Latest News
- Summer Holidays
As usual, we will be taking a few weeks off over the summer to allow our volunteers to recharge.
Our last event for this term will be the Braille Bar on Tuesday 28 July.
We will return on Tuesday 1 September with Braille For Beginners.
During August, we will be supporting ICEVI and the World Blind Union with their global braille survey. However, other operations will be limited during this time.
Thank you for your support of the Braillists and we look forward to your company again in September.
- Braille on the Mac, Tuesday at 7:30 PM
Over the years, we have extensively covered various aspects of using braille displays with iPhones and iPads. However, Apple doesn’t just make smartphones and tablets!
VoiceOver first came to the Apple Macintosh line of desktop and laptop computers in 2005, and it now boasts support for a wide array of braille displays, including many which are no longer supported on Windows.
In this session, we are delighted to be joined by Marco Zehe, an accessibility specialist who uses braille on the Mac on a day-to-day basis. Marco will explain and demonstrate:
- How to connect braille displays to the Mac
- Common braille display commands
- Braille settings
- How braille on the Mac compares with braille on iOS
We look forward to your company at this long overdue session!
Register for Braille on the Mac
To join by phone, please use these details:
Phone number: 0131 460 1196
Meeting ID: 831 9298 3996
Passcode: 123456
- From Jonathan Mosen: With Gratitude and Appreciation, Remembering Access Technology Great Jonathan Sharp
I think most of us like to hope that when our time is up, in some small way, we will have left this world having made it a better place. Jonathan Sharp, who died last Sunday at the age of 67 after a lengthy illness, was an exceptionally quiet, humble man. Yet he vastly improved the lives of blind people worldwide, even though most of them may not know his name.
This brilliant new Zealander was unquestionably one of the giants of the blindness technology pioneers, and arguably the most unassuming of all of them. Those of us who know our blindness technology history refer to Jonathan as “the father of KeySoft”, the software package that has powered many products released by Wormald International Sensory Aids, Pulse Data International, and now HumanWare. There is no other person who could possibly claim that title.
Jonathan was hired in the 1980s by the brilliant access technology entrepreneur Russell Smith. His first project was to take an off-the-shelf Epson HX-20, and develop something revolutionary – a portable talking computer that a blind person could use. When I say portable, by the time Wormald International Sensory Aids had done all the necessary modifications, it weighed about six pounds. But the independence it facilitated was so profound that I don’t remember anyone complaining about the weight. If a blind person was fortunate enough to own one of these devices, gone were the days when a blind person had to Braille their work, then type it for a sighted teacher or colleague, without being able to verify what they had typed, or even if the ribbon had run out. Instead, blind people would be able to write, format, edit and then print or emboss their own documents.
It is important to put this development into historical context, because it makes it all the more remarkable. Jonathan developed this tool in an era when most households didn’t own a computer, and laptops for business users were practically unheard of. Thanks to him, blind people were using an effective portable solution well ahead of such products being available generally.
Clearly there were technical issues to resolve, and I don’t downplay the significance of those. But where Jonathan was exceptional, where his genius really showed, was in his ability to create elegant user experiences. Jonathan, who was not blind, did it by doing a lot of listening, and then asking more thoughtful, probing questions. He never assumed that he knew what was best for blind people. Perhaps nudged along regularly by one of Russell’s favorite questions, “how hard can it be”, he turned blind people’s dreams into a tangible product we could use.
In 1986, every character of code was precious, because space was so limited. Yet Jonathan set out to create a device that anyone could use. You didn’t have to be technically inclined to use a Keynote.
There were three secret ingredients to Jonathan’s recipe.
First, an intuitive menu-driven system. Arrow through your selections, or use first letter navigation, plus plenty of shortcuts for those who prioritized efficiency.
Second, consistency. Long before graphical user interfaces were commonplace, Jonathan had worked out that if you want a user interface to be intuitive, you had to make sure that whenever possible, things worked the same way across applications.
Third, and most important, remarkably comprehensive context-sensitive help. The detail in that help was truly extraordinary. It meant that someone who might in the past have been frightened of computers could learn at their own place and pace, and would soon be writing beautifully-formatted documents.
