Full page braille displays... or just vaporware?
As many of you may know, I am an avid braille reader. from a very young age, my parents insisted that I learn and read braille. They were well-aware of audio technology, but believed that literacy was accomplished by learning a writing media... and they were right.
I first encountered electronic braille back in the 90s. I started with something called the Versabraille; invented by the folks at Telesensory Inc (TSI). It was a cassette-based device, (Everybody remember cassette tapes?), that had a 20 cell braille display. I lost so much homework with that device. Mind you, at least I didn't have the usual "My dog ate my homework" excuse. No, my Versabraille ate my tape was a good one. Anyway, fastforward 30 years, is it really 30 years? Yeah, it is. Forward 30 years and I'm still using a 40 cell braille display, that still costs over $3000.
It's ridiculous to be honest. Let's compare this to your experience. You are most likely reading this article on an HDMI connected monitor; most likely 4k , or pretty close to that. You may even have more than one monitor that you can split between windows and the like. When you want a new monitor, you may drop between 200 to 800 bucks and you're set.
Meanwhile, I'm here with my 40 cell display, able to navigate the Windows opperating system with which something that equivalates looking at the screen with a really good calculator display. Most braille display manufactures will tell you that the reason the price is so high is due to Research and development and because of the small marketing base, but I just can't accept that. It's been 30 years! Braille displays are completely mechanical. It's a series of pins that have 2 positions; up or down. This is accomplished by applying electrical currents to those pins. Don't spill your coffee on your display... I did. Why haven't we come up with an alternative to this? Most of it has to do with patents, but I won't get into that. As a consumer, I truly feel that braille display users have been let down by braille display manufactures.
It's depressing that braille displays haven't really progressed over the last 30 years. There have been slight improvements. Take the canute for example. This display is primarily for reading purposes. You get 9 lines of 40 braille cells to work with, so that's good I guess.
But then you get such projects as the Blitab that over-promisses and then just disappears. Their web site is still around though.
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Then, there's the Holy Braille out of Michigan which promises a tablet hosting a full display of braille cells.
What bothers me is these projects are over 5-10 years old and there hasn't been any tangible products released.
From my experience, braille has always been an enigma to sighted people. When I was in school, teachers thought that I used braille to cheat. I did a presentation on braille history once and my teacher accused me of using my braille examples as cheating notes. Come on!
Braille is the only way for blind folks to become completely literate. You would think a teacher would support that.
Anyway, I'm not here to complain about my high school teachers, I just hope this piece may spur on someone to actually create some sort of liquid-based display that not only could create readable braille, but tactile graphics as well. And deliver a braille display that is affordable to everyone.
Technology is forever evolving, why hasn't this happened with braille?
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1 年I found the Full Screen Braille listed as a product listed in their website but not sure if it is in production https://www.polymerbraille.com/#product And I guess it is based on this research https://www.wired.com/2010/03/braille-display/ Here is another one and it seems already in production. https://www.tactisplay.com/graphic-tactile-display/ Under development: https://www.aph.org/the-next-stop-on-the-holy-braille-highway-2022-and-beyond/ I am looking for full-screen braille too.
Sr. UX Manager, Accessibility @ Frontline Technology
3 年I totally remember BliTab and I was getting excited about it because I think Barclays Bank was going to support it, they had a partnership, they were going to roll it out across their branches which I thought would really push it. We should investigate what happened there because it WAS so promising and they even had a working prototype?
VP Information Systems | Azure Architect | Digital Transformation | Data Analytics | Machine Learning | Change Agent
3 年Great read, Martin Courcelles. I had no idea that Braille technology support was still 30 years behind. I use a 43" monitor to help make my print large and dark mode all the things to prevent photophobia. I've been fortunate and I agree, many people assume with audio books "that's good enough" and see Braille as archaic. It is absolutely vital for literacy and your parents were definitely visionaries.