Typefaces For the Blind

This is the first part of a series of articles about Braille and typefaces for the blind.

Sight-impaired people “feel” their text by using a special or unique typeface – Braille. Each Braille letter is formed by six or eight raised dots in different combinations. If all six dots are raised, the blind person ignores the letter. That is used for an erasure or a mistake. The common form of Braille in all languages was six dots in the past, but eight dots is now being implemented in order to add certain attributes.

Braille is used with many languages, but it is always read and typed from left to right, even in right-to-left languages such as Hebrew.

Blind people who use a computer obviously cannot feel the letters on their screen. Instead, the blind have access to a new technology that “reads” the text part of articles. The system doesn’t work perfectly.

• On a website, the reader will skip graphic images. It is therefore necessary to program in an “alternative” reading for the graphic image.
• One of my students explained that the reader ignored columns – it read straight across the line. This was obviously very annoying and difficult to understand.
• Alternatively, sight impaired people can use a magnifier. Braille is not needed in these cases. However, magnifiers work marginally well with vector images or TrueType text. They work very poorly with bitmaps.

Seeing Braille on your computer.

Most readers of this article are likely to be sighted. However, anybody can experiment with Braille, and understand what the text. Let’s demonstrate how this is done.

First, load your favorite Braille font on your computer.

If you don't know how to add a font, ask your nine-year-old neighbor. He’ll probably gaze heavenward for some time, in order to demonstrate his exasperation with the older generation that doesn’t know anything of importance. He’ll then shove you out of the way as he heads for your computer.

Don't even watch as he clicks on a few keys, asks you for the font, and then clicks on a few more keys. He knows what he’s doing, and in a few moments you have Braille on your computer.

Try to ignore his jeering comments when he tells his friends that you didn’t even know how to add a font to the computer.

Oh, you don't have a Braille typeface? A freeware English Braille font is available from the Files section of the Jewish Special Needs Forum. You’ll have to subscribe to that forum, after which you can easily download the font from the Files section.

Using the Braille typeface.

Don't use Braille yet. Type your material using your favorite typeface. Proofread it so that you are sure that there are no errors. Lay it out nicely on the page.

Now, use your mouse to select the text that will be printed in Braille. While it is still selected (it will probably appear as reverse-video black text) change the typeface to your Braille font. Presto – you have just typed in Braille. You can also make believe that you can read what you typed.

Did you forget some of the things that you wrote? No problem. Click the Undo button, and your text will return to standard, familiar text format. Click the Redo button to return to Braille.

Now comes the difficult part. Print it out. The Braille dots are not raised, so the blind will not be able to “feel” it. Sorry.

Braille is correctly printed on special, very expensive printers which do create raised dots. Unless you have that printer – and that is very unlikely indeed – you can do no better than to print the text as regular dots on a page.

Yes, you can also print out text in Italics, but blind people will have difficulty reading it. Don't even bother coloring your text – no blind person will be able to appreciate it.