News

Using the Focus Blue Braille Displays, Thursday 12 August at 2:00 PM

As part of their “Unpacking Tech that Makes you Feel at Home” series, join Sight and Sound for a webinar all about the fifth generation of the popular Focus Blue braille displays. The session will be presented by Ron Miller, Blindness Technology Product Specialist at Vispero (manufacturers of the Focus line of displays), who is himself blind and a braille user.

The session will also cover other hardware products from Vispero including the Pearl camera.

Register for Unpacking Tech that Makes you Feel at Home: https://zoom.us/w/91508728603

Getting to Know the BrailleSense 6, 23-26 August at 2:00 PM

The BrailleSense 6 is an extremely powerful and sophisticated device, offering all the features of modern Android smartphones and tablets with the traditional note-taker look and feel. Join Sight and Sound Technology for a series of four webinars where you can find out more about this incredible machine and start to learn how to use some of its features:

  • Monday 23 August: Setting up and using email
  • Tuesday 24 August: Using Google Drive.
  • Wednesday 25 August: Downloading Android apps.
  • Thursday 26 August: Using new features: Dictionary, Bookshare and Web Radio.

All the sessions run from 2:00 PM-3:30 PM, and you can register for them using this link:

Register for Getting to Know the BrailleSense 6: https://zoom.us/w/99064307639

Media Page and Newsletter Archive Updated

Just in time for the holidays, we’re delighted to announce that all of our Masterclasses in the “Braille for Academic and Career Development” series have now been transcribed. We also have handouts for some of our more recent Masterclasses. All of these have been added to our Media page and we will continue to add resources as they are made available to us.

We have also brought our Newsletter Archive up-to-date.

Reminder: Summer Break

We’d like to gently remind you that there are now only three more weeks of events until our summer break. We will finish with the Book Club on Thursday 29 July and restart with the Book Club on Thursday 2 September. We will not be checking emails or running events during this period, but you are welcome to continue to use the Forum and listen to Braillecast.

We’re Taking a Summer Break

Hosting our online events continues to be an enormous pleasure, and we’re overwhelmed by the response to them from the community. We’re particularly excited by the possibilities which have opened up thanks to our latest grant from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust.

We’ll start working on this in earnest from September. To allow us to recharge our batteries before then, we will be taking a break during the entire month of August. Our last event before this will be the Book Club on Thursday 29 July.

During the break, our Forum will continue to operate, alongside the closed Google Group that we run for regular attendees of the Book Club. We will also continue to publish new episodes of our Braillecast podcast, using material that we recorded earlier in the year but have not yet had the opportunity to publish. However, our Help mailbox will not be monitored and no events will take place.

We will re-open where we left off, with the Book Club on Thursday 2 September.

The last newsletter prior to the break will be published on Friday 23 July, after which you will not receive further newsletters until Friday 3 September. Regular attendees of the Book Club will receive a reminder about the session on 2 September via the Google Group in the usual way.

We hope you have a relaxing summer.

Connecting the Dots: Introduction to Refreshable Braille Displays from the Access Accademy, American Printing House for the Blind

At 6:00 PM UK time on Wednesday 30 June, APH will help you connect the dots!

Join braille product expert William Freeman for this in-depth exploration of refreshable braille displays. He’ll cover the very basics from using local apps to an introduction to using a braille display with the most popular screen readers. If you’re a teacher, you’ll also learn how to select an appropriate display for your student and troubleshoot common issues.

Register for the APH braille displays session here: https://aph.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_PrCsy5KKRaygiLZaFq1jEA?timezone_id=Europe%2FLondon

Further Grant Funding from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust

We’re delighted to announce that the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust have awarded us a second grant, this time from the Activate fund. This grant will ensure the sustainability of Braillecast and our Masterclasses for the next 18 months and enable the development of our other services, including our popular Braille for Beginners courses.

The WCMT Fellowship makes grants to inspiring individuals who possess the passion and commitment to make a real difference. This funding opportunity is underwritten by Ed Rogers, whose trip to India in 2017 forms the basis of the project.

We will have further information to share in the coming months.