by Daniel Parker, RDPFS Contributor:
With World Braille Day and Braille Literacy Month coming in January, attention once again turns to lagging literacy rates, particularly among children, and possible solutions. The percentage of children learning braille in the United States is estimated at between 10 and 25 percent. As the artificial intelligence (AI) boom continues, it is timely to highlight the role AI plays in current and future technologies aimed at increasing literacy among children with vision loss. One option now available to anyone with an iOS device and a braille display is the Braille AI Tutor developed by ObjectiveEd. Through this interface, a teacher of the visually impaired (TVI) can set up sentences for a student to read aloud from their display. The technology first turns speech into text, then matches the original sentence to the recorded one. The tutor comes with several games, where a correct reading of each sentence wins points. Another option in the form of a device, still in testing stages, is BrailleWear. This wearable is a glove designed to allow a person to read braille through its surface. A proposed implementation has the learner using Google Translate along with the smart glove and screen reader output, permitting them to connect the braille symbols with their meanings. A third tool, not strictly limited to the attainment of literacy, is Dot Translate, developed by Dot Incorporation. It allows typed text or files to be quickly translated into readable braille, claiming 90% accuracy. This is in contrast to most current translations from print to braille requiring human intervention for translation decisions. The translator is explained further in this YouTube video. A fourth utility under development at Arizona State University is EquiBraille, a braille board that uses artificial intelligence to offer visually impaired students real-time access to written classroom material. More information on all these can be found at the sources and links above. Additional information about Braille Literacy Month and World Braille Day can be found in previous Bulletin articles, including A Hero’s Legacy Lives On and Celebrating the 200th Anniversary of Braille: World Braille Day and Braille Literacy Month.