I suppose that after having rescued a few teachers from the vagaries of our Apple IIE installation which included a VersaBraille, it was decided that I might be a good test case to use a Keynote for my schooling to see what happened. This I duly did starting in 1986. It may not surprise many people to know that I had a few opinions about how the software might be improved, and it was these opinions that were held with the forthrightness and certainty common to many teenagers that connected me with Jonathan Sharp.
I was in awe of Jonathan. He would have been in his mid-20s when I got to know him, and to my teenage self, he was like this magician who made incredible things happen. I cringe a little now when I think of the time I would spend making a long distance call to him, me in Auckland, he in Christchurch, and how much of his time I would occupy. He was incredibly patient and polite, treating me with courtesy even though I’m sure some of my ideas were completely uninformed and ridiculous.
I do have a favorite Jonathan story from this era. One day at school, I made a discovery that very much appealed to my teenage self, and couldn’t wait to get home so I could call Jonathan to show it to him. The original Keynote contained a row of function keys, one of which was the keyboard voice button. If you pressed it, the voice, which was based on the Artic Technologies 263 chip back then, would say, “keyboard voice, currently…” and then whatever the voice was set to. At this point, you had three choices. If you pressed the letter f, you would turn the keyboard echo completely off. If you pressed W, you would set it to word echo. And if you pressed S, you would set it to spell, which echoed every character. So I called Jonathan, with my Keynote keyboard voice set to spell, and I breathlessly said, “hey Jonathan! Listen to this! This is so cool!” And I pressed the keyboard voice button which confirmed that it was set to spell, so it was echoing every character. Then I pressed the key to turn keyboard echo off, F. And the keynote said, “F, off”. Well, Jonathan must have been utterly mortified, because when I got home from school the next day, a floppy disk was waiting for me in the mail, and after I installed the software update it contained, it wouldn’t say “F, off” anymore. Jonathan had obviously put the phone down and taken care of it right away.
Even in the early days of Keynote, it was possible to install third-party utilities, although there was no publicly available software development kit. Jonathan wrote a little app for the Keynote called KeyTerm which changed my life. He explained to me what a modem was, and what I could do if I bought one. I had to try. So, I bought a modem, fired up KeyTerm, and never looked back. I used it to connect at considerable expense to the CompuServe information Service, and that is how I discovered the National Federation of the Blind, which transformed my life even from half a world away.
Eventually, the rest of the world caught up with what blind people were already doing, and laptops became more common. Jonathan ported KeySoft to DOS, allowing it to run on a Toshiba laptop, and exit to DOS where you could run any application you liked.
Many people are not aware of Jonathan’s remarkable contribution to the screen reader industry. Pulse Data International developed a screen reader for DOS computers called MasterTouch. It worked particularly well with the Keynote Gold speech synthesizer, which, while perhaps an acquired taste like a lot of text-to-speech of that era, had accurate pronunciation, was highly responsive, and intelligible at fast speeds. If you remember the DOS screen reader era, you may recall that there were two common methods of writing text to the screen. If text was written through the computer’s BIOS, screen readers had no difficulty speaking text automatically. However, increasingly, developers wrote software using direct screen writes. While faster, text written this way could not be spoken automatically by most DOS screen readers and required some sort of review technique. Jonathan was able to find a way around that. MasterTouch was one of only a small number of screen readers that automatically spoke direct screen written text.
Another innovative element of MasterTouch was its optional touch tablet, long before the era of touch screens we take for granted today. Because screens in those days were a predictable 25 lines by 80 characters, Pulse Data developed a device that let you run your fingers across the virtual screen, and hear the characters under your fingers. It played a critical role in giving those of us who were users spatial awareness of the way the screen was laid out.
All this in the early 1990s. If you used a software application often enough, you could get very efficient working this way, because you could place your finger where you knew relevant text would appear. It was well ahead of its time. Touch the screen to find out what was there. Typical of Jonathan’s work, it contained robust context-sensitive help, so people could learn the system.
Jonathan continued to quietly change the world. He played a pivotal role in creating the underlying architecture and expanding software feature set of BrailleNote, the first version of which was released in 2000, powered by Windows CE. With that strong KeySoft inheritance at its core, it was utterly disruptive, becoming the dominant player in that market segment in a remarkably short time.
