News

Back in April, RNIB announced that it was to cease Personal Transcription and outsource this service to a third-party commercial organisation. This decision was shared widely across social media and elicited a strong response.

Following an initial meeting and a series of focus groups during the Summer, RNIB has now announced that it will retain a Personal Transcription service for braille music in-house, recognising “its unique value to our users”. This will be free of charge.  All other personal transcription, including large and modified print music, will continue to be outsourced to an external provider, and will likewise continue to be subsidised by RNIB.

Read Sound Without Sight’s response here

Braillio is a braille typing tutor you can use anywhere.

Learn braille without any special equipment.

Use a standard keyboard! F, D, S and J, K, L keys operate as braille input keys.

Fully voiced without the need for outside screen reading software.

Just log in from the browser on just about any device.

Uncontracted and Contracted UEB Braille.

Learn more

Welcome to Brailliance by Themis Games!

Brailliance is a puzzle game where you guess the word by adding up braille dots. This game has been carefully crafted to be playable by everyone, and it includes multiple accessibility features for people with blindness and other disabilities. For players with unhindered sight, tap the keyboard as you normally would and enjoy the challenge. For everyone else, the game is fully compatible with popular screen readers and can be played with a number of different input methods including keyboards and accessibility shortcuts.

Find out more and play the game!

Seeing Hands has released a new small Braille project:

As a celebration of the new year, we’ve made a Braille calendar generator. This can create a file showing the calendar of any year or years which can be used to mark events. Because it’s designed for any display with the ability to edit a Braille file, and technically anything that can read one, this doesn’t have the same feature set that a calendar application on a notetaker might have but if you are using something that doesn’t have one, this might be of some use. It mostly depends how you like to use a calendar, and it can still be limiting for users of small displays.

It’s quite a small thing, but I hope people find this useful, and if you have any ideas for how we can improve this, we’d appreciate any feedback. You can find the tool at https://s.seeinghands.org/calendar

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:

Scott Thornhill

Executive Director

202-467-5081

[email protected]

American Council of the Blind Announces Partnership with Dot Inc. to Expand Access to Multi-line Braille Technology

Alexandria, Va., January 5, 2026 — The American Council of the Blind (ACB) is proud to announce a new partnership with Dot Inc., a leader in innovative braille technology, that will expand access to multi-line braille and reinforce ACB’s longstanding commitment to braille literacy and accessibility.

Through this partnership, ACB members are eligible for an exclusive $300 discount on the purchase of the Dot Pad X, Dot Inc.’s new groundbreaking multi-line braille display. The Dot Pad X represents a major advancement in braille technology, allowing users to read and interact with content in ways that go beyond traditional single-line displays.

“This partnership reflects ACB’s commitment to braille and its importance for people who are blind or have low vision,” said ACB Executive Director Scott Thornhill. “Multi-line braille technology like the Dot Pad X has the potential to transform education, employment, and independent access to information, and ACB is proud to be at the forefront of these advancements.”

In addition to the member discount, Dot Inc. will make a donation to ACB for each Dot Pad X purchased by an ACB member. These donations will support ACB’s advocacy, programs, and initiatives that promote braille literacy, accessibility, and equal opportunity.

“By combining direct savings for our members with a donation that strengthens ACB’s mission, this partnership creates both immediate and long-term value for our community,” Thornhill added.

ACB and Dot Inc. will also collaborate on future outreach, education, and storytelling efforts, including case studies highlighting how multi-line braille technology can improve access to information and daily life for people who are blind or have low vision.

To learn more about the Dot Pad X, visit https://www.dotincorp.com/en/product/dotpadx

The Monarch RISE Project is working to empower a community of individuals who are blind, low vision, or DeafBlind, as they pursue competitive integrated employment (CIE). The project aims to provide Monarch devices, specialized training, and individualized support to facilitate peer-to-peer sharing of strategies and success stories.

Read more.

On 4 January 2026, the popular podcast Grammar Girl: Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing featured an in-depth, accurate, and engaging segment on Louis Braille. While the episode is presented by Mignon Fogarty, the article itself was written by Karen Lundy.

This podcast reaches a very wide audience, and the Louis Braille segment is both educational and worthwhile. Many listeners—especially those outside the blindness community—may learn about Braille for the first time through this episode.

Watch on YouTube

VICTA was pleased to host Clarke Reynolds for an online workshop last year.

Relive it here

As part of a semester-long school project for a graduate class, someone has researched several free braille art and tactile image libraries that could be used for educational activities relating to science, agriculture, ecology, and several other topics.

Find out more.

Charlotte Edwards, from Shenfield in Essex, is mum to two wonderful daughters.

Her youngest, Isabelle, was born vision impaired. Together, they have created a Facebook group that enables parents of blind and partially sighted young people, from across the UK, to have a platform to swap and trade much loved books.

Find out more.