Braillecast-logo

Braillecast

Education Podcasts

Celebrating braille and keeping braillists informed with exclusive interviews, independent reviews, comprehensive demonstrations, clear presentations, thought-provoking commentary and up-to-the-minute braille news.

Location:

United Kingdom

Description:

Celebrating braille and keeping braillists informed with exclusive interviews, independent reviews, comprehensive demonstrations, clear presentations, thought-provoking commentary and up-to-the-minute braille news.

Twitter:

@braillecast

Language:

English

Contact:

07429171736


Episodes

Catching Up with Bristol Braille Technology: Canute 360 and Canute Console (Episode 53)

3/18/2024
Bristol Braille Technology CIC recently released version 2.1 of the firmware for Canute 360, the world's first multi-line braille E-reader. Canute has come up in conversation many times before, but never specifically: what is it, and what can it do? In this episode, we sit down with Ed Rogers, Managing Director of BBT, to find out. Links of interest: Specification for supplementary Canute BRF metadata fileInformation about Bristol Braille's braille music event on 13 April 2024

Duration:00:37:29

Multi-Line Braille in the Classroom (Episode 52)

3/11/2024
The braille community is buzzing about the next generation of braille display: multi-line devices which can show anything from tables to tactile graphics at the press of a button are now a reality, and enthusiastic early adopters around the world are putting the technology through its paces. These multi-line braille displays will, sooner or later, undoubtedly disrupt all our experiences of refreshable braille in many places, but perhaps most notably in education. What does this mean for teachers, and what does this mean for students in the classroom, doing their homework and progressing to further and higher education? We'll be digging into the detail in two parts: Firstly, we will hear from HumanWare, Bristol Braille Technology CIC, Dot Inc and Orbit Research, all of whom are developing multi-line braille displays, and each of whom will give a ten minute presentation on how they see their products working in the classroom. Secondly, we'll hear from a panel of education professionals. They will share their reactions to the presentations, discuss how current practice might evolve to take advantage of emerging braille technologies, and engage with the manufacturers to find answers to some of their most pressing questions. This episode is presented in collaboration with the Professional Association for the Vision Impairment Education Workforce (VIEW). Manufacturers, their Products and Representatives HumanWareMonarchBristol Braille Technology CICCanute 360 (£2495.00)Canute Console (£3995 or £1650 for existing Canute 360 owners)Ed RogersDot IncDot Pad (£11995)Mazi ZarrehparvarOrbit ResearchOrbit Slate 520 ($3495 USD)Orbit Slate 340 ($3995 USD)Venkatesh Chari Panellists RNIBVisual Impairment Education Workforce (VIEW)New College WorcesterRNIB The event was hosted by Dave Williams and produced by Matthew Horspool. Extracts from the Chat What are the dimentions of the Dot Pad please? Participant: 273.2 mm × 228.1 mm Mazi: 20 braille cells per line and 10 lines on the large screen. 20 cells on single line below graphics area. Dot Pad pricing is not fixed but our goals is to make the Dotpad economically accessible. Can you send information from the dot pad back to an iPad? Mazi: We are working on two way interaction between the Dot Pad and connected devices. At this time, the Dot Pad is a printer. It receives content from the iPad, iPhone, PC, or Mac. It is interactive in the sense that you can scroll up and down pages and make selections. You can also scroll across icons showing on your iPhone or iPad. If you would like more information, please be comfortable contacting me. We are rapidly innovating and all ideas and advice is welcome. Do the graphical devices allow a tactile diagram and a braille label on the same page? Ed: Yes. You can mix them up. We typically use a lot of Braille to make sense of the diagrams. For the Canute Console, that was. Andrew: For Monarch, Yes, it can display both graphics and braille on the same array. I'd be very interested to know if manufacturers were intending to (or have) produce progression charts/teaching ideas for supporting student development of skills in using these products? We can't afford to have one for us to learn on as well as one for the student, so any help on how to use them effectively and to think about skills progression is really helpful! Andrew: HumanWare appreciates there is a lot to learn when it comes to these types of new technology, therefore before Monarch will be released we will be conducting in-person teachers training across the UK. The objective will be to show how a Monarch could be used in a classroom along with getting a better understanding on this new ebraille file format. Please register your interest so you can stay updated on when these days become available. Participant: I am familiar with human wear products and they have a fantastic set of training videos for all of their devices. These are easily accessible for LSAs and BSAs as well as...

