Not Wimpy At All

This is a company that 'gets it'! Makes me want to move to South Africa!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Refreshable Braille Display

Anyone that has been reading my blog for a while knows how I feel about devices such as the Kindle reader and the lack of accessible features. The Kindle is making progress but it's not there yet. So, I was really interested to learn more about the accessibility features of Apple's new iPad.

So far, I haven't found much information - perhaps because the device is so new. But I did find one article that discussed future possiblities for the iPad and other such devices. From the Smart Planet website:

Refreshable Braille display could change how the blind read

Scientists at North Carolina State University have developed a refreshable Braille display system that would allow the blind to read digital content on the Web.

The Braille system, of course, allows the blind to read by using a series of raised dots to represent letters and numbers.

The problem with existing electronic Braille displays is that the expensive devices generally only show one line of text per time.

But a research team led by Neil Di Spigna and Peichun Yang wanted to create a full-page display that effectively “maps pixels in an image,” allowing the full-page Braille display to represent the images as raised dots.

The researchers call the concept a “hydraulic and latching mechanism,” which is made of an inexpensive, resilient electroactive polymer that allows the dots to be raised to the correct height for reading.

Once the dots are raised, the latching mechanism supports the weight being applied by a person’s fingers as they read the dots.

The material’s quick response rate allows a reader to quickly scroll through a document.

The researchers said they are working on a fully functioning prototype, with next year as a target.

If successful, the blind will be able to take better advantage of the myriad gadgets — laptops, smartphones, GPS navigation devices, e-book readers, even the Apple iPad — that access the Web.

In The News....

Why we must all be careful on the big Internet playground. Things are not always what they seem. Even people who write very compelling stories about their child with rare diseases may not be telling the truth…

Blogger Lies About Having Child With Rare Disease


Pediatricians are taking a stand on bullying. We’ve moved past the ‘kids will be kids’ mindset, and real action must be taken. Next month, the American Academy of Pediatrics will publish the new version of an official policy statement on the pediatrician’s role in preventing youth violence. To read more about this very important topic:

Pediatricians Against Bullying


Have you struggled as much as I have trying to get appropriate Braille instruction for your child? Apparently a lot of parents have, and the National Federation of the Blind is doing something about that – at least in Utah. Hopefully the NFB lawsuit will raise awareness and perhaps even help make changes for children across the United States.

National Federation of the Blind Files Suit


This story from my alma mater troubles me. I am quite aware of the fact that parents of children who are deaf have very definite views on whether to let their children have cochlear implants. As I have written many times on this blog, I don’t believe Ashley needs ‘fixing’ with a device implanted in her brain just because she is deaf. However, I respect the rights of other parents to make a different choice for their child.

I am concerned though when doctors and schools appear to make those decisions for families. My school district, for example, embraced an oral deaf program to the exclusion of sign language programs many years ago. As a result, getting sign language support for Ashley has been an ongoing struggle for me.

Is Old Dominion University following the same path as my school district…?

No Middle Ground?

What The Heck Is Going On?

I have run across two news articles in the last week that concern me greatly. The first article tells how fewer than 10 percent of Blind Americans can read Braille. The second article, a student’s personal story, appeared in the Columbia University Spectator. The student labels himself as one of a very few Deaf students at the university who sign.

What is going on here? I fight every single day to have Ashley educated in both Braille and sign, and yet adults are rejecting both those things. I don’t get it…

Happy Belated Birthday, Louis!

Happy birthday, Louis Braille! The 200th anniversary of Louis Braille’s birth on January 4, 1809, is being celebrated this year, and to blind people around the world, it is indeed cause for celebration.

Louis Braille became blind at the age of 3, when he accidentally stabbed himself in one eye with an awl, one of his father's workshop tools and got an infection. His other eye went blind from the infection spreading to it. But that was not enough to stop the remarkable young man from inventing a system of reading that would change the world.

In 1821, a Captain in the French Army, visited the school that Louis Braille attended to show the children his invention, called "Night writing." It was a code of 12 raised dots and a number of dashes that let soldiers share top-secret information on the battlefield without having to speak. The code was too difficult for Louis to understand, and he later changed the number of raised dots to 6 to form what we today call Braille.

Today, thanks to the ingenious invention of Louis Braille, blind children and adults throughout the world can read and write as well as their sighted counterparts. Please join me in also celebrating the braille code, named after its young inventor, and the expanded possibilities for literacy, independence, and self-expression Louis Braille opened up to blind people everywhere.

Want to see you name in Braille? Check here...