Jason (J.J.) Meddaugh – Braillecast

CSUN Round-Up 2024 (Episode 54)

The 39th CSUN Assistive Technology Conference took place from 18 to 22 March in Anaheim, California, hosted by the Centre on Disabilities, Division of Student Affairs at California State University, Northridge. There were many exciting braille product announcements at the conference, and the latest prototypes of previously announced braille products were also exhibited.

In this episode, we are joined by a panel of braille experts who attended the conference. They will help us unpack the announcements and share their thoughts on the products they saw.

If you are planning to attend any of the Sight Village exhibitions in the UK, this episode will help you decide which products you might like to see for yourself.

Products discussed in this episode:

Monarch from APH and HumanWare
BT Speak from Blazie Technologies
Orbit Speak, Orbit Reader Q20 and Orbit Reader Q40 from Orbit Research
Cadence from Tactile Engineering
Optima from Orbit Research and Access Mind
BraillePen24 from Harpo
NewHaptics
Paige Connect from Paige Braille
Braille eMotion from Hims
OneCourt
Various accessibility efforts from Procter and Gamble and Sony
Braille guide dog name tags from Elegant Insights

On the panel:

Chancey Fleet ([email protected] on Mastadon) from the Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library
J.j. Meddaugh ([email protected] on Mastadon) from A. T. Guys and Blind Bargains, home of the Blind Bargains Qast which is soon to return
Judy Dixon, President of the International Council on English Braille

00:00 / 56:28

The Braillists at NFB 2023 (Episode 50)

The Braillists Foundation held a face-to-face meeting at the 83rd annual convention of the National Federation of the Blind at the Hilton Americas-Houston hotel, Texas, in July 2023. Our Chairman, Dave Williams, was there with a microphone to soak up the atmosphere.

We spoke to:

Bristol Braille Technology CIC
Hable
A Cubed Design
Ka Li (consulting for National Network for Equitable Library Service and member of the Australia and New Zealand Accessible Graphics Group (ANZAGG) and the EBraille Tactile Graphics Taskforce)
Marco Salsiccia, Senior Native Mobile Accessibility Coach at DEQ Systems and owner of the Blind SVG Study Guide
Danielle Montour, volunteer Braille and Tactile Literacy Educator at the Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library, New York
A. T. Guys and Blind Bargains

With thanks to the Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library for allowing us the use of their room for our meeting.

00:00 / 20:12

What Happened at CSUN? (Episode 38)

The annual CSUN Assistive Technology Conference took place in March in California, and there were lots of exciting braille and tactile graphics announcements.

We assembled a line-up of braille-using panellists who attended the conference who talked us through what was announced and gave their first impressions of the new products they saw.

00:00 / 55:19