World Braille Day

Join the Workshop entitled '' Getting Started with NVDA Screen Reader '' to Learn how NVDA, a free screen reader, can help you perform common tasks on your PC computer. Wednesday, January 7, 2026 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM PT Online / Laguna Hills

Discover the many ways to enjoy books on your computer with tools like BARD Express, Bookshare, and more. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to access a wide range of audio and large-print titles, explore different digital reading platforms, and find the options that best fit your reading needs. Tuesday, January 13, 2026 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM PT Workshop entitled '' From Audio to Large Print: Discover Ways to Read Digitally .'' Online / Los Angeles

  A Hewlett-Packard desktop computer has been pro grammed to output speech with a 64 word vocabulary. The vocabulary consists of the numerals, the alphabet and special symbols for punctuation and upper and lower case letters.  This speech output system has been incorporated into three devices:  (i) a word processing system which permits inputting, editing, printing and formatting. The speech, normally operating only during proofing and correcting, is acti vated whenever the cursor is positioned over a character. The system prices start at $14,000.  (ii) an automatic data entry system which vocally prompts the blind operator to enter data on a typewriter keyboard. Data entered can be proofed and corrected by speech output which is activated by cursor keys on the keyboard. The system can be programmed to prompt the operator for data to fill out almost any form. The system starts at $14,000.  (iii) a talking computer terminal can communicate with virtually any c...

  Introduction  The Nederlandsche Blindenbibliotheek (Dutch Library for the Blind) has been lending books to the blind since 1895. We started off with braille books only. In 1958 talking books on open-reel tapes were introduced and the number of readers increased rapidly. Nowadays we mainly lend talking books on compact cassettes. The talking book on compact cassette is by far the easiest to use and especially many elderly people benefitted from it. Since we introduced the compact cassette in 1972 the lending figures raised from 0.6 million to 2.2 million in 1978. Evidently this rapid growth imposed great changes on our library. In the early days a team of a few people registered the books in the catalogue, lent them to the blind and put them back on the shelves when they were returned. At the moment three departments are in charge of all this: The catalogue department registers books in the catalogue and selects books to be added to our collection. The lending department sele...

The Zoltan Braille Embosser (ZBE) is a computer controlled rotary press , which produces interpoint braille ; the press can also print on only one side of the paper. General principles With the ZBE the different activities for producing braille print, which previously have been performed as separate subroutines, are now combined in one continuous system. The subroutines are: 1. The processing of text, i.e., translation of text stored on any data carrying medium (paper tape, magnetic tape or floppy disc) into a braille format including automatic generation of braille abbreviations etc. 2. The setting of braille text on the printing drums. 3. The rotary printing, cutting and sorting of interpoint braille. The core of the system is the press with two printing drums fitted with nearly 13,000 printing pins, each of them can be locked in two positions. The setting of the pins is determined by 144 setting magnets. The setting and the supervision is done by a computer program through a hard...

  Introduction  A set of programs oriented to natural language pro cessing have been designed and implemented. These programs were first applied to French language analysis and led to creation of the PIAF system (Programmes Interactifs dfAnalyse du Fran§ais). Some applications are operational mainly in automatic information retrieval where the PIAF system performs two tasks in parallel: 1. Data acquisition and control, 2. Production of simple or compound key words. Following a request from the Centre National des Arts et Metiers, we have developed the contracted braille transla tion and editing of French texts with respect to typo graphic codes from programs and basic algorithms of the PIAF system. General Principles of the PIAF System  We propose to the average user a set of tools to define and handle textual datas, under the control of an editor: i) The definition tools are facilities to create and perform interactive updating of the dictionaries and models of the selec...