{"id":50,"date":"2025-01-10T09:53:28","date_gmt":"2025-01-10T09:53:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/digital-accessibility\/?p=50"},"modified":"2025-07-10T12:05:43","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T11:05:43","slug":"reflections-on-the-braille-in-focus-event-nov-2024-edinburgh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/digital-accessibility\/2025\/01\/10\/reflections-on-the-braille-in-focus-event-nov-2024-edinburgh\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflections on the Braille in Focus event, Nov 2024, Edinburgh"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Braille in Focus event in November 2024 was organised by the Scottish Sensory Centre to celebrate the 200 years since braille was created by Louis Braille in France. Apart from learning about the history of braille, it was an opportunity to meet with other people supporting blind students and to try out some of the latest braille technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I attended with a severely sight impaired student from the University and I managed to get my co-writers of An Accessible Maths Journey<\/a>, Natalie and Cordelia, to join in as they were conveniently based in Scotland already.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two other serendipitous connections took place; firstly, Ros Walker of St Andrew\u2019s also attended so we managed a catch up on our shared experience of being learning technologists who had gravitated to supporting disabled students. Secondly, the host of the event, Elizabeth McCann had just been in Singapore to deliver a workshop to my niece who works in a charity for blind young people! The world is indeed a very small place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ros,
Left to right: Ros Walker, Cordelia Webb, Natalie Curran, Orla Raftery and Lilian Joy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The hosts provided a printed agenda for the day and also provided these in braille. It was such a thoughtful and considerate thing to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Typed<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Steve Tyler, Director of Assistive Technology at Leonard Cheshire Disability gave the keynote address. He took us through the history of braille<\/a>, from the bias against blind people, the politics and jostling that went on to have a standard braille adopted around the world and even the current fight to retain braille in education in the face of advancing technology. People wonder why braille is needed when it\u2019s so easy to have things read out on a mobile device these days but if you\u2019ve ever tried to study for an exam using audio alone, you\u2019ll appreciate that the brain isn\u2019t very good at single channel learning<\/a>. Sighted people take for granted how easy it is to skim read or to look back at a previous point in the text; you can\u2019t do that easily with audio so braille (especially printed braille) provides the closest equivalent experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Braille technology<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After a break we were treated to presentations on the latest braille technology available to blind students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n