Duration:01:01:33

Two Conferences in the Summer … Or Should That Be Winter? (Episode 51)

1/8/2024
It's an exciting time for braille as we approach the 200th birthday of the braille code, and the International Council on English Braille will be celebrating in style this year with its eighth General Assembly, the theme of which is "Two Centuries of Braille". It will take place from Saturday 25 May to Thursday 30 May at The Grand Millennium Hotel Auckland, 71 Mayoral Drive, Corner Vincent Street, Auckland Central, New Zealand. But what is the International Council on English Braille, what is the purpose of its General Assembly, and how can we get involved? James Bowden, Braille Technical Officer at RNIB, Chair of the Braille Coding Group of the UK Association for Accessible Formats, Chair of ICEB's Braille Technology Committee, and UK representative on the ICEB Executive and Code Maintenance Committees, tells us more. Join the iceb-announce group on groups.io by sending a blank email to iceb-announce+subscribe@groups.io The Round Table on Information Access for People with Print Disabilities is holding its Annual Conference the week before the ICEB General Assembly. It will be taking place at Novotel Perth Langley, 221 Adelaide Terrace, Perth, Western Australia, and early bird registration is open until 29 February 2024. The conference theme is Information Equity: Empowerment through Technology, Advocacy and Collaboration. The Annual Meeting of the Australian Braille Authority will be held on Saturday 18 May, followed immediately by the Round Table Conference from Sunday 19 May to Tuesday 21 May. Chantelle Griffiths, Founder and Chief Executive Officer at New Zealand's Tactile and Technology Literacy Centre and good friend of the Braillists Foundation, tells us more.

Duration:00:32:47

The Braillists at NFB 2023 (Episode 50)

1/1/2024
The Braillists Foundation held a face-to-face meeting at the 83rd annual convention of the National Federation of the Blind at the Hilton Americas-Houston hotel, Texas, in July 2023. Our Chairman, Dave Williams, was there with a microphone to soak up the atmosphere. We spoke to: Bristol Braille Technology CICHableA Cubed DesignKa LiNational Network for Equitable Library ServiceAustralia and New Zealand Accessible Graphics Group (ANZAGG)EBrailleDEQ SystemsBlind SVG Study GuideAndrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library, New YorkA. T. GuysBlind Bargains With thanks to the Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library for allowing us the use of their room for our meeting.

Duration:00:20:12

Braille Into Christmas (Extra 61)

12/25/2023
As the days get shorter and the nights get colder, a few people joined us for a cosy fireside chat to round off the year on Tuesday 19 December. How do you write and address your Christmas cards? How do you know whose Christmas presents are whose? And what part does braille play in all of this? We were joined by our expert Braille for Beginners team, Mel Pritchard and Chantelle Griffiths, to get the conversation started, and we heard plenty of ideas from the audience too, on a multitude of Christmas-themed topics.

Duration:00:56:29

The Braille Doodle (Episode 49

10/2/2023
Wouldn't it be wonderful if you could just pick up a tablet of sorts, draw on it, and have the drawing in a tactile form? And wouldn't it be even more wonderful if you could simply erase the drawing and start over if you didn't like it? The Braille Doodle does just that, and we catch up with the Touchpad Pro Foundation to find out more.

Duration:01:02:29

Transferring Content to your Braille Display (Extra 60)

9/25/2023
Have you ever downloaded a book from Bookshare or Reading Services, but struggled to extract the zip file? Have you ever had a BRF file emailed to you, but not been able to copy it to your braille display? Does your braille display only support text or BRF files, but you want to read Word or PDF files on it? If you can answer “yes” to any of these questions, this episode is for you! Matthew Horspool was in the presenter’s chair on Tuesday 19 September 2023 and took us step by step through extracting zip files, converting files from one format to another, and copying files from your computer to your braille display. Demonstrations using a screen reader formed an integral part of the presentation, and as ever there was plenty of time for questions at the end. N.B. most of the demos were carried out on Windows, but the concepts discussed should apply equally to other operating systems.

Duration:00:58:51

Revitalise your Braille Reading Technique (Extra 59)

7/3/2023
Whether you're new to braille or an experienced braillist, reading is an important and fundamental process. To fully appreciate the brilliance of braille for use in daily life, reading is something you should enjoy and feel comfortable with. But what can you do to improve your reading skills once you have learned all the letters and perhaps some contractions as well? How can you enhance your reading speed and accuracy even if you've been doing braille for a while? On Tuesday 20 June 2023, Chantelle Griffiths, Co-Founder and CEO of New Zealand's Tactile and Technology Literacy Centre, shared some practical tips and tricks to get you on the right track with your reading, no matter how much braille you've done or where you are on your braille journey. There is something here for everyone. We learnt: This was a very practical session. If you'd like to follow along with the recording, please have some hardcopy or electronic braille handy and a couple of random objects that feel nothing like braille. For further information please visit the Braillists Foundation Media Page.

