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Advantages And Disadvantages Of Braille

January 13, 2011 by Leave a Comment

There are various advantages of using Braille by people to read. Braille is a form of language that is used by the blind people to read. As we know blind people will not be able to see the shape of size of the alphabets. To make even blind people to read, this system of Braille was started.

This is a method in which the book in Braille form has various dots that are raised. As the dots are present on the paper and also because the dots are raised, the person who is reading the book needs to run the hands over the book or paper and the raised dots will help the person to read the words in the book.

Any person thinking of Braille will think of the many advantages that it has. Though the system of Braille has a lot of advantages, there are also some disadvantages of Braille. We will look at some of the other advantages before going into the disadvantages.

Learning is possible for the person who is able to read Braille. Even a blind person can educate himself thorough Braille and this is the major advantage of using this system to read. The disadvantage of Braille is that the person who is using this kind of books to read will have to spend a lot of money to read. This is a very difficult proposition for many of the people who are not economically well off.

The high cost of the books that are in Braille is just one of the disadvantages. The other disadvantage is that the Braille is present in English and there are no other fully compatible systems in any other language. There are a lot of people trying to use other methods similar to Braille for various languages, but it has not been as successful. This is a disadvantage because people who do not know English and have become blind will find it difficult.

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Web-Braille Important Tool for the Blind

October 20, 2010 by Leave a Comment
Reading Braille
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Web-Braille Important Tool for the Blind

Web-Braille is an innovative web-based resource that gives the blind vital access to many thousands of magazines, books and even musical scores as produced by the NLS (National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped) division of the Library of Congress. It also includes an ever-expanding collection of locally transcribed titles produced by cooperating partner libraries. One must have a password in order to access the Web-Braille website, and the files offered are in an electronic form of contracted braille that requires that the user have special equipment in order to make it functional.

Web-Braille Content Provides Blind With New Vistas

Since 1992, close to 10,000 titles have been produced by the NLS for downloading from their website. These can also be read online at the Web-Braille library. These titles are added to the collection at the same time that printed braille-books are shipped to libraries serving the blind. Magazines are also available in the Web-Braille format. Generally they can found on the website within a week or less of when the printed-braille version is made available. For the blind who are musicians or composers, there’s also great news. Several thousand braille scores are currently found on the Web-Braille website, with new ones being added each month by the NLS. These scores cover the gamut of musical instruments and styles. Both instrumental and voice compositions are included. This is one of the most popular features on the NLS website. Piano compositions in particular are one of the more prevalent resources.

Access to Web-Braille Website Secure and Blind-friendly

In order to use the website, a user must work with their local coordinating library to set up their account. This includes an email address and user-created password. The library then finalizes the process of activating the blind person’s account. An email is sent once this process is completed. Upon admission to the website, the user will discover that the site is designed with their unique needs in mind. With access, the user can now request items to either be mailed or downloaded at no charge.

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Filed Under: Advancements, Braille, Support, Technology Tagged With: , , , ,

Digital Talking Books Opening New Worlds to the Blind

October 19, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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Digital Talking Books Opening New Worlds to the Blind

For many years, the only format of talking books available to the blind were those recorded onto cassette tapes. This analog recording process has been a proven and affordable technology, but also one with limitations. These include degradation of audio quality over time, a time-consuming process for recording and transferring the data, and limited length of recording time. The great news is that in recent years, digital recording onto media cards, CDs, DVDs, and the Internet have eliminated most if not all of these analog tape obstacles. Digital offers a wide variety of improvements versus analog, including the ability to use a recording in a wide variety of mediums, greatly improved audio quality, and the flexibility of rapidly sharing the information recorded to many more blind users.

New Machines and Tools Created to Help Blind Readers

With the rise of digital as the predominant medium for blind readers, there has also been improvements in the machines used by the blind to read these new and improved books. For many years, there was only one device available for users to choose from for reading books. There are now many exciting features for blind users to choose from, including such things as being able to jump back and forth in a book, bookmarking, being able to vary the speed of the playback, and even keyword searches within the text. These and other advances are making for exciting and untapped worlds to be opened to the blind.

Braille Still Vital to the Blind

One may wonder if these advances have rendered the learning and usage of Braille as unimportant. Just the opposite is in fact the case. Both the machines and the media used to use these technologies commonly use Braille to provide instructions for usage and customization. Braille is also still considered a superior technology for reading books, especially for the reader looking for a greater catalog of material to read from. Users of Braille can be confident that it will be a vital part of the landscape for years to come.

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Printing Technology Making Braille Books More Affordable

October 18, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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Exciting New Developments in Braille Technology

For blind readers and writers of Braille, these are very exciting times. Improvements in modern technology are making unprecedented advances and opening new doors to the blind that have long been closed. This is true both with computer hardware as well as with new software. In the past, blind Braille users had to rely on a limited number of printing houses determining what was and what wasn’t worthy of being converted to braille. But with the explosion in computer technology, especially as it relates to braille, users are now blessed with a wide variety of options. It is true that some personal printers and Braille print programs are still expensive, there are now several low-cost options as well. If a blind user has a personal computer, a Braille printer, and conversion software, they are well-positioned to control the type of content they want to consume.

