Author: Matthew Horspool

Please note the following during the Christmas and New Year period:

• The Braillists will close on Thursday 21 December and re-open on Thursday 4 January. The Help address will not be monitored during that time and other services will operate at a much reduced level.
• Our final Tuesday event of 2023 will be on Tuesday 19 December.
• The final Book Club of 2023 will be on Thursday 21 December.
• Our first event of 2024 will celebrate World Braille Day and will be held on Thursday 4 January.
• Tuesday events will restart with the Braille Bar on Tuesday 9 January.
• Book Club will resume on Thursday 11 January.

The European Blind Union (EBU) invites you to take part in a survey to enhance the use of braille displays.

Braille displays become more and more important to read and edit text in an electronic way. But the performance of electronic braille should get better.

So EBU wants to talk to braille display and screen readers producers to improve the access to electronic braille.

For this we ask you about your experiences, needs and suggestions in the use of braille displays with computer, smartphone and braille display as a stand-alone device.

Answering the following questions takes you maximum 10 minutes.

Please answer our questionnaire until 29th February 2024.

And please forward this invitation to other persons.

Other versions of the questionnaire in French, Spanish, German and Czech you can find here.

The results of this surway and our further activities will be published on livingbraille.eu.

More information on braille of EBU and the EBU braille working group.

We (The Tactile Times) are once again running an online fully-accessible advent calendar this year. The link is the same as last year (https://games.tactiletimes.org/advent).

Do you use the Queensland Braille Letter Songs? If so, please note there is a new link. If not, please check them out! https://soundcloud.com/visionimpairmentservices/sets/braille-letter-songs

They have also recently released 25 additional songs to help with the learning of numbers and additional contractions, which can be found at the same link.

Braille IT is delighted to announce that its qualifications are ofqual accredited. Adult courses- Level 1 and 2 UEB Braille. Level 3 supporting the development of teaching in Braille.

They have face-to-face classes in Blackburn, Burnley, Clitheroe and Accrington, and can also provide a postal/digital service for the level one and level two qualifications.

Find out more

We are sorry to announce the death of Dr Mike Townsend. Mike was a significant figure in the world of braille, having been part of the Braille Authority of the United Kingdom (BAUK) for many years and latterly a member of the Braille Subject Area of the UK Association for Accessible Formats (UKAAF). In this capacity, he represented the UK on the Executive Committee of the International Council on English Braille (ICEB) between 2012 and 2016, where he also served as Public Relations Officer, and he continued to represent the UK on ICEB’s Public Relations Committee until his death.

An extract from a statement from Torch Trust, where he served as Chair of Trustees, follows:

It is with a heavy heart and a sense of profound loss that we announce the death of Mike Townsend. He and Edith had been on a cruise in the Caribbean when Mike developed a bad cough and collapsed. He was taken to a hospital in Antigua where they found he had a repeat of the pneumonia that he had suffered with a couple of times in recent years. They also found that he had had a cardiac arrest and that his blood pressure was very low meaning that some of his organs were beginning to shut down. He was too ill to move to another island with more of the facilities he needed and despite a brief increase in his blood pressure earlier this week, his body finally succumbed, and he died on 28th November).

Edith has been with him in Antigua and thankfully her sister was able to fly out to be with her before Mike died. Our thoughts and prayers are with Edith, their daughter Christine and the rest of the family as they begin to absorb this news and start their journey of grief. Please do pray for them and particularly for Edith as she has to make arrangements to return to the UK and all that entails and all that will follow it in terms of plans for funerals etc.

We mourn Mike’s death. We grieve the loss of someone who has been so involved in and committed to Torch’s ministry almost since its start. Mike touched the lives of many many people both directly and also in the many contributions he made through Torch and other organisations that he was involved in. We will miss him.

Do you access information using alternative formats or do you work for an organisation that arranges alternative formats for someone else? At A2I we want everyone to have equal access to information. we produce a range of formats including Braille, large print, audio and Easy Read.

If you have ideas of how alternative formats could be improved then we would like you to share your thoughts with our 2 user groups. We won’t bombard you with messages. We’ll send you a maximum of 3 surveys a year, and you can always unsubscribe at any time.

Please sign up at: https://a2i.co.uk/user-group-signup/.

Thanks for your help!

The Hable One is AT Guys’ newest product that allows you to remotely control your smart phone with an easy to use interface. Use the Hable one as if you were using braille screen input in screen away mode. No need for a table to quickly enter text and control your phone. You can even wake your phone up with it still in your pocket!

Discover the Hable One in AT Guys’ upcoming free webinar, highlighting its simplified text entry, app navigation, and call management.

Date & Time: December 13th at 1:00 PM Eastern Time. Reserve your spot here.

“What’s wrong with grade 2?” In many cases, nothing. It strikes a good balance between compactness, readability and lack of ambiguity. However, in some cases, a code which is even more compact than grade 2 is extremely advantageous, especially when information needs to be written down at speed.

The Braille Shorthand Code was one attempt at creating such a system. Devised and used in the UK, it was last updated in 1959 and still has a loyal following.

In this event, we will be joined by Dr Norman Waddington, a prolific user of the Braille Shorthand Code for many years. Norman will explain the principals behind the Braille Shorthand Code and take us through some examples of some typical shorthand phrases. He will also talk about the equipment which was traditionally used to produce braille shorthand and discuss who would benefit from using the Braille Shorthand Code.

Register for the Masterclass here.

To join by phone, please use these details:

• Phone number: 0131 460 1196
• Meeting ID: 870 1431 7702
• Passcode: 123456

The international DAISY Consortium and the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) invite music publishers, composers, and music-setters/engravers to take part in our upcoming online Round Table on Accessible Music Publishing.

The event aims to explore and understand various sector requirements, through presentations and discussions between:

• mainstream music publishers (including exam boards)
• braille and other accessible format producers
• blind, partially sighted, and print-disabled musicians
• music setters/engravers
• music notation software producers.

We will discuss steps that the global sector can take to ensure equitable access to published scores, in response to legislation and to take advantage of technological advances, with the aim of establishing a sector Working Group and trialling some solutions.

Register for the Accessible Music Publishing Round Table event on Eventbright