A Service of the Black Hawk CIL

Turning Print Into Braille

What can you translate Into Braille?

Braille Facts

Origins

Braille was created by Louis Braille (1809-1852), a French teacher of the blind. It consists of patterns of raised dots which enable blind and partially sighted people to read by touch. The dots are arranged in cells of up to 6 dots in a 3 x 2 configuration. Each cell represents a letter, numeral, or punctuation mark.

Why is Braille so big?

Braille uses a 6 dot system with each cell being equal to a 29 point font character in print; the size of the dots is standardized and cannot be changed. A page of paper used for Braille embossing is wider than standard print page paper, A print page is 81/2'' wide  but a Braille page is 111/2'' wide. Although there is more room across a Braille page than a print page there is only room enough for 40 cells of Braille per line. So, a complete line of 65 print characters on a print page will not fit on a Braille line. In Braille a page can only hold 25 lines of Braille information instead of the 55 or 60 lines available on a printed page, so this will also affect the page count.

Most of the bold, italics, and underlining in the print document is just "eye candy" for the sighted reader and is useless for the Braille reader. Braille is often embossed on both sides of a sheet of paper. Regardless, you will still have a big, thick Braille document compared to the print document.     

The process of turning print documents into Braille involves three steps:

1. Getting the printed material onto a computer disk

· Many the document can written on the computer ; All that is required then is to save the document as a "Microsoft Word" file.

· If the document is not already available on a disk then it must be scanned into the computer.

2. Once a document is scanned or ready to be saved as a "Microsoft Word" file it must have all formatting removed

· Bold, underlining, italics, ··bullets··, and ALL CAPITAL lettering must be re-formatted to be as plain as possible.  .

3. After the document has been properly prepared, the final step is to translate the document and print in Braille.

The Technology We Use

We take the disk with the re-formatted document on it and use a computer program called Duxbury to translate the document into Braille. Then we use a an interpoint Braille embosser that will print Braille on both sides of a Braille pager.

The paper we use has holes already in it for binding.

 · We can have the final document proofread by a Braille user for an additional

$ 2.00 per Braille page. This is recommended if the document will be used for training or for legal purposes or where accuracy is important.

· We request that you allow at least 4 business days to translate your documents into Braille. A longer time may be needed if any scanning, re-formatting, or editing is needed.

· You are responsible for drop-offs and pick-ups

· We can mail Braille documents. Braille documents must be sent as Free Matter for the Blind and hand stamped. The postal machine used to post-mark regular mail may destroy the Braille, so delivery make take longer than regular mail.

Braille Translation Costs

· Set Up Fee (No computer document provided) $5.00  + $2.50 per page

· Translating and Embossing (Braille) $1.00 per page

    · Binding Comb $1.00 each

· Re-formatting a computer document $1.20 per page

· Scanning a formatted document onto disk  ¢50 per page

 · Provide a computer disk to save a Braille document on  $1.00 each disk

·Proof-read by Braille user  $2.00 per page

· Rush Production (if document is needed in less than 4 days) $25.00

Contact us for a free estimate on your Braille needs.

Our Braille service is available only to clients in the Waterloo-Cedar Falls (Iowa) metropolitan area. For clients needing services in other areas of the country that we do not serve, contact your state's Department for the Blind, other disability service providers, or contact an independent living center in your area and ask if they offer Braille services or other services to the Blind.

Want More Info?

 Call the BHCIL (Our Braille service is available only to clients in the Waterloo-Cedar Falls (Iowa) metropolitan area.)

312 Jefferson Street
Waterloo, IA 50701-1322

Telephone: (319) 291-7755
                    (888) 291-7754

TTY: We use RELAY IOWA (1-800-735-2943)
 

Fax: (319) 291-7781
e-mail: bhcil@blackhawkcenter.org

Website: http://www.blackhawkcenter.org