|
This page contains links to great information about Braille, assistive technology, and electronic book markup standards.
If you would like your site to be listed in our link database, please contact us!
Jump to: Braille and assistive technology links
Jump to: Electronic book and text markup links
Jump to: On becoming a braille transcriber
Jump to: Other links of interest to blind and visually impaired Web users
Braille and Assistive Technology Links
| http://www.brailler.com |
Enabling Technologies designs, manufactures, and
supports the most popular Braille embossers in the world from their
plant and headquarters in Jensen Beach, Florida. |
| http://www.brl.org |
Braille Through Remote Learning is an online instructional
program that provides teachers, parents, social workers, and current/future
braille transcribers with a series of three integrated online courses
in braille and braille transcribing. |
| http://www.aph.org |
The American Printing House for the Blind (APH)
was founded in Louisville, Kentucky in 1858, making it the oldest
institution of its kind in the United States. APH is also the world's
largest company devoted solely to creating products and services for
people who are visually impaired. |
| http://www.afb.org |
A nonprofit organization founded in 1921 and recognized
as Helen Keller's cause in the United States, the American Foundation
for the Blind (AFB) is a leading national resource for people who
are blind or visually impaired, the organizations that serve them,
and the general public. The mission of the American Foundation for
the Blind is to enable people who are blind or visually impaired to
achieve equality of access and opportunity that will ensure freedom
of choice in their lives. |
| http://www.brailleinstitute.org |
The Braille Institute is a private, non-profit organization
whose mission is to eliminate blindness and severe sight loss as a
barrier to the fulfillment of life. |
| http://www.csun.edu/cod/ |
The California State University, Northridge Center
on Disabilities is committed to providing outstanding student services
to students with disabilities, and to making a contribution to the
field of disabilities in general and to those who provide services
to people with disabilities by the dissemination of information through
training programs, conferences, workshops, seminars, and electronic
media, and may also conduct applications-oriented research as a means
of improving the lives of persons with disabilities and the professional
skills of those who work with them. |
| http://www.rnib.org.uk/ |
The Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB)
helps all blind and partially sighted people in the UK. RNIB's task
is to challenge the disabling effects of sight loss by providing information
and practical services to help people get on with their own lives
and by working towards the prevention, cure or alleviation of sight
loss. |
| http://www.guiding-eyes.org |
Guiding Eyes for the Blind is dedicated to enriching
the lives of blind and visually impaired men and women by providing
them with the freedom to travel safely, thereby assuring greater independence,
dignity and new horizons of opportunity. |
| http://www.hadley-school.org/ |
The Hadley School for the Blind offers over 90 distance
education courses to eligible students completely free of charge.
From "Braille Reading for Family Members" to "Birdsong Tutor," you
can select from a wide variety of Hadley courses. You can study in
the comfort of your own home at a time convenient for you. Course
materials arrive in the mail, and for students in the U.S. and Canada,
instructors are just a toll-free call away. |
| http://www.guidedogs.org |
Southeastern Guide Dogs is dedicated to the loving
and humane training of dogs to become eyes for visually impaired individuals.
|
| http://www.guidedogs.org.uk/ |
The mission of the Guidedogs for the Blind Association
is to provide guide dogs, mobility and other rehabilitation services
that meet the needs of blind and partially sighted people. The organization
shapes its services to meet the needs of its community, providing
practical living skills training such as reading and writing as well
as other forms of mobility for example long cane training - often
in partnership with local authorities. |
| http://www.atia.org |
The Assistive Technology Industry Association facilitates
education and awareness of Assistive Technology for people with disabilities
of all types, worldwide. |
| http://www.repro-tronics.com |
Repro - Tronics is the designer and manufacturer
of the Tactile Image Enhancer, Flexi - Paper tactile imaging paper,
the Thermo Pen II, and Tactile AudioGRAPHICS. These products are designed
to assist blind and visually impaired individuals in the creation
and understanding of tactile graphic images. Explore this site and
gain an understanding of how each of these unique products can assist
in deciphering and designing tactile images. |
| http://www.duxburysystems.com |
Duxbury Systems leads the world in software for
braille with Windows, Macintosh, DOS, and UNIX programs. Our flagship
products, the Duxbury Braille Translator (DBT) and MegaDots, are used
by virtually all of the world's leading braille publishers. |
| http://www.tsbvi.edu |
TSBVI is a special public school established the
Texas Legislature to provide specialized and intense services which
focus on the unique learning needs of students with visual impairments,
including those with additional disabilities. |
| http://www.quantech.com.au |
Quantum Technology is an Australian company specialising
in the development, manufacture and distribution of technology solutions
for people with vision impairment. |
| http://www.cast.org/ |
Founded in 1984 as the Center for Applied Special Technology, CAST
is an educational, not-for-profit organization that uses technology
to expand opportunities for all people, including those with disabilities.
