ABSTRACT
Developments in technology create the most promising possibilities yet available for solving or mitigating the problems of visually-handicapped people. Significant advances have been made already with microelectronic devices that can assist in both reading and writing. The magnification of text enables many partially-sighted people to read it more easily. Braille has been a very important medium in making printed material available to blind people. In order that public examinations can be done in Braille, special arrangements have to be made with examination boards, so that Braille answers can be transcribed into text for the examiners. Braille embossing devices, such as the American Perkins Brailler, are widely used in education, as they represent simple ways of recording text in a tactile form. Computer programming is one of the professions that offers potential opportunities for the blind. In order to accommodate both novice and experienced users, the speech response is modified according to criteria within the software.
