Braille and Other Tactile Reading/Printing Systems

Contents

1) Reading Codes for the Blind

1A) Braille Basics

1B) General Braille-Related Resources

1C) Sources of Braille Materials

1D) Other (Non-Braille) Tactile Reading Systems & Codes

2) Braille Producing Products

3) Braille Applications

Reading Codes for the Blind

Braille Basics

• Text-Only Definition of Braille (highly recommended)
  1. Text only version of the Braille Alphabet & Numbers
  2. One-Cell Whole Word and One-Cell Word-Part Signs (text-only)
  3. Two-Cell Braille Contractions (text only)
• graphical version of BANA Definition of Braille
• The Computerized Braille Tutor
• The Computerized Nemeth Braille Tutor

General Braille-Related Resources

• About Braille: Codes, Formats, Computers, and Braille ASCII
• materials from the AFB's National Braille Literacy Center:
  1. Free Items from The National Braille Literacy Center
  2. DOTS for Braille Literacy, a free newsletter about all facets of braille
     1. DOTS for Braille Literacy Archive
  3. Bridging the Gap: Best Practices for Instructing Adults Who Are Visually Impaired and Have Low Literacy Skills
  4. Strategies & Resources for Teaching Braille to Adults
  5. ABLE-G: Adult Braille Literacy Empowerment Guidelines
  6. Braille Resources for Parents
  7. Sources of Braille Children's Books & Magazines
  8. Braille Bug: A Resource for Kids
• The Braille Literacy Page
• Braille Music Page
• Braille Through Remote Learning
• Tack-tiles an innovative way to learn braille
• What is Braille? (National Library for the Blind, UK)
• How to Produce Braille (RNIB Information Sheet)
  1. RNIB Technology Information Sheets (main index)
• Interactive Finger-Spelling and Braille Guide (University of Minnesota)
  1. General Braille Information
  2. Interactive Braille guide

Braille Authorities & Consortia

• International Braille Research Center (IBRC)
  1. International Braille Research Center's Resource Library
• BANA: The Braille Authority of North America
• Canadian Braille Authority
• National Braille Association (U.S.)

The Future of Braille & Tactile Reading Systems

• SAP: Science Access Project (Oregon State University)
  1. SAP's Index of Braille Topics
  2. DotsPlus: an extension of standard braille
• International Council on English Braille
  1. International Council on English Braille's Unified English Braille Code (UEBC) Project
• Unified Braille Code (8-dot system) - graphical representation of tactile system
• The Future of Braille Access to Math and Scientific Notation,

The History of Braille & Reading Codes for the Blind

• A History of Publishing for People Who Are Blind
• History of Reading Codes for the Blind (NYISE)
• Louis Braille and the Braille System
• SGML: What and Why for Braille

Sources of Braille Materials

• The Braille Bookstore
• Braille Books Dot Com: The Braille Superstore can also be reached via phone at: 1 800 987 1231 (1 800 987 DOTS)
• International Electronic Braille Book Library (International Braille Research Center)
  1. International Braille Research Center's Braille Sources & Resource Library
• Louis Database of Accessible Materials (APH)
• National Braille Press
• Search the NLB's catalog (materials available to eligible and registered U.K. users only)
• Sources of Braille Reading Materials (from NLS)
  1. Braille Book Review (BBR) - Indicies of Books Available in Braille from NLS
  2. NLS's Catalogs of Braille & Talking Books
  3. Search the NLS's Catalog for Braille materials
  4. Braille Music Services from NLS
  5. Musical Mainstream (for registered Web-Braille users)
     1. NLS Web-Braille Fact Sheet
  6. Sources of Custom Produced Books (NLS)
• Seedlings: Braille Books for Children

Other (Non-Braille) Tactile Reading Systems & Codes

Moon Type

• The Moon System of Embossed Reading
  1. Brighton Society for the Blind's extensive William Moon site
• Diane Fazackerly's William Moon Site
  1. Moon Code: Today & Tomorrow
  2. William Moon: The Man (biographical portrait)
• The Moon Alphabet (from Omniglot) - includes graphical examples of tactile materials
• What is Moon? (National Library for the Blind, UK)
• Wikipedia's entry on Moon Type

