The British company, Bristol Braille Technology is aimed at terminating the burdens caused by the traditional braille books; with their new Kindle for the Blind which is named as Canute 360. The company claims it to be the world ’s first multiline Braille e-reader for improving the reading quality of the visually impaired audiences. Canute 360, will display 9 lines of text at a time; which is about one-third of a page of the regular print.
Braille is a tactile-system of reading for the visually impaired person, written especially on an embossed paper. The Braille users can also read the computer screen; And such other electronic devices using a refreshable braille display.
A British company recently announced the release of a braille-e-reader for the visually impaired person, which shall be soon available in the market by this year. This kindle-e-reader is aimed at greatly enhancing their reading experience; while sparing them from the hefty luggage of massive printed volumes of braille books.
The traditional Braille books are not convenient to use. They are also not portable for example, a braille Bible can occupy up to 1.5 meters of shelf space.
Canute 360 – The Kindle for the Blind
Stephanie Sergeant, the owner of the Vision Through Sound Company stated about Canute 360 that; The visually impaired person will only need to press the forward button every 360 words rather than every 20 words. Stephanie Sergeant’s company focuses on providing necessary training for the visually impaired persons and also has been a part of the Bristol Braille company.
She further added by saying that Canute 360 will refresh one line at a time starting from the top. Although it will consume a bit time, the company claims that reading will be almost an instant one; as soon as the reader presses the forward key.
Latest research shows that the percentage of blind people; who can read braille books has decreased. It is due to the advancements made in the audio description gadgets and technology.
Ordinary books which are translated into Braille can be downloaded into Canute 360; which opens the portals to endless reading materials to the visually impaired audiences.
Bristol Braille stated that learning to read Canute 360; can boot up literacy as well as numeric rates among the blind people.
The Canute will be priced similar to a high-performance laptop.
