Podcast: Braillecast

MORE BRAILLE: MORE EMPOWERMENT – Launching the Global Braille Survey (Episode 79)

When we talk about braille, we often hear statements like:

  • “Only 7–10% of blind people read braille.”
  • “Blind children aren’t learning braille at school like they used to.”
  • “Technology is making braille irrelevant.”

But how true are they?

Help us on our mission to find out!

A global braille survey has been launched by the International Council for Education of People with Vision Impairment (ICEVI) and the World Blind Union through their braille literacy campaign More Braille: More Empowerment. The survey is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build a comprehensive understanding of the international braille landscape, ensuring that future braille initiatives are informed by evidence, respond to real needs, and help secure future investment in braille literacy.

Join us to find out:

  • Why do we need a survey like this?
  • What will happen to the data?
  • Who can take the survey?
  • How long will it take to complete?
  • Will it be available in multiple languages?
  • When will it close?

Hear first-hand from senior leaders in ICEVI and WBU, members of the Global Braille Literacy Campaign Steering Committee and the researchers who compiled the survey, and discover how organisations are already planning to incorporate the results of the survey into their future work.

Let your story shape braille’s next chapter.

Take the Global Braille Survey

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More Braille: More Empowerment – A Live Virtual Conversation (Episode 78)

The official launch of the ICEVI–WBU Global Braille Literacy Campaign

On behalf of the International Council for the Education of People with Visual Impairment (ICEVI) and the World Blind Union (WBU), we are pleased to mark the official launch of the ICEVI–WBU Global Braille Literacy Campaign: More Braille, More Empowerment.

The campaign champions braille as a foundation for literacy, learning, independence, and empowerment.

The launch centres on a lively panel discussion with internationally recognised braille experts, exploring current and emerging topics in braille literacy across inclusive school, work, and community contexts.

The campaign is open to everyone worldwide who shares a commitment to inclusive literacy and empowerment including policy makers, educators, families, advocates, researchers, organisations committed to inclusive literacy and the right to braille … and, most importantly of all, braille users!

As part of the broader campaign launch, ICEVI and WBU have also released More Braille: More Empowerment – Voices Advancing Braille Worldwide, a campaign video featuring messages from members of the global campaign Steering Committee and campaign sponsors, highlighting their shared commitment to advancing the right to braille literacy worldwide.

Join the global movement: be part of a worldwide call to action to ensure braille remains a living, evolving, and empowering literacy medium for generations to come.

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Unpacking the Braille Innovations at CSUN 2026 (Episode 77)

The 41st CSUN Assistive Technology Conference took place from 9-13 March 2026, introducing an impressive assortment of new braille products! Everything from the most advanced notetaker to the simplest USB-only braille display was unveiled, alongside new developments in multi-line braille technology and braille labelling.

In this episode, join our panel of braille experts and enthusiasts as we round up the announcements and make sense of the ever-changing braille landscape.

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Unveiling Canute Scientific from Bristol Braille Technology (Episode 76)

Join Ed Rogers of Bristol Braille Technology as he lifts the lid on Canute Scientific, the next generation of multi-line braille technology designed specifically for blind people working, studying or exploring Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM). Based on the already popular Canute Console multi-line braille workstation, but with an upgraded system board, new chassis, greater connectivity options, roadmap for future development and a suite of custom applications designed with feedback and advice from braille readers at the forefront, BBT truly believes this is their best product to date.

IN this episode, Ed will:

  • Explain how Canute Scientific came to be and who will benefit most from it
  • Describe the physical layout and appearance of Canute Scientific and how it differs from Canute Console
  • Introduce Canute Scientific’s operating system and user interface
  • Demonstrate some of the applications developed specifically for Canute Scientific
  • Outline which features will also be available to Canute Console owners
  • Explain the upgrade options available to owners of Canute Console and Canute 360

With thanks to Bristol Braille Technology CIC for sponsoring this episode.

