Blind reader

The Optacon was a portable device with a small, handheld camera that could be moved across any type of printed material to generate images on a fingertip-sized tactile display that were then felt and interpreted by a blind reader. He received a patent for the Optacon in 1966.

The device, known as the Kurzweil-National Federation of the Blind Reader, is a definite example of how people with vision disabilities can use assistive technology to improve their quality of life.

To produce a book in an alternative format is time consuming and expensive, so a book or a tape bought by a blind reader can often cost well over the retail price of a print book.

It allows a blind reader to "see" planets, galaxies, and nebulae by feeling the detailed bumps and lines of each image.

Contextual missteps, however, should not blind readers to the importance of this book.

I'm the director of the Nebraska Library Commission Talking Book and Braille Service, and we just saw the letter to the editor in the June/July 2017 issue about Mother Earth News not being available for blind readers of the Library of Congress program.

Shubham then did some online research and was shocked to learn that Braille printers, also called embossers, cost at least $2,000 -- too expensive for most blind readers, especially in developing countries.

The complex has completed required studies to prepare a Braille copy of the Holy Qur'an to cater to the increasing demand from blind readers. A private agency has been contracted to train Saudi technicians on various stages of preparing the Braille edition, the report said.

Swift's secretary's report of 1912, however, signalled an intention to acquire more titles in British Braille and American Braille in the coming year, arguing that "several hundred blind readers would thus be reached and benefited, who are now outside the influence of the C.F.L.B." (120) If the library wished to extend its reach beyond Ontario, it was imperative to start acquiring more Braille titles.