New Events System Test

Over the years blind people have benefitted from incredible enhancements in the fields of electronic Braille and accessibility in general. In fact, it’s now possible to purchase a fully accessible Amazon Fire tablet for under £50, which pared with an inexpensive Braille display such as an Orbit Reader and Amazons Kindle store which offers access to quite literally hundreds of thousands of digital books makes for an incredibly cost-effective Braille reading setup. But how does it work? Join us in this master class to find out.

In this master class we’ll be providing a general overview of the Fire tablet, the basics of setting it up, how to connect a Braille display and how to navigate the device using it. We’ll then purchase a book from the Kindle store and walk you through how to read it on your Braille display.

If you’ve registered for our second series of Masterclasses (from April onwards) you don’t need to register again. You will receive a separate email with joining information before the session starts.

Is the only reason you never judge a book by its cover because you can’t read the cover in the first place? With three rooms to suit different ability levels, the Book Club is a welcoming group who meet every week to answer each other’s questions regarding reading using refreshable braille and to practice reading amongst friends. You don’t have to choose your group in advance, and you can move to another group at any time if you think it would be more suitable.

We are currently reading Just William, by Richmal Crompton. It can be found:

• In ahrd copy in the UK from RNIB, in both grade 1 and grade 2
• In grade 1, in the “Children g1” folder on the RNIB Orbit Reader SD card from April 2020 or April 2021
• In grade 2, in the “Children Stories” folder on the RNIB Orbit Reader SD card from April 2020, or the “Children Stories 2” folder on the card from April 2021
• For download in the UK from RNIB Reading Services
• For download in the US from BARD, the Braille and Audio Reading Download facility of the National Library Service for the blind and print disabled (NLS)

This week’s starting places are as follows:

• Beginners: “William drew a deep breath at the end, and still sucking, arose with the throng and passed out.”
• Intermediate: Page 31
• Advanced: Chapter 5

Our popular braille-related drop-in session. No registration required – just turn up and ask your braille questions.

Is the only reason you never judge a book by its cover because you can’t read the cover in the first place? With three rooms to suit different ability levels, the Book Club is a welcoming group who meet every week to answer each other’s questions regarding reading using refreshable braille and to practice reading amongst friends. You don’t have to choose your group in advance, and you can move to another group at any time if you think it would be more suitable.

We are currently reading Just William, by Richmal Crompton. It can be found:

• In ahrd copy in the UK from RNIB, in both grade 1 and grade 2
• In grade 1, in the “Children g1” folder on the RNIB Orbit Reader SD card from April 2020 or April 2021
• In grade 2, in the “Children Stories” folder on the RNIB Orbit Reader SD card from April 2020, or the “Children Stories 2” folder on the card from April 2021
• For download in the UK from RNIB Reading Services
• For download in the US from BARD, the Braille and Audio Reading Download facility of the National Library Service for the blind and print disabled (NLS)

This week’s starting places are as follows:

• Beginners: Page 6
• Intermediate: TBC
• Advanced: Chapter 6

Friend of the Braillists Stuart Lawler, from Dublin, is pioneering a new initiative to support the learning of Braille Music, using the Clubhouse social network.

Each session will run for 45 minutes with time at the end for questions and general discussion. No prior knowledge of Braille Music is necessary, and the sessions are aimed at those with little or no knowledge of the Music code.

It’s the fifth Tuesday of the month on Tuesday, and we’re doing something a bit different:

We will be hosting a panel discussion with a number of braille education experts. We’ll explore the differences between teaching braille to children and adults, how braille education has changed, and the most impactful techniques for teaching braille.

The list of questions will be derived from a lively discussion currently taking place on our Forum. If you’re not on the Forum, but you’d like to submit a question, please email it to [email protected] by 9:00 AM on Monday.

To join the discussion on Tuesday, please use the same link as our Masterclasses. If you’ve registered for a Masterclass since April, you’ll receive a reminder email in the usual way.

Is the only reason you never judge a book by its cover because you can’t read the cover in the first place? With three rooms to suit different ability levels, the Book Club is a welcoming group who meet every week to answer each other’s questions regarding reading using refreshable braille and to practice reading amongst friends. You don’t have to choose your group in advance, and you can move to another group at any time if you think it would be more suitable.

We are currently reading Just William, by Richmal Crompton. It can be found:

• In ahrd copy in the UK from RNIB, in both grade 1 and grade 2
• In grade 1, in the “Children g1” folder on the RNIB Orbit Reader SD card from April 2020 or April 2021
• In grade 2, in the “Children Stories” folder on the RNIB Orbit Reader SD card from April 2020, or the “Children Stories 2” folder on the card from April 2021
• For download in the UK from RNIB Reading Services
• For download in the US from BARD, the Braille and Audio Reading Download facility of the National Library Service for the blind and print disabled (NLS)

This week’s starting places are as follows:

• Beginners: Page 8
• Intermediate: Page 38
• Advanced: Chapter 7

In our session on “Using Braille on Windows” back in January, we introduced you to the basics of making a braille display work with various screen readers. On Tuesday, we’ll be taking this to the next level in the first of an occasional series of Masterclasses looking at the braille settings of a particular screen reader.

This time it’s JAWS. There are lots of settings and we won’t be able to cover all of them in an hour, so instead we’ll be reviewing some of the most common questions we’re asked, finding the settings that relate to them, and explaining what they do.

We’ll be covering:

• Adding and selecting your braille display
• Choosing your braille code and grade
• Status cells and their use in structured mode
• Reversing panning buttons and panning by paragraph
• Using JAWS Braille In ™

If you’ve registered for our second series of Masterclasses (from April onwards), you don’t need to register again. You will receive a separate email with joining information before the session starts.

Is the only reason you never judge a book by its cover because you can’t read the cover in the first place? With three rooms to suit different ability levels, the Book Club is a welcoming group who meet every week to answer each other’s questions regarding reading using refreshable braille and to practice reading amongst friends. You don’t have to choose your group in advance, and you can move to another group at any time if you think it would be more suitable.

We are currently reading Just William, by Richmal Crompton. It can be found:

• In ahrd copy in the UK from RNIB, in both grade 1 and grade 2
• In grade 1, in the “Children g1” folder on the RNIB Orbit Reader SD card from April 2020 or April 2021
• In grade 2, in the “Children Stories” folder on the RNIB Orbit Reader SD card from April 2020, or the “Children Stories 2” folder on the card from April 2021
• For download in the UK from RNIB Reading Services
• For download in the US from BARD, the Braille and Audio Reading Download facility of the National Library Service for the blind and print disabled (NLS)

This week’s starting places are as follows:

• Beginners: Page 10
• Intermediate: TBC
• Advanced: Chapter 8

Our popular braille-related drop-in session. No registration required – just turn up and ask your braille questions.