|
| http://www.rit.edu/~easi/ |
The mission of Easy Access to Software And Information (EASI) is
to serve as a resource to the education community by providing information
and guidance in the area of access-to-information technologies by
individuals with disabilities. |
| http://www.nlbuk.org/ |
The National Library for the Blind (NLB) is a registered charity
which helps visually impaired people throughout the United Kingdom
continue to enjoy the same access to the world of reading as people
who are fully sighted. The largest library for visually impaired people
in the UK, NLB offers free library services for all those who cannot
read print materials. |
| http://main.wgbh.org/wgbh/pages/ncam/ |
The CPB/WGBH National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) is a research
and development facility that works to make media accessible to underserved
populations such as disabled persons, minority-language users, and
people with low literacy skills. |
| http://www.brailleauthority.org |
The mission of the Braille Authority of North America
(BANA) is to assure literacy for tactile readers through the standardization
of braille and/or tactile graphics. BANA's purpose is to promote and
to facilitate the uses, teaching and production of braille. It publishes
rules, interprets and renders opinions pertaining to braille in all
existing and future codes. |
| http://www.canadianbrailleauthority.ca |
The CBA is comprised of a committed and dedicated
group of users, producers and teachers of braille who work together
for a common purpose, the promotion of braille as a primary medium
for persons who are blind. |
| |
|
Electronic Book and Text Markup Links
| http://nimas.cast.org |
NIMAS guides the production and electronic distribution of
digital versions of textbooks and other instructional materials
so they can be more easily converted into accessible formats. |
| http://www.nimac.us/ |
The NIMAC will receive and catalog publishers' electronic files of print instructional materials in a standard format: the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS). The NIMAS was recently developed by experts across the country for this specific purpose. The center will provide these standardized files to those who have been authorized to obtain the files to produce textbooks and other core print instructional materials for blind, visually impaired and print disabled students across the country. |
| http://www.daisy.org |
The DAISY Consortium is establishing the International
Standard for the production, exchange, and use of the next generation of
"Digital Talking Books". The DAISY Consortium is made up of organizations
world-wide serving persons who are blind or print disabled. |
| http://www.niso.org |
The National Information Standards Organization (NISO)
develops and promotes technical standards used in a wide variety of information
services. |
| http://www.bookshare.org/ |
Bookshare.org dramatically increases access to books for the community of visually impaired and otherwise print disabled individuals. This online community enables book scans to be shared, thereby leveraging the collections of thousands of individuals who regularly scan books, eliminating significant duplication of effort. Bookshare.org takes advantage of a special exemption in the U.S. copyright law that permits the reproduction of publications into specialized formats for the disabled. |
| http://www.rfbd.org |
Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic (RFB&D) is the nation's
educational library for people with print disabilities. They have a 77,000-title
library of taped textbooks, reference and professional materials for people
who cannot read standard print because of a disability. |
| http://www.publishers.org |
The Association of American Publishers (AAP) is the principal
trade association of the book publishing industry. AAP members publish hardcover
and paperback books in every field - fiction, general non-fiction, poetry,
children's literature, textbooks, reference works, Bibles and other religious
books, and scientific, medical, technical, professional and scholarly books
and journals. They also publish audio and video tapes, computer software,
looseleaf services, electronic products and services including online databases,
CD-ROM and a range of educational materials including classroom periodicals,
maps, globes, filmstrips, and testing materials. |
| http://www.w3.org |
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) develops interoperable
technologies (specifications, guidelines, software, and tools) to lead the
Web to its full potential as a forum for information, commerce, communication,
and collective understanding. |
| http://www.oasis-open.org |
OASIS, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured
Information Standards, is a non-profit, international consortium that creates
interoperable industry specifications based on public standards such as
XML and SGML. OASIS members include organizations and individuals who provide,
use and specialize in implementing the technologies that make these standards
work in practice. |
| http://www.cnib.ca |
As Canada's foremost library for people who are blind,
visually impaired and deafblind, the Canadian National Institute for the
Blind (CNIB) strives for excellence in the development of collections in
accessible formats and provision of user-centred information services. |
| |
|
On Becoming a Braille Transcriber
| http://www.afb.org |
A braille transcriber determines how to most accurately present information from a print textbook into a braille version and then transcribes it into braille so that a student who is blind or has low vision gets the same benefits from the information as his or her sighted peers. |
| http://www.tsbvi.edu/textbooks/afb/transcriber.htm |
A Texas School for the Blind and Visually
Impaired (TSBVI) page describing the efforts of the AFB Textbooks
and Instructional Materials Solutions Forum to develop a college-course
for braille transcribers. |
| |
|
Other Interesting Links
|
|
| http://www.braillestone.com |
A company devoted to designing mass-produced
Braille jewelry as a way to raise awareness about Braille literacy
while offering fashionable, affordable Braille jewelry for blind and
sighted people. |
| http://www.w3.org/WAI/References/Browsing |
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) maintains information
on alternative web browsing techniques as part of their Web Accessibility
Initiative |
| http://www.snv.jussieu.fr/inova/bs4/uk/ |
BrailleSurf 4 is an Internet browser for visually
impaired users, which allows a simplified reading of the information
available on the Web. BrailleSurf 4 shows this information in a text
form. This information can then be displayed on a braille bar, or
it can be spoken out by a speech synthesiser thanks to appropriate
drivers. The text can also be presented on the screen according to
the needs of partially sighted people. |
| http://www.webaim.org/ |
Web Accessibility In Mind (WebAIM) is administered
through a grant provided by the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary
Education (FIPSE) Learning Anywhere Anytime Partnerships (LAAP). Their
goal is to improve accessibility to online learning opportunities
for all people; in particular to improve accessibility for individuals
with disabilities who currently may have a difficult time getting
access to postsecondary online learning opportunities. |
| http://www.ataccess.org/ |
The Alliance for Technology Access (ATA) is a network
of community-based Resource Centers, Developers and Vendors, Affiliates,
and Associates dedicated to providing information and support services
to children and adults with disabilities, and increasing their use
of standard, assistive, and information technologies. |
| http://www.disabledonline.com |
DisabledOnline.com offers something for everyone,
including: news stories, message boards, disabled topics, chat rooms
and products that can benefit the disabled community. |
| |
|
|