Jonathan was instrumental in changing the way blind people travel, working with Mike May and Charles LaPierre of the Sendero Group to bring truly portable GPS-based navigation to the blind. With care and thought, he brought an external package into the BrailleNote family in a way that preserved the user interface elements that were so critical to the BrailleNote’s success. We take it for granted now, but it is hard to overstate the sense of awe many of us felt at being able to ride a bus or taxi, or walk an unfamiliar street, and be told all the businesses we were passing and the names of the streets we were approaching.
When Pulse Data started sounding me out in 2003 about managing their blindness products, working with Jonathan, someone I viewed as a hero and a mentor, was a massive drawcard. In the three years that I worked closely with Jonathan, he taught me so much. I was the product manager, and I had opinions. Sometimes, Jonathan would enthusiastically work with me to realize what customers were telling me was needed. At other times, he would challenge me to think differently about the need for a feature, or the way I wanted it to work. When he did so, he almost always had the better idea, and when Jonathan spoke, I knew it was right to always listen. But he also knew that as one of KeySoft’s original users, I got the paradigm he had created. We made remarkable progress during that time. We worked with Baum’s hardware to produce the cute and powerful BrailleNote PK, added a raft of new features to KeySoft, and of course the crowning glory, BrailleNote mPower, which no one knew about until the day it was ready to ship.
Jonathan continued to make a difference for many years, and his clarity of thought around user interface for blind people has impacted products well beyond those he developed directly.
I kept in touch with Jonathan from time to time and we would reminisce about the old days. He would kindly reach out every so often, just to check in.
The Blind community has lost one of the greatest technologists that has ever worked with us. The world has lost a gentle, humble, good soul. But I know that Jonathan would want me to mention those he loved. Let us extend our love and condolences to Heloise, Julia and Peter, Nick and Grace, Joseph, Susanna, Lois, and David.
Last year, I was contacted by a teacher in New Zealand named Ruth, who asked if I would speak virtually to her class. It turns out she is Jonathan’s niece. It wasn’t until she read my tribute on the 20th anniversary of Russell Smith’s death that she gained a greater understanding of what a significant figure in blindness technology Jonathan is. I can well imagine that. He never tooted his own horn.
It will not be a comfort now as the family grieves, but I hope in time, they will take great pride in the fact that Jonathan changed the world for the better. Many blind people pursued an education more successfully, or held down a job, or realized with delight that they could use a computer after all, specifically because of Jonathan Sharp. I am sorry beyond words that he has gone, but that is one amazing legacy to leave.
Thank you for everything, Jonathan. I will miss you very much, but it was an honor to know you.
- Focus 40 Blue 6th Generation Now Available from Sight and Sound Technology
Sight and Sound Technology are pleased to be offering the new Focus 40 Blue 6th Generation from Vispero.
- From Orbit Research: Special Offers from Orbit for the ACB and NFB Conventions!
We are excited to announce special offers for the ACB and NFB Conventions 2026. These will be available from July 3rd through July 31, 2026. The offers are available to customers in the US while supplies last! To place orders, please call us at 888-606-7248 or visit our website https://www.orbitresearch.com/special-offers/. You can also email us at [email protected].
Orbit Magna Digital Magnifiers – Get a 10% discount across the entire family!
- Orbit Magna 3: $135
- Orbit Magna 4: $179
- Orbit Magna 5: $225
Bundles with Padded Carrying cases – get a free padded carrying case with your product!
- Orbit Reader Q20: $1099
- Orbit Reader Q40: $1999
- Orbit Slate 340: $4295
- Orbit Slate 520: $3695
- Orbit Writer: $149
- Orbit Reader 20: $799
- Orbit Reader 20 Plus: $899
- Orbit Reader 40: $1899
Bundles with Turtleback Leather Luxury cases!
- Orbit Speak Plus: $799
- Orbit Speak: $649
- Orbit Slate 340: $4199
- Orbit Slate 520: $3599
- Orbit Writer: $209
- Orbit Reader 20: $859
- Orbit Reader 20 Plus: $949
- Orbit Reader 40: $1949
Premium Bundles: Include an extended warranty for an additional year and Turtleback leather luxury carrying case!
