BRAILLEBOARD |Palestine BrailleBoard’s Team
www.iugaza.edu.ps
available for Android
76
Description
Jury Comment
Braille Board is the first application developed for Arabic speaking visually impaired people using smart phones, and supports writing on touch screens using the Arabic Braille language instead of the QWERTY keyboard. Braille Board translates the typed Braille code into Arabic letters and numbers. Blind people do not have to learn any new typing technique; they can type in the same manner as in the “Perkins Brailler.” Although Braille Board is mainly oriented to non-commercial use, commercial adaptations are feasible. The main advantages of Braille Board: no extra equipment is required to be connected to the smart phone, making Braille Board less expensive than any other solution; Braille Board is dynamic; the user can enter the six standard inputs (initial points), but is not limited to these points in later entries. Braille Board is also simple to use, with one entry for each character, supported by voice prompts responding to the input. The technique of translating the point touched by the user to a specific letter can also be used to support other languages and alphabets.
As smartphones are evolving and adding new technologies and sensors it’s also easier to add new tools to this “21st century Swiss Army Knife”. Never the less developers trend to focus on more complex and sophisticated tools. Braille Board is a perfect example of how simple ideas can become powerful inclusion tools. I can perfectly see the “eureka” moment of this simple yet indispensable app: “Why don’t we take advantage of the multitouch screen and the word-to-speech technology to make a Braille Board” and voilá! A marvellous app was born and every android smartphone in the world can become a Braille Board.
WSA-mobile 2015
Rudy Laddaga, Founder / uTours