Printing Technology Making Braille Books More Affordable

For example, there are now several personal Braille printers that are narrower than previous versions, which leads to lower paper and printing costs. Another development is something called “paperless” Braille. This fascinating technology involves the use of a handheld device attached to a computer. This unit has a board with small pins on its face, and allows the blind person using it to feel Braille dots as the pins raise while they’re reading a text. There is also a process that prints Braille using a glue-like substance onto a glossy paper surface. These and other advances are all part of the new wave of improvements making life ever better for the blind.

New Advances in Braille Publishing

These improvements are not limited to the tools used to read and to write Braille. Even the language itself is being improved. For example, a blind physicist by the name of John Gardner has been working on a Braille system for writing math equations. It’s called Dots Plus, and uses existing Braille for numbers and letters but also employs math symbols in the same way that the sighted see them, but raised and magnified.

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The Dangers of the Decrease in Braille Usage

October 11, 2010 by Leave a Comment
Making Map for Blind

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Traditional Braille Use in Decline

There is a real but subtle threat to the future freedoms and opportunities available to the blind and sight-impaired. This threat is not readily apparent, and is even dismissed by many as non-existent. What is the threat? It is the steady decline in the percentage of blind children who are learning and subsequently using braille as a means of reading and writing. Although there are valid arguments as to why this may not be a significant shift, most in the blind community are quite concerned about it. In fact, over thirty states have passed so-called Braille literacy laws. These laws require that every blind student, even if they have only a small amount of residual vision, are to be given an assessment to determine if Braille will help them. If it is determined that it will be helpful, the children then have Braille taught to them. In essence, these laws create policies in favor of Braille and Braille usage.

The Dangers of the Decrease in Braille Usage

The primary reason that many who suggest this decline is insignificant use to defend their position is that newer and better tools are available for the blind. Are there new and exciting means of reading and writing available today? Absolutely. This is a good thing. However, the ability of the blind to fully engage in the world is, at least in part, dependent upon their abilities relating to Braille. Even if technology has opened new pathways to communication for the blind, understanding and usage of Braille provides a vital foundation for the use of these and any other present or future technology that may be developed. In other words, knowing Braille is a win-win skill. The dangers of not knowing how to use this tool include being limited in comprehension of what is being read or spoken by someone, being dependent on memorization to acquire knowledge, and most significantly, becoming less-literate than they might otherwise be. Every worthy means must be employed to reverse this trend. The future freedoms of the blind depend on just such a reversal.

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Braille in the 21st Century

October 8, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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Braille in the 21st Century

The world is an exciting place to live in at the dawn of the 21st century. Technology is making life more favorable but also more complex. This is also true for people in the blind community. Technology allows the sight-impaired to do things that they’ve never been able to do before, but at the same time it has also created new challenges and anxieties unknown in earlier, simpler times. In order to thrive in such an environment, it is essential that a person have on hand a map and instructions on how to use it to find one’s way to freedom and joy.

Reading the Key to Success

Many life skills are important in a person’s journey to personal fulfillment and meaning. But of these, perhaps none is of greater value than that of being able to read and comprehend what one has read. This is equally true both for those who are blind and those who can see. Just as a person who can read is considered to be literate, so someone who is blind but that can use braille or other means to read should also be considered intelligent and capable of thought. This is true whether one is reading books for employment, education or merely entertainment. In each case, being able to read gives the blind person a window to the world that would otherwise be shut. Everyone is benefited when someone has access to enlightenment.

Books and Braille Are Keys

Every effort should therefore be made to ensure that the blind have unfettered access to the full range of books available to anyone else. Technology is increasingly making this possible, but as of today there are still countless volumes that are sealed shut to the sight-impaired. For the benefit of all, tireless effort should be exerted to achieve this important objective. Books in braille are the most powerful way for the blind to have access to an exciting new world.

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Braille and the Freedom of Thought

October 7, 2010 by Leave a Comment
House of Louis BRAILLE

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Braille’s Most Important Freedom: The Freedom of Thought

It is commonly accepted in today’s world that the blind are equal in every way to those that can see. Although limited in sight, they have vital contributions to make toward improving life for themselves and for others. In particular, their ability to read using braille and other reading technologies provides the blind with one of the most precious freedoms available: The freedom to think for themselves, and the subsequent ability to express those thoughts to others.

The Blind and the Right of Independence

Another essential right that braille provides to the blind is the right of independence. No one enjoys the feeling of being dependent on another for providing the necessities or niceties of life. There is something inherent in the human spirit that demands that we be free and unfettered. Braille is an essential means of providing this independence to the blind, especially as it relates to understanding and living in the world of today. Through braille the blind have access to education, employment, entertainment and countless other avenues.

To Read is to See

Some have argued that as long as someone can use a machine to help them “read,” braille is an archaic, unnecessary tool. There is, however, a profound and important difference between being able to listen to a book being read on tape or CD and the ability to actually read that book. Reading is a much more immersive experience and is far more likely to lead to profound thought, as well as the expression of that thought, than is merely listening to someone else reading. Being unable to read also limits the freedom of a person in advocating for their own rights, since one must be able to internalize and understand changes to laws that relate to their civil and human rights. Without question there are exciting new alternative technologies that are emerging or becoming mainstream in the world of the blind. That being said, braille is every bit as vital a tool as it was the day the Louis Braille developed it long years ago.