Links of Interest

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In Conversation with Scott Erichsen (Episode 75)

Regular Braillecast listeners will know that I visited Australia and New Zealand in 2024, and we featured a number of interviews from that trip in the weeks that followed. One interview that we didn’t feature at the time was with Scott Erichsen, an Australian assistive technology expert, musician and all round braille enthusiast.

As a musician, he is an accomplished jazz and classical pianist and regularly accompanies other musicians in concerts, exams and recordings. He qualified in jazz piano at Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

His technology career began when a UK company, T and T Consultancy, expanded its operations into Australia in the late 2000s. After being the figurehead of that operation for several years, he enjoyed positions at Quantum RLV, Pacific Vision International, Vision Australia, Next Sense, HumanWare, Guide Dogs Australia and the National Disability Insurance Agency, which administers the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

In this fascinating conversation, we discover more about Scott’s musical and technological career, the part that braille plays in his life and work, and his perspective on the future of braille technology.

Links of Interest

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Irrelevant or Irreplaceable: Is the Perkins Brailler Really so Old-Fashioned? (Episode 74)

The “old-fashioned Perkins” is a term we hear (and perhaps use) a lot. Whilst it is true that it was invented over fifty years ago, the evolution in braille writing in the period leading up to the first Perkins Brailler being sold was immense, with dozens of braille writers coming to market. Some of them survived; some of them have been almost completely forgotten; but all of them have a story to tell.

In this episode, we are delighted to be joined by Alan Thorpe, Perkins repair expert and owner of the largest known private collection of heritage braille equipment in the world. We will explore how ideas around braille writing evolved over time, from stylus to Stainsby and beyond, and discover afresh why the Perkins Brailler is considered by many to be a timeless treasure.

Visit Eyecan, Alan’s company’s website

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A History of Tactile Literacy: In Conversation with Tilly Guthrie (Episode 73)

Victorian Britain was a heavily visual era. Sighted people gained access to the Penny Post, and the ability to communicate with friends across the nation with relative ease in an alphabet which was already well-established. On the other hand, for the blind community, many different tactile alphabets were invented simultaneously to address their exclusion from this culture, and blind education was completely decentralised.

Tilly Guthrie is a PhD researcher in the history of tactile literacy, specialising in the period between the invention of Braille in the 1820s and its eventual adoption in Britain at the end of the nineteenth century. In this conversation with Braillists Chairman, Dave Williams, she describes some of the tactile alphabets in use at that time and shows how their concurrence affected blind people’s access to culture and community and how blindness was perceived by the sighted.

More Information

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World Braille Day 2025: HumanWare (Episode 72)

Most of us by now have heard of the BrailleNote, Brailliant and Mantis, three of the leading braille products manufactured by HumanWare. Last year, they also launched Monarch, their brand new Dynamic Tactile Device, allowing multi-line braille and tactile graphics to be rendered on the same refreshable surface.

In this episode, we catch up with Braille Product Manager Andrew Flatres.

Links of Interest

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World Braille Day 2025: Aspire Consultancy (Episode 71)

Many listeners to this podcast will already be familiar with the Orbit Reader, which has been available in the UK since around 2018. Orbit Research have since expanded their product portfolio to include a range of other braille input and output devices. However, RNIB recently took the decision to discontinue Orbit products, leaving many customers anxious and disappointed.

One company which has stepped into the breach is Aspire Consultancy, and in this episode, we’re joined by its proprietor, Graham Longley.

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World Braille Day 2025: Bristol Braille Technology CIC (Episode 70)

Bristol Braille Technology CIC is a not-for-profit organisation and the inventor of the Canute 360, designed in close collaboration with the Braillists’ community as the original affordable multi-line Braille display.

Their latest product, the Canute Console Premium, is a tactile workstation for viewing and editing text, tables, charts, vectors, maps and code over nine lines—or 360 cells—of refreshable Braille.

In early 2024 we featured a candid conversation with Ed Rogers, Managing Director of BBT, about Canute 360, and as one of our World Braille Day conference sponsors, we are pleased to invite him back to talk more about Canute Console now.

We also discussed BBT’s role in shaping the Braillists and how this might develop in the future.

Other links of interest

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