Author: Matthew Horspool

We’ve had a great year for the Braillists in 2016, seen membership tip over 250, and lots of expressions of interests from a variety of new projects. Therefore Braillists groups will now have a much greater project focus rather than restricted to geographic location. For example, groups will come together to test the Canute for Bristol Braille Technology, support the development of other braille-related technologies that come along, develop innovative approaches for teaching braille, advocate for braille generally, etc. Groups will still be able to meet together if the members live near to one another, but they will also include members who participate remotely, using Skype for example.

The BBC have been developing a new miniature computer to teach children how to code. Its a little like a Raspberry Pi (not a pie, mind), but with its own small screen, cheaper and simpler to program.

The Braillists will be assisting the BBC to develop blind and VI accessible add-ons to the Micro:Bit and to run trials to test accessibility for blind users. Watch this space…

Ed Rogers visited Squirrel Devices in Boston, MA, who have designed amazing Braille callipers. They are using an innovative non-digital technology for rendering refreshable Braille numbers on the head of the callipers.

They sell in America for around $20, and they’re planning on bringing them to the UK and Ireland as well. They have sent the Braillists eight sample units, six of which we’ve already distributed to teachers of Braille to trial in educational settings.

They are keen to work with the Braillists; be that helping distribution or a series of brain storms to come up with alternative uses for their very exciting technology.

With SV London coming up, now’s the moment to start planning. Its not too late to book a stall, but we’ll need volunteers to man it. Alternatively we could do another Braille and Beer in the Elephant and Castle pub, like last year.

The Bristol group has been shortlisted for £500 worth of sponsorship from Skipton Building Society. If we win BBT has said they’ll match that with another £500 for other local groups.

Vote here!

The Braillists is undergoing a transformation to become more sustainable. We have established a voluntary steering committee and are heading toward registering Braillists as a Charitable Foundation this summer. Adopting a recognized legal structure will help the central Braillists organization to independently accept donations and apply for funding.

To support the work of the committee, establish a Braillists group in your area, change your newsletter subscription, give us a shout: email [email protected]; follow @Braillists on Twitter; join us on our discussion forum.

From our Beer and Braille events in 2015, we know a number of Braillists in London are interested in a local group. We just need a chair person to step up and volunteer to lead this effort. Does that sound like you?

If you think you could help get a London Braillists group up and running, email [email protected]

Ed Rogers and I were interviewed by the delightful Stuart Lawler for the NCBI Technology Podcast when we were in Ireland for the Dublin Braillists meeting in January. Stuart is a fantastic advocate for Braille and assistive technologies and the podcasts are beautifully produced and well worth a listen. To hear us talk about the Braillists group and Canute Braille ebook reader check out the February podcast.

As you may know, Braillists is still a very young organisation and we are developing fast. We are very keen to organise more Braillists meetings in the UK and potentially further afield and it would be very helpful to know where you are situated so that we can pin-point groups local to you. I’d very much appreciate it if you could answer the following two questions.

1. Where do you live? Nearest town or city, country, post-code or zip-code (the first part will do)
2. How far would be reasonable for you to travel to attend a regular Braillists meeting? around every 1-2 months. Please chose from:
   1. I can’t physically attend meetings but I may be able to participate through web video
   2. within my local area (neighbourhood, part of the city, etc) [upto 2 miles or 3 kilometers]
   3. within my nearest city or town [upto 10 miles or 15 kilometers]
   4. within my county or region [upto 25 miles or 40 kilometers]
   5. I am happy to travel further afield [over 25 miles or 40 kilometers]

We have yet more exciting plans for the new year and I shall keep you informed of our progress and intentions as we develop.