- Orbit Speak Plus: $899
- Orbit Speak: $699
- Orbit Reader Q20: $1199
- Orbit Reader Q40: $2199
- Orbit Slate 340: $4699
- Orbit Slate 520: $3999
- Orbit Writer: $229
- Orbit Reader 20: $999
- Orbit Reader 20 Plus: $1099
- Orbit Reader 40: $2199
Visit us at booth A12 at the NFB convention for product demos during the following times:
- Saturday, July 4: 09:00 AM to 5:00 PM
- Sunday July 5: 09:00 AM to 5:00 PM
- Monday July 6: Noon to 1:45 PM and 05:00 PM to 9:00 PM
And at booth 7 at the ACB convention during the following times:
- Sunday, July 26: 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
- Monday, July 27: 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM
- Tuesday, July 28: 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Wednesday, July 29: 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM
- From Orbit Research: For Customers in the US: Limited Subsidies Still Available for Orbit Reader and Orbit Player
A quick reminder that the special subsidy program through VOSAP is still available.
If you have been considering an Orbit Reader or Orbit Player, this is an opportunity you do not want to miss. Through the program, these devices are available at exceptionally low prices:
- Orbit Reader 20: Regularly $799, now just $499
- Orbit Reader 20 Plus: Regularly $899, now just $599
- Orbit Player: Regularly $299, now just $199
These special prices are made possible through our partnership with Voice of Specially Abled People (VoSAP), whose support is helping make braille and accessible reading technology available to more people.
Only a limited number of subsidies are available, so we encourage you to apply as soon as possible.
Apply now: https://www.voiceofsap.org/applydevices/?country=US Please share this message with anyone who may benefit from this opportunity.
- Blazie Technologies Announces Legacy Trade-In Program for Blazie Engineering Products
Blazie Technologies is pleased to announce its new Legacy Trade-In Program, giving customers the opportunity to receive $200 off the purchase of a new Blazie Technologies product when they trade in an eligible Blazie Engineering product.
For years, Blazie Engineering products have earned a reputation for accessibility, reliability, and durability. Many of those devices remain in use today, reflecting the lasting quality of the products. We know these products are important to our customers, and they are important to us as well. The Legacy Trade-In Program recognizes that shared history by honoring the lasting value of Blazie Engineering products and the customers who have relied on them for years.
“Our customers have always been at the heart of everything we do,” said Bryan Blazie, Chief Executive Officer of Blazie Technologies. “Many people are still using products originally purchased from Blazie Engineering, and we want them to know that those products still hold value. This program is our way of thanking our longtime customers and recognizing the investment they’ve made in our products.”
Through the Legacy Trade-In Program, customers will receive $200 off the purchase of one Blazie Technologies product when they trade in one eligible Blazie Engineering product. Trade-in products do not need to be operational to qualify. Only one qualifying trade-in may be applied per eligible product purchase, and there is no expiration date for the program.
Eligible trade-in products include: Braille ‘n Speak Classic, Braille ‘n Speak 640, and Braille ‘n Speak 2000; Type ‘n Speak; Type Lite; all Braille Lite models, including Braille Lite 18 and Braille Lite 40; and Braille Blazer embosser. Accessories, including carrying cases, cables, cassette tape interfaces, disk drive accessories, and standalone disk drives, are not eligible for the program. The Braille ‘n Speak Scholar from APH is also not eligible for the Legacy Trade-In Program.
The products may have changed, but our commitment to our customers has not. From our Blazie family to yours, we look forward to reconnecting with you.
For additional information about the Legacy Trade-In Program or to confirm product eligibility, contact Blazie Technologies at (772) 214-1616 or fill out our Legacy form.
- From Selvas: Important Announcement About USB Braille Driver for Windows
We would like to share with you an important issue regarding our USB Braille display driver with Windows. As of the most recent Windows update, our legacy USB drivers have been disabled due to outdated security certificates. We are currently addressing this problem with Microsoft and hope to have a fix soon. This affects our BrailleSense 6 line, the QBraille, and other older Braille displays over USB. These devices can still be used over Bluetooth, and the eMotion and the new BrailleSense 7 are not affected at all, as they do not use these drivers. We recognize the serious and widespread nature of this problem, and we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this is causing our users. We will update you with a fix as soon as possible.
