Braille

International News

First eBraille Public Working Draft is Published. “It is primarily meant for organizations that develop software that will read or write eBraille files.” (Jul, American Printing House)

Introducing Braille Brain! “This is a free website-based, self-paced curriculum to help people who already have literacy skills learn braille.” (2023, American Printing House)

These fashion designers are putting braille right on their clothing. (2023, Fastcompany)

Governments urged to increase access to braille (2023, 1News)

World Blind Union calls for increased access to braille on World Braille Day. “Despite obligations arising from international and national law, we know many blind people lack access to braille itself, to appropriate training in braille, and to technologies that facilitate the use of braille”. (2023, World Blind Union)

The UN international World Braille Day (2022, UN)

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Kenya

Feature on the Kenya Institute of Special Education's work on Braille. (2023, Star)

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Nigeria

How blind people are frustrated by INEC’s failure to provide Braille ballot. “For over 10 years, I have been voting. My son does help me. But you know I can’t trust him because he may have a different choice from what I asked him to do for me.” (2023, Informant 24/7)

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South Africa

Concourt rules that Copyright Act is unconstitutional. “Blind and visually impaired people, prevented from converting written material to braille or other accessible formats without the permission of copyright holders, can now do so following a ruling by the Constitutional Court.” (2022, GroundUp)

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Tunisia

Seeking Knowledge While Blind. A feature on blind people working to make more accessible materials available. (2021, Meshkal)

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China

New doors open for the visually impaired a feature on use of Braille in China. (2022, China Daily)

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India

Braille wave: Pancham Cajla is on mission mode to provide accessibility solutions for the disabled. (Sep, The Tribune)

Thirukkural and other Tamil literary works to be available in Braille script. (2022)

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Malaysia

English-BM braille dictionary in the works “The country’s first ever English-Bahasa Malaysia braille dictionary is in the pipeline.” (2023, The Star)

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South Asia

Seeing with fingertips: essay on the history and variations in Braille, including how they are used to render different scripts and languages. (2022, Himal Southasian)

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Thailand

Election commission provides Braille campaign guide for visually impaired voters (2023, Thaiger)

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Türkiye

January 4 World Braille Day photoessay on braille in Turkey and around the world. (In Turkish, 2023, TRT Haber)

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Europe

A new video on the importance of Braille. (2023, European Blind Union)

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Switzerland

People with visual impairment, blindness still face many barriers. “More adapted jobs and mandatory concepts for professional inclusion of people with visual impairment are needed, says Swiss group”. (2023, Andolu Agency)

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United Kingdom

The Politics of Braille Exploring continuing arguments about use of Braille:

"Blind people are divided in regards to its usefulness, schools debate whether it is worth recruiting qualified teachers, and governments fail to set aside funding to either train those teachers or fund their employment in local authorities. ‘Has technology replaced Braille?’ is a question I hear thrown around by the media more often than I should, usually accompanied by an article about a technology that will revolutionise how blind people read, rendering Braille unnecessary. It has not failed to escape me that whilst I’ve seen countless such articles, Braille is still firmly in place as the writing system used by blind people globally." (2022, Catch These Words)

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United States

The Braille Encyclopedia: Brief Essays on Altered Sight. “Told in the form of imagined alphabetical encyclopedia entries, this meditation on progressive vision loss examines and illuminates Cohn’s at first halting then avid embrace of braille as part of relearning to read and write as an adult.” (Oct, Rose Metal Press)

Braille cookbooks bring blind cooks recipes. “Library of Congress arm offers free print-on-demand Braille cookbooks to users, and hundreds are taking advantage of it” (Jan, Washington Post)

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Australia

Magic touch: how ‘revolutionary’ changes are making braille better than ever. “Braille has had a revival during the past decade. Technology such as refreshable braille displays has made the script more portable and adaptable, and increasingly braille is being integrated into the community beyond books.” (2023, the Guardian)

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New Zealand

New Zealand Opera to provide braille surtitles for live performances

“NZ Opera’s general director, Brad Cohen, developed the technology alongside his company contexts.live. It sends braille surtitles to a user’s personal braille-reading machine at the same time as the sighted audience is reading the translations on screen.” (Jun, the Guardian)

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Brazil

Beco de Batman gets graffiti in Braille a unique technique to make street art accessible. (In Portuguese, 2023, O Globo) See also a video feature in English from Star Tribune.

Braille: accessibility improves in Brazil, but still needs to advance. Almost one in four blind Brazilians are illiterate. (2023, Agência Brasil)

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