News

We recently created a multisensory device that aims to teach children the braille alphabet by using buttons with vibrations and sounds called the braille pop-it. Now, we aim to further develop this device together with children (5 years or older) with multiple sensory impairments. Please note: No braille experience is necessary to take part! This research has received ethics approval by the ethics committee of the University of Lincoln (ref: 12410). We would like to see how your child interacts with the device and what they think about the sensory games. Your child will be given the device to play with and ask questions about what they think. As your child interacts with the device, we will record your child’s hands (no faces), and we will ask your child questions about what they think about the device and the game. The device will play short audio-haptic vibrations via buttons, e.g. in the form of several minigames, such as whack a mole. To play, the child will press the corresponding buttons of the perceived haptic vibrations. This device has also been tested on visually impaired and blind children. Our aim is to create accessible sensory technologies and games for children with multiple sensory impairments.

The current project is funded by UKRI, 4Neurodevelopment (code: 0008187-1052) University of Lincoln).

Your child will be given a small goodie bag containing sensory fidget toys. The goodie bag contains sensory toys only. Goodie bags are also given to individuals who are not able to finish the experiment.

Please click on this link and complete the consent form if you are interested that your child will participate.

The European Blind Union is part of a group working on an international standard for tactile lettering in the built environment. This standard will hopefully improve the quality and consistency of braille and tactile signage.

There is currently an opportunity for you to provide feedback on the standard. Please see this article for more information.

Victorian Britain was a heavily visual era. Sighted people gained access to the Penny Post, and the ability to communicate with friends across the nation with relative ease in an alphabet which was already well-established. On the other hand, for the blind community, many different tactile alphabets were invented simultaneously to address their exclusion from this culture, and blind education was completely decentralised.

Tilly Guthrie is a PhD researcher in the history of tactile literacy, specialising in the period between the invention of Braille in the 1820s and its eventual adoption in Britain at the end of the nineteenth century. In this conversation with Braillists Chairman, Dave Williams, she will describe some of the tactile alphabets in use at that time, and show how their concurrence affected blind people’s access to culture and community and how blindness was perceived by the sighted.

Register here.

To join by phone, please use these details:

• Phone number: 0131 460 1196
• Meeting ID: 840 2014 9850
• Passcode: 123456

5 Connell Street, Limavady, Londonderry, BT49 0EA

Braille enthusiast Mary Lea is hosting a braille-themed event at Limavady Library on Wednesday 19 February 2025.

Children from local primary schools will visit from 2:00 PM, and secondary school children and other interested people from 3:00 PM.

The event will provide a hands on introduction to braille, with a Perkins brailler on show, plenty of examples of writing systems and books, braille stickers and name badges, and braille moulds for arts and crafts.

For more information, please contact us and we will put you in touch with Mary.

The Australia & New Zealand Accessible Graphics Group is pleased to invite you to an open online discussion about Refreshable Graphics Displays. The meeting will provide an opportunity for people who have tried these new devices to share their experiences, and for those who are curious to learn more. We hope you can join us on Thursday 13 February from 4-6pm Melbourne/Sydney time (AEDT). Registrations are required via https://monash.zoom.us/meeting/register/zddsBvmGQnyk-E_gXTJ4vw

In tonight’s final installment of Braillecast Live, we’re delighted to be joined by two further sponsors of our recent World Braille Day event:

At 7:00 PM, Andrew Flatres from HumanWare will bring us up-to-date with the Monarch, Text-To-Speech on the Mantis and much more.

Then after a short break, around 8:30 PM, join Paul Hopkins from All Formats to find out what it’s like to be a blind braille transcriber, and hear more about this social enterprise within QAC.

Register for Braillecast Live.

To join by phone, please use these details:

• Phone number: 0131 460 1196
• Meeting ID: 859 7317 7463
• Passcode: 123456

Friend of the Braillists Paul Hopkins recently wrote a blog post about our recent World Braille Day conference in Worcester. Read it here.

With thanks to All Formats and QAC for being one of the sponsors of the event.

If you attended our recent World Braille Day conference, we hope you found the day valuable and enjoyable. It was wonderful to meet so many of you in person.

We would greatly appreciate your feedback to help us improve our events, and we would like to thank those of you who have completed the form already. Even if you were unable to attend, we still welcome your thoughts, as your input will help shape the direction of future Braillists events. Please take a few moments to complete our feedback survey.

Thank you once again for your support and involvement in the Braillists community. We look forward to hearing your thoughts and seeing you at future events.

The Library of Congress in the US has recently updated its web page on Braille Ready Format.

Among the updates are several references to our masterclass, What is a BRF and Why would you Want One? presented by Matthew Horspool in 2021.

We posted last year about the EBU Braille Working Group’s initiative to post one piece of content a day for Braille200.

Find the contributions here.