- From Selvas: Release of New Apps for BrailleSense
SELVAS is thrilled to announce the availability of 3 new apps for the BrailleSense 6 and 6 mini, all of which can be downloaded via the optional Add-Ons menu.
1. New web TV App
- Installs to the Media menu below web Radio.
- Contains the same exact interface as the Web Radio, but for freely available online TV stations.
- Uses an Open Source database that is actively maintained. Thus, be sure to update the database often, and to know that, if stations stop working, they may well return in a few days.
2. New Play store search add-on
- Installs to the Android Apps menu below the Play Store.
- This program creates a BrailleSense-type interface for searching applications on the Play Store. However, as with Video search and YouTube, the Play store page is opened for installation.
- When you open the program, you are offered options for searching by keyword or category. Keyword asks you to type a search term, while category offers a list of categories. As with other search programs, Tab to reach more specific information, and Shift-Tab to return to more general designations.
- When in a list of results, press Enter-I to get information about the application.
- Press Enter on the focused application to open its page in the Play store to install it. Remember that you can use first letter navigation here, and pressing the letter I a time or two should get you to the Install button. Aside from direct installation, you shouldn’t need to interact directly with the Play store interface.
3. Words With HIMS Add-On
- This is a general word game of words of different lengths and clues. Installs to the Extras Menu.
- Be sure to use Tab and Shift-Tab to discover all the current controls and information.
- In addition to the included words and clues, you can also add your own, and set several options for play.
The Web browser V2 add-on has also been updated to fix several reported issues. Other add-ons have been updated to reflect refinements in Braille translation, but do not contain additional features and functions.
- From Blazie Technologies: The July Release for BT Speak is Now Ready!!!
This update includes a new literary Braille Input feature for the Desktop, adds chapter navigation to the Podcasts app, brings a milestone update to BT Code, introduces new features to BT Towne and brings additions, refinements, and reliability improvements across existing feature areas. Particularly AI Tools, file management, Bluetooth and headset controls, and BT Braille behavior.
The Braillists is a grass-roots community group offering high quality training and support to emerging and established braille users. We also work with family members, friends, colleagues and teachers of braille users, and connect braille users with braille technology developers and funders.
Everyone at the Braillists would sincerely like to thank our sponsors and partners.
What Is Braille?
Braille is a simple code for representing written language. We believe braille has the potential to transform the life of any blind person who has the opportunity to learn it.
Discover more about braille on this page.
Learn Braille
We support hundreds of adults to read braille by touch in a few short weeks through our innovative and approachable Braille for Beginners course. Free of charge, it comprises hard copy resources through the post and a series of short pre-recorded lessons, supplemented by email and Zoom support from highly qualified and experienced tutors.
Find out more about Braille for Beginners and register here.
There are plenty of other courses available too, for both children and adults, reading by touch or by sight. We have made a list of these on our Learn Braille page.
Perkins Repairs and Other Braille Equipment
The Perkins Brailler is the most established braille writer in use today, and even machines from the 1950s can still be serviced and repaired. We have compiled information about Perkins repairs, places to purchase Perkins Braillers, and other types of braille equipment on our Braille Equipment page.
If you are looking for braille paper, you can find it on our Braille Consumables page.
Our Aims
- Promote the value of braille as a proven literacy tool that enriches the lives of blind people.
- Support efforts to make affordable braille and tactile reading technologies available to all blind people irrespective of education and employment status.
- Provide an open forum for the exchange of ideas about the development of future braille technology.
Find Out More
Join our announcements only mailing list to receive our weekly newsletter.
Join the conversation and meet other Braillists on our discussion forum.
Connect with us on Twitter (@Braillists) or like us on Facebook for up to the minute Braillists news.
Listen to some braille-related audio on Soundcloud (braillists).
Please see our Sponsors and Partners for information on organisations who are supporting us.
Get In Touch
Email [email protected] or call 020 3893 3392. Further details on our Contact Us page.