Thursday 27 January 2011

University ahead

The student pictured above is blind. She is using two computers: one is a Windows PC, which tells her what is on the screen by "talking" to her through the synthesised voice of a screen reader application; the other is a Braille note taker, the functions of which she controls with certain Braille key combinations. Its refreshable one-line Braille display allows her to read, write and edit documents efficiently, so it's really simply another type of computer system.

The equipment which you see here costs many thousands of pounds. It's typical of the setups High School students must learn to work if they are to succeed academically. In many ways it's rather like learning two different languages at once.

Pictured below in more detail is a display screen attached to the BrailleNote. Braille is designed to be read with fingers, so it's really tedious to keep asking a student to move their hands away for a sighted teacher to read the raised white "dots" by eye. This machine instantly translates Braille text into electronic "print": a much better way to work.