Braille dictionaries now available
For the past few months, Seeing Hands has been working to make dictionaries that are designed for use on Braille displays. Instead of making something that only runs on one display or just doing a straight translation from text to Braille, we’ve designed formats that work well on many displays and make looking up a word as quick and effortless as possible. If you have a display with an internal file editor or viewer, it’s likely that you can use these formats.
Today, we’re making our first public release. We currently have five dictionaries and a thesaurus for English, available in several formats. We’re planning to add to this number, both by adding more languages and, if we can find them, more dictionaries as well. We’re always open to suggestions of how we could make these better. While this is our first public version, it’s unlikely to be our last.
You can find these dictionaries at https://s.seeinghands.org/dictionary or at our main website. Just use the “Braille Dictionaries” link on the navigation menu.
New Project coming soon: Braille dictionaries
Right now, dictionaries are available if you’re using a computer, but they’re much too bulky to be common in paper Braille and the files used for them are so tricky to navigate on a Braille display that people don’t use them. We are designing Braille dictionaries that will work well with Braille displays. These aren’t available just yet, but we expect the first English versions to be available for download relatively soon. We’re also collecting information about what features people would like, so if you would appreciate dictionaries designed to be quick to use on assistive technology, take our 6-question survey at s.seeinghands.org/dictionary.
Survey for users of our Braille books
At Seeing Hands, we’re always trying to find ways to better serve our customers. While some of our newer projects are focused on areas other than our traditional early education area, we’re not stopping that. In fact, we’d like to get an idea of how you’re using our books, what ideas you have to improve the program, and what challenges you are facing with children who are starting their educational journey. We’ve found that making sure children learn Braille from the start leads to the best success, so we’re especially eager to hear about any challenges you may have had with that. If we can help solve them, either for you individually or for blind students as a whole, we’re interested in doing it.
To better understand your experiences, we’d like to ask those who have used or are interested in using our children’s books to take a few minutes to fill out a quick survey. The survey should take less than five minutes to complete, and all responses are kept confidential. You can also give us a contact address if you have any ideas or issues you’d like to discuss individually. You can find the survey at the following link: s.seeinghands.org/booksurvey
New projects incoming
Some of our activities here have been going on for a long time. We’ve provided books for Braille readers since our founding in 1999, and we’ve provided advice and assistance on educational matters for some time as well. We’re still doing that, but we’re also investigating new and useful projects for all areas of our mission. Stay tuned for announcements of new projects focusing on Braille literacy, independence, and access to employment. We’re not doing this in a vacuum, either. If you have ideas for services we could provide or you’d like to comment on the ones we have in the design stages, drop us an email and let us know.
Braille children’s books available for free
Seeing Hands provides free children’s books available for blind individuals. The children’s books available have braille alongside pictures and print allowing seamless reading experiences for blind and sighted readers alike and make it easy to help a new Braille reader. To receive these books for free, please see the selection of books available through the books tab and then email orders@seeinghands.org with the books you would like and the address they should be shipped to.