Today I am writing this mail to this list to share a fantastic news with all the members. I am going to tell you about BrailleMe, which is currently the most affordable, portable and compact refreshable Braille display available in India. It is the brainchild of Innovision, the company founded by Shyam Shah and Surabhi Srivastava, alumni of IIT Bombay.
As far as the combination of braille and technology was concerned, there were three main issues. Firstly, the hard copy Braille has various shortcomings of its own. The dots don’t remain of the same quality for a very long time. Secondly, the assistive technology in the form of screen-reading software’s, though have opened doors of
countless soft copy material, often compels the reader to compromise on things such as the feel of reading and headache experience by the reader after listening to the screen-reader for a long time. The sense of privacy is totally compromised because of the audio text-to-speech screen-readers, especially in public places. The combination of the modern assistive technology and Braille is the refreshable Braille display. It is the device that has refreshable Braille output. Plus it can interact with screen-readers and smartphones via USB and
Bluetooth.
But the third challenge was with the price. Though the refreshable Braille displays were available in the market, for individual users, they were beyond reach, reason being the skyrocketing price.
Regardless of the great utility of the product, refreshable Braille displays were affordable only for organizations and big institutes.
But now, BrailleMe presents itself as the most affordable, portable and user-friendly refreshable Braille display. It has 20 Braille cells, Perkin’s style Braille keypad, removable battery lasting for 10 hours of continuous usage, 8 GB SD card, expandable upto 32 GB. Beside these, it has Bluetooth connectivity for smartphones and USB
connectivity for computers. The features of BrailleMe include,
•       Both grade1 and grade2 Braille (with and without contraction).
•       Support for 40 plus languages.
•       Internal Braille to text conversion.
•       Bluetooth connectivity for both Android and IOS.
•       NVDA screen-reader support through USB.
•       Stand-alone editor to act as an easy note-taker.
Price, which was the biggest hurdle in making refreshable Braille displays affordable has been tackled by BrailleMe. When other refreshable Braille displays are celling at 6 digit figures, BrailleMe is available at record-breaking price of just 25 thousand plus 5% GST.
Given the utility and number of features that BrailleMe has to offer, it is the best deal for any visually impaired student/working professional at this price range.
What all can you do with BrailleMe?
Firstly, you get the actual paper-like feel of reading. With BrailleMe, you can actually read the book as against listening to the book. Plus, since it has Bluetooth connectivity, you can read your Whatsapp messages and E-mails in BrailleMe, without having to compromise on your personal privacy. School/college students can get
rid of the need of writers/scribe, since now they can type their own paper in Braille, remove the SD card and submit it. When the examiner opens the same file on his/her computer, the same file appears as
normal text. This is possible because of the Braille to text conversion. Similarly, working professionals can make their presentation points in Braille and share the same file with their colleagues as a text file.
All in all, BrailleMe is the perfect solution for all the challenges and shortcomings of both assistive technology and traditional hard copy Braille. If any of you is interested in buying a BrailleMe of your own, or want to know more about it, you can get in touch with me.
Drop a mail at prathamesh18.bendre@gmail.com or call me on 9757033772.
Alternatively, you can visit the company website to get more information about the product. Visit the following link. Http://www.innovisiontech.co