Braille Producing Products
and Professional Braille-Related Services

• VisionCue (includes the companies formerly known as ALVA Access & Berkeley Access)
• Blazie Engineering, the manufacturer of the legendary Braille 'n Speak, is now a division of Freedom Scientific, which produces the following Braille-related products:
  1. Braille Notetakers from Freedom Scientific
     1. Freedom Scientific's PAC Mate line of products
  2. Braille Displays from Freedom Scientific
  3. Braille Embossers from Freedom Scientific
• Braille Displays, an American company which is developing multi-line refreshable Braille displays
  1. Why a Multiple-Line Display?
• Braillenovelts: a source for braille t-shirts and other braille and blindness-related novelties
• BRL Inc.: Products for Blind and Disabled Computer Users
• Dancing Dots: manufacturere of the GOODFEEL braille music translator
• Duxbury Systems
• Enabling Technologies, Inc., the leading manufacturer of braille embossers, maintains an interesting, extremely well-designed, and ever-expanding web site, at which you can browse--amongst other interesting items--the Enabling Technologies 1996 Catalog
• Index Braille Printer Company (Sweeden)
• Manufacturers of Braille Hardware
• Raised Dot Computing, manufacturers of MegaDots, maintains an extremely well-designed and informative web site
• Repro-Tronics: manufacture the Tactile Image Enhancer
• Sighted Electronics: Braille embossers, displays, notetakers, & software
• Tack-tiles an innovative way to learn braille
• Telesensory Blindness Products Division

Braille Transcribers & Transcription Services

• Lutheran Braille Workers, Inc.
• National Braille Press
  1. Braille Transcription and Pressing Services
• Braille Services from Access 20/20
• QuikScrybe: braille translation service
• Liz Gray, a professional braille transcriber, maintains a web site which contains an excellent collection of braille related resources
• while neither blindness-specific nor braille-oriented, Elizabeth Hamilton's Resources for People with Print Disabilities is nevertheless an excellent jumping-off point for the exploration of non-print media

Braille-Related Applications

NFBTR: The NFB Translator

The NFB Translator, NFBTRANS 7.74 (nfbtr774.zip - 459kb), is a high quality Grade 2 braille translation program. NFBTR performs both back- and forwards-translation. While it currently does not support braille graphics and cannot translate WordPerfect files unless they are first converted in to ASCII, this is the most sophisticated braille translation program available. NFBTR works in both the DOS and Unix/Linux environments, or in a "Command Prompt" window when using Microsoft Windows.

NFBTR supports a wide array of languages through its Foreign Language Tables, tables2.zip (17k). Please consult Read 'Em and Speak's index of Essential Utilities for a complete and annotated list of NFBTR's foreign language tables.

The most recent release of NFBTR can always be found at http://www.nfb.org/nfbtrans.htm The filename will always be: nfbtrxxx.zip, where xxx is the release number.

Other Braille-Producing Applications

• Braille Aid from Webel Mediatronics, developers of a text-to-braille transcription system featuring text-to-braille software in 12 regional Indian languages, a braille keyboard, an automatic braille embosser, and a tactile reader, as well as braille-to-text software in English, Hindi, Bengali, Oriya, and Assamese, with development of similar software in other languages in process.
• The Computerized Braille Tutor
• The Computerized Nemeth Braille Tutor
• Braille Software for MacOS X
  1. TurboBraille for MacOS X
• Dot to Dot (simple free braille editor for the Macintosh)
  1. download Dot to Dot (simple free braille editor for the Macintosh, 312kb)
• Sensus ApS: Computerised Tools for the Blind is a program of Denmark's University of Roskilde
  1. AITIIB: Applying Information Technology as an Intelligent Interface for the Blind
  2. 6- and 8-dot Character Set for Windows and DOS
     1. Sensus Braille User Documentation (in Danish)
     2. Sensus Braille Overview Document (in English)

comments? corrections? criticism?
email Gregory J. Rosmaita

return to Read 'Em and Speak's Front Page

created October 13, 1996
last updated March 18, 2006