachusetts since 1927, National Braille Press is a global leader in producing high quality, affordable braille materials and developing innovative technologies advancing braille literacy for blind and visually impaired children and adults everywhere. In addition to its first class braille transcription facility, producing everything from standardised tests to restaurant menus, N...

The Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children (RIDBC) is Australia’s largest non-government provider of services supporting thousands of adults, children and their families with hearing loss or vision impairment. Established by an Act of Parliament in Australia in 1860, it now operates via a number of Centres, promoting the rights of all persons with ... Read more

James Bowden is the Braille Technical Officer at RNIB, whose hard copy braille library is currently out of action due to COVID-19. We asked him what alternatives might be available. RNIB Services RNIB Reading Services RNIB Newsagent RNIB Online Shop Libraries Project Gutenberg The National Accessible Library from Seeing Ear Software Send to Braille Robobraille ... Read more

For many in the blind community, Dean Martineau will be a household name. Prolific in the technology sphere, he’s perhaps best known for his Top Tech Tidbits newsletter, which has been published every Thursday for over ten years. In the past, he was also the voice behind the Sound Computing audio magazine, and delivered bespoke ... Read more

This episode features the last of the content that we recorded at the recent Sight Village South East exhibition. Namely, a seminar from the Braillists Foundation entitled “Making the Case for Braille in the 21st Century”, the notes from which are included below. We also present a comprehensive demonstration of the Braille Screen Input feature ... Read more

This episode features a couple of interviews that we recorded at the recent Sight Village South East exhibition. We also hear one person’s perspective on the ElBraille. Jenny Axler, Technical Support Manager at Hims and Stuart Lawler, Manager of Sight & Sound Ireland, join us to discuss the BrailleSense Polaris and Polaris Mini, QBraille XL, ... Read more

4 January is Louis Braille’s birthday (he would have been 211 this year if he was still alive). It’s no coincidence, then, that, since 2019, the United Nations has formally celebrated this date as “World Braille Day”, an international day of observance “… to raise awareness of the importance of Braille as a means of ... Read more

We hear from Kristina Salceanu, founder of Advent Of Change about their braille advent calendar. It’s available for £29.95 online via both Advent of Change and John Lewis and it’s also available at John Lewis’s Oxford Street store.

We’re back! And we start our new series with an overview of the braille landscape, including: Royal Blind’s resources for National Braille Week (7 to 13 October 2019) The seventh General Assembly of the International Council on English Braille, 11 to 15 May 2020 at the Google Academy in central London, in particular the call ... Read more

In this episode, we talk with Holly Scott-Gardner about studying Spanish, living abroad and the impact of braille on these pursuits. we also discuss: RNIB released the Orbit Reader 20 in the UK (product code HT358) on 8 August for £449, or £399 for Connect members. AFB Accessworld Review of the Brailliant BI-14: HumanWare’s Latest ... Read more

Where do new Braille signs come from? Who decides? Do we need a new Braille file format? We hear from James Bowden, a highly regarded Braille Specialist with RNIB. James is a member of the UK Association for Accessible Formats (UKAAF) and represents the UK on the International Council on English Braille (ICEB), which met ... Read more

California State University of Northridge held their 33rd International Conference on Technology and Disability in San Diego this March. Braillecast made a whistle stop tour of the exhibit hall to discover what new braille and tactile reading products could be making waves in 2018. We’ll hear about the tactile graphics Display that enabled blind students ... Read more

In this episode we hear from Scott Davert from the US. Scott is a braille advocate and deafblind specialist and sits on the Disability Advisory Committee of the Federal Communications Commission. As well as this, he actively promotes braille in the Applevis community, and has recently written a series of braille display reviews which have ... Read more

Paul Sullivan of the Bristol Braillists speaks with Alan Thorpe from EYECAN about manual braille writing equipment. Alan shares tips on caring for your Perkins Brailler and how the design has endured for over half a century. We also discover other historic Braille Writing machines including Pike Glouser, a British machine from the first half ... Read more

In this episode, we have a detailed chat about the Orbit Reader 20, the long-awaited and eagerly-anticipated low-cost Braille electronic reading device. In Braille News: a variety of discounts and pricing information due to site village: Sight and Sound Technology have announced discounted pricing for VFO products for the duration of the exhibition season. Humanware ... Read more

Dave Williams and guests catch up with all the latest news from last month’s UKAAF AGM, explore issues facing blind students needing Braille in higher education, and we debate the value of the survey from the International Council on English Braille. In Braille News

This is Episode2 of Braillecast. Thank you for listening! Our host Dave Williams discusses the BrailleNote Touch, interviewing several teaching assistants at schools in the UK where the Touch is used. He talks to Greg Stilson from Humanware about the product. In Braille News As of the Windows 10 Creators Update, Braille support is now ... Read more