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Braille Still Vital to the Blind

October 6, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Braille Still Vital to the Blind

In today’s fast-moving world, it is a given that someone who can’t read is considered to be illiterate. Without even thinking about it, we would rightly assume that such a person is at an enormous disadvantage in virtually every aspect of life. Whether in their employment (assuming they could even find work with such a significant liability,) their education, or even in enjoying the myriad benefits of reading for pleasure or learning, everyone knows that not being able to read is a undesirable state. It should then be easy to also understand why the blind should be given every possible encouragement and resource in order to allow them to also benefit from the many doors that open to readers. Braille is therefore a vital pathway to this objective.

Reasons to Continue Encouragement of Braille Usage

There are perhaps innumerable reasons that could be listed in support of why braille is still an essential skill for the blind to acquire. Below are just a few of the many that might be mentioned. In all instances, it’s important to remember that the blind are “handicapped” more often by others than by themselves. The sight-impaired have made and will continue to make important contributions to the world. Whether one can see or not should make no difference in how their efforts are received, valued, or applied.

Braille Allows the Blind to Discover the World

Specifically, braille gives the blind the ability to speak for themselves and to both define and defend their rights. It also is a critical tool in education, allowing the blind to determine what they will learn and how they will do so. In this regard it also allows for the blind to live freely in the world of ideas. For hundreds of years they were sadly shut out from doing so, simply because it was wrongly assumed they had nothing to say or to contribute. For these and many other reasons, braille is still a vital lifeline for the blind, and should therefore be regarded as such by everyone.

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The First Books in Braille

October 3, 2010 by Leave a Comment
Book in braille in the House museum of Louis B...

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The First Books in Braille

The story of the how Braille books began is a humble one. While enrolled in a dank and decrepit school for the blind in Paris, young Louis Braille, along with many other students, was required to work many long hours each day to produce a variety of products such as brooms, toys and even bedsheets that would then sold by the school’s headmaster, Sébastien Guillié. Guillié also required that students labor to put together books with embossed letters in raised form. This was done by applying water-soaked paper to raised letters in order for the tactile shape to dry, allowing the blind students to trace their hands over the shapes. These pages were then glued back-to-back, producing a sheet that was two-sided. So difficult were these to produce that when Braile enrolled in the school, over thirty years after it had been founded, a total of only fourteen books had been produce.

Books Become Doors to the Blind

After Guillié was removed from his position due to a personal scandal, a man named André Pignier replaced him and immediately set about to improve conditions in the school. Among the many changes he implemented, perhaps the most significant was to appoint young Louis Braille as the first-ever blind apprentice teacher at the school. For several years Braille had been experimenting with different forms and materials to try and develop a means of communication and reading. He’d recently been introduced to a system of raised dots that had once been considered for military use, which he quickly adapted for his purposes.

Louis Braille Publishes His First Book

Braille quickly began to put his work to use in the development of the language that would one day be named after him. At only age twenty, he published the first of several books about this subject. Titled Method of Writing Words, Music, and Plain Songs by Means of Dots, for Use by the Blind and Arranged for Them, Louis Braille had discovered his life’s work, which would lead to the lives of untold millions being forever benefited.

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Braille in the New World

October 1, 2010 by Leave a Comment
KUNMING, CHINA - DECEMBER 24: A blind student ...
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Traditional Braille in Decline

The numbers are striking. Based on recent surveys, there are close to 60,000 children in the United States that are legally blind. Of these, it is estimated that only ten percent or less of these children are using Braille as their main means of reading. In comparison, it is estimated that close to 50% of legally-blind children were using Braille in 1960. Although there are several reasons for this decline, including decreases in school budgets and changing philosophies regarding how blind children should be educated, the biggest impact has likely come from technological advancements.

Technology Opening New Doors to the Blind

Particularly among young people, the development of technological tools such as speech readers, audio books and Braille writers have led to a decrease in this age group’s use of traditional Braille. Although some in the blind community have concern over this, it is generally considered to be a positive development. If the goal is to increase the range and depth of learning for the sight-impaired, then the means employed to obtain this should be of secondary importance. Using advanced technology also has positive social ramifications for legally-blind children, since use of the Internet and more particularly social networks such as Facebook, give these children ample opportunity to develop new connections.

Braille Still a Doorway to the World

Without question, the learning of Braille should still be encouraged among all age groups and social classes. Just as learning the piano is considered an important gateway to learning how to play any other musical instrument, learning Braille prepares children that are blind to more easily learn and use all of the more cutting-edge tools available for learning now available in the 21st century. Although those without vision certainly still face hurdles as they make their way through a sightless world, technology is increasingly knocking those hurdles down, or at the least making them easier to clear. Everyone with an interest in seeing the blind successfully make their way toward a meaningful life should be engaged in promoting any and all tools that will lead to this objective.

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