Duration:01:21:17

An Introduction to the Orbit Reader (Extra 58)

6/26/2023
The Orbit Reader range is now very extensive and comprises the Orbit Reader 20, the Orbit Reader 20 Plus and the Orbit Reader 40. On Tuesday 30 May 2023, James Bowden, Braille Technical Officer at RNIB, talked us through what these products can do, how they work, and the differences between Orbit Readers and other braille displays and notetakers. We learnt: For further information please visit the Braillists Foundation Media Page.

Duration:01:16:41

UEB Indicators: How to show capitals, bold, italics, underline and more (Extra 57)

5/22/2023
“This new braille has so many extra dots!” This is something we hear a lot, and it’s often followed by the question, “What do they all mean?” This Masterclass will help to solve the mystery. James Bowden, Braille Technical Officer at RNIB, Chairman of the Braille Coding Group of the UK Association for Accessible Formats, and the UK Representative to the Code Maintenance Committee of the International Council on English Braille, described the common indicators in UEB and gave some real world examples of their use. In particular, we covered: This session was recorded on Tuesday 16 May 2023. For further information please visit the Braillists Foundation Media Page.

Duration:00:52:13

CSUN 2023 (Episode 48)

4/3/2023
Dave Williams, Chairman of the Braillists Foundation, and Ed Rogers from Bristol Braille Technology discuss the braille products to emerge from this year's event.

Duration:00:25:56

Programming for the Canute Console (Extra 56)

3/27/2023
There was a lot to cram into the last of our computer science-themed classes. We started with a quick refresher about what we’ve covered so far before taking a deep dive into what it takes to write software and build hardware with a particular focus on the accessibility elements of the process.

Duration:00:54:40

Six Dots to Success: What Braille Means to Me and Panel (Extra 55)

3/20/2023
The final recording from the recent Six Dots to Success conference held in collaboration with Sight and Sound Technology Ltd. This episode features:

Duration:00:54:32

Six Dots to Success: Braille for Leisure (Extra 54)

3/13/2023
The fourth of a series of recordings from the recent Six Dots to Success conference held in collaboration with Sight and Sound Technology Ltd. This episode features a recording of one of the breakout rooms.

Duration:00:41:51

Six Dots to Success: Braille in Higher Education and Employment (Extra 53)

3/6/2023
The third of a series of recordings from the recent Six Dots to Success conference held in collaboration with Sight and Sound Technology Ltd. This episode features a recording of one of the breakout rooms.

Duration:00:42:54

Meet Hable One: the Portable Bluetooth Controller for your Smartphone (Extra 52)

2/27/2023
Hable One is a powerful, fun and exciting way for you to interact with your smartphone or tablet using braille. As well as being a fully functional braille keyboard, supporting both grades 1 and 2, it also serves as a wireless remote control for every aspect of your smartphone or tablet, from moving around the screen to selecting, playing and pausing music, dialling numbers and changing settings. For beginner braillists, it is a uniquely satisfying way of putting your braille skills into practice. For more advanced braillists, it is a vital productivity tool. It works in partnership with the smartphone or tablet’s screen reader and supports all popular apps including messages/WhatsApp, Facebook/Messenger, Twitter, Spotify, mail, contacts, calendar, reminders and notes. On Tuesday 21 February at 7:30 PM GMT, we were joined by representatives from Hable, who told us more about this innovative device. We learned how easy it is to set it up and saw some practical examples of how it works both as a keyboard and a remote control. There was also plenty of opportunity for the audience to ask questions.

Duration:01:00:47

Six Dots to Success: Braille at School (Extra 51)

2/20/2023
The second of a series of recordings from the recent Six Dots to Success conference held in collaboration with Sight and Sound Technology Ltd. This episode features a recording of one of the breakout rooms.

Duration:00:38:51

Introducing Git (Extra 50)

2/13/2023
According to Wikipedia, Git is a distributed version control system that tracks changes in any set of computer files, usually used for coordinating work among programmers collaboratively developing source code during software development. Luckily for us it’s far more interesting than it sounds on paper as it was the topic of the third in our series of computer science masterclasses. We started off by cutting through some of the technobabble typically associated with tools such as this and then got hands on with some simple examples using the popular Liblouis project. We built on our Linux skills from the previous class along the way and even did a little bit of programming before ending the session with questions.

Duration:00:54:20

Six Dots to Success: Welcome, Keynote and Braille for Beginners (Extra 49)

2/6/2023
The first of a series of recordings from the recent Six Dots to Success conference held in collaboration with Sight and Sound Technology Ltd. This episode includes:

Duration:01:05:56

Braille Technology Throughout the Ages (Episode 47)

1/30/2023
This episode focusses on braille technology: its past, present and future. We are joined by historians, people working in the braille technology industry today and developers of the next generation of braille hardware and software.

Duration:01:02:48