Writing about any topic is more fun if you passionately care about the matter at hand, and the joy spreads exponentially when everyone else wants to talk about it as well.
My articles "Connecting the Dots" and "More Than a Line" in the January and February issues of AccessWorld, respectively, clearly sparked evidence that there are people everywhere who want to talk about braille.
Many readers have shared with me their personal journeys toward and reliance upon braille, including a radio broadcaster in Ireland, a medical transcriber in Florida, and psychologists in California and Wisconsin. Longtime users of braille have discussed how vital braille has been in getting their advanced degrees and advancing in their careers, and many referenced the sheer joy of simply reading and writing with braille.
With regard to the projects highlighted in those earlier articles, response has been varied but fascinating. Many braille users are eagerly awaiting the release of the B2G, the project Deane Blazie, Mike Romeo, and others have been developing for the Center for Braille Innovation at National Braille Press. Other seasoned users of braille-related technology, however, expect that this multi-functional Android-based device will be just one more in a long line of "separate and somewhat equal" products designed specifically for people who are blind rather than being an adaptation of a mainstream product for universal inclusion.
A Sweet Memory
Susan Spungin, longtime leader in the blindness field, says the multi-line refreshable braille devices discussed in "More Than a Line" triggered a sweet and poignant memory.
Nearly 30 years ago, Spungin says, the Technical Department at AFB was engaged in exploring a full-page braille display. The engineer on the project, Doug Maure, was convinced that only a full-page display was acceptable. Susan Spungin, however, wondered at the time if perhaps four or five lines of braille might be what people who are blind would prefer instead.
"No blind people were asked," Spungin recalls, and the project was eventually abandoned. "I can't help but wonder if this [full page display] was the sighted world's concept of what blind people want." The "sweetness" of the memory comes, she said, not only from seeing that a four or five-line display might well be on the horizon but that, today, people who are blind will be at the table, playing a part in determining the kind of device needed.
Indeed, the evolution of technology has everything to do with the degree to which consumers are vocal about a product, but this is especially true for people who are blind who, before they began using technology, were all too often the last to know of any newsworthy development whether it pertained to disability or to the world at large. While there were a handful of publications in 1980 produced in braille and dedicated to issues of particular relevance to the blind, word of innovative projects reached a relative few and did so with an unavoidable delay. Today, online publications like AccessWorld deliver information instantly so that blind readers are often well ahead of their sighted peers in knowing what's going on.
An Interest in Participating in New Product Development
Many readers wrote to ask how they might become involved in testing and evaluating new products, which indicates not only high interest but the degree to which 30 years has changed the face of consumer input.
Thoughts on a Multi-Line Braille Display
So, what are people who are blind saying regarding the notion of a multi-line braille display? Opinions seem to be as varied as the individuals themselves. The display scheduled to be released as a demonstration model in the coming months by National Braille Press is wildly anticipated by those pursuing degrees or careers in science, technology, engineering, or math due to the promise of an array of braille dots to appear above the five lines of refreshable braille to display graphics. A few readers wrote to say that they are actually postponing the purchase of a braille display until a multi-line unit becomes available. Others, however, are far more concerned with the mere availability and accessibility of information in braille rather than in the method used to deliver that information.
National Library Service
Karen Keninger, the first director of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) to have been a lifelong patron before coming to the job, has made no secret of her own dream of one day distributing a refreshable braille display to all patrons. Since the 1930s, NLS has provided its patrons who are blind or low vision with equipment (phonograph record players, cassette tape players, and digital talking book machines) for playing the recorded books it produces and distributes (all without charge). Since 1999, thousands of patrons have relished the freedom of downloading braille and, more recently, recorded books from the NLS website. Today, those who download "talking books" from the Braille and Audio Reading Download (BARD) site can play them on the machine NLS provides. What Keninger suggests is a low-cost braille display that would work in the same way for downloaded braille titles, a delicious concept indeed!
Another, more imminent, development coming from NLS is a smart phone app (for both iOS and Android devices) that will enable patrons to download books directly to their mobile phones. Since the BARD site has, in the last year, finally incorporated the download of its Web Braille collection, developers have made sure that the app offers users of the Web Braille collection the opportunity to read those books on a refreshable braille display paired with a mobile device. In other words, while the braille-display-for-every-patron may still be in the dream stage, for those NLS patrons who already own mobile phones and paired refreshable braille displays, the opportunity to download and read braille books anywhere just gets better all the time. Perhaps even more relevant to this discussion, the fact that users are clamoring for this function is indicative of the power and importance of braille to those who use it.
Conclusion
Arguably, there has not been so much discussion (much of it heated) regarding Louis Braille's tactile reading system since nearly 100 years ago when the famous "war of the dots" finally pronounced braille as its victor. Not only were other systems (New York Point, Line Type, Moon Type, and American Braille, among them) found to be not quite as usable as braille, but all reasonable parties concurred that a single uniform system was the way to go. With the advent of refreshable braille in the 1980s, the world of information has expanded exponentially for those who are blind, low vision, or deaf-blind who read and write braille. Braille books and magazines are costly to produce and bulky to tote. An average textbook, for example, might range from 6 to 20 separate volumes in braille, each nearly the size of a sofa cushion as a blind poet once scoffed. With refreshable braille displays and notetakers, a reader of braille can carry scores or even hundreds of books in a single electronic device and can access the same limitless amount of information as sighted colleagues.
However, the braille landscape is more complicated than it has ever been. Far too many children are not learning to use braille, while the adults who have benefitted from genuine literacy through braille are vehemently advocating for more braille in the classroom. Projects like the DAISY Consortium's Transforming Braille, NBP's Center for Braille Innovation, and apps like the one to be released from the National Library Service clearly indicate that the need and desire for braille access is alive and well.
The Braille Authority of North America announced a significant decision in November 2012 that has stirred up considerable controversy in its own right. The Unified Braille Code will be the standard literary code for North American publication, and the Nemeth code (as revised in 1972) will continue to be used for science and mathematical texts. The controversy comes from some groups' and individuals' conviction that one code should be used for all braille production, regardless of content.
While the future of braille is inconclusive in some ways, there is plenty of buzz about it among the blind. Are there revolutionary breakthroughs just around the corner? We at AccessWorld are keenly interested and, knowing that you are too, will continue bringing you news of the above projects and more.
