Thanks for sharing this with us, Peter. It sounds fantastic!
Dave
Sent from my iPhone
On 22 Dec 2016, at 19:27, Peter Beasley <pjbeasley23@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I got this from another list but think that it will be of interest to people
on here.
"Blind Students 'gob smacked' by First Multi-line Braille eReader"
16th of December, 2016
This month teaching staff and blind schoolchildren in Worcester got their
hands on Canute - the world's first low-cost multi-line Braille eReader.
Digital Braille displays have typically cost thousands of pounds and were
restricted to showing a single line of Braille at a time. Canute has been
developed by Bristol Braille Technology using off-the-shelf components and
open source software to keep costs down. It is hoped that by rendering
multiple Braille lines, Canute can help improve literacy skills thought to
be crucial for the employment of blind people.
Describing the students' reaction to Canute, Sean Randall, IT specialist and
teaching assistant at New College Worcester, said;
"The kids were gob smacked. Canute is the only device we know of that
renders up to nine Braille lines on a single display. Multiline Braille
provides blind students with a greater appreciation for: page layout,
tables, mathematics, music notation and computer code. These are all fields
where blind people can be gainfully employed."
- Sean Randall, New College Worcester
Bristol Braille Technology, the community interest company set-up to develop
Canute, hope the results of educational trials will attract further
partnerships to make Canute widely available to blind people excluded by
existing Braille technologies and funding schemes.
For 3 years, Bristol Braille Technology has been in close collaboration with
the Braillists - a community of Braille enthusiasts - who have provided
valuable testing feedback used to refine Canute throughout its development.
Organizations with an interest in Braille literacy are invited to
collaborate with Bristol Braille Technology to help take Canute to market.
