Tips and guides

Tips for Technology Needs of Academic Braille User

Tips to address the technology needs of students who are blind or visually impaired academic braille-users who are college-bound

By Belinda Rudinger

While the needs of each student are different, here is a quick list of some of the most common technology needs of academic braille users who are college-bound.  

Computer Skills:

  1. Keyboarding skills
  2. Screen reader skills (JAWS, NVDA, Voiceover, etc.)
  3. Microsoft Office (Word/Excel/Powerpoint), OR if using a Mac computer with Voiceover: Pages/Numbers/Keynote

Digital Media Skills:

  1. Individual account with Bookshare and/or Learning Ally and/or Bard (NLS) and ability to retrieve his/her own media (auditory and/or braille through device)
  2. Listening/Reading device: could be a braille notetaker, a laptop, a tablet/phone, or a DAISY player)

Internet Use:

Braille notetaker, refreshable braille display, and/or computer and/or tablet/phone

Email Use:

Braille notetaker, refreshable braille display and/or computer and/or tablet/phone

Mobile Phone Use:

With auditory capabilities (examples: Google Talk, Voiceover)

Use of a Scan & Read/Optical Character Recognition Option

Either a standalone device OR a combination of scanner+computer+OCR software

Use of a Graphing Calculator

Handheld Orion Talking TI-84 or Viewplus Audio Graphing Calculator software on a computer

what are the tech needs of an academic college-bound braille user?
Click on image above to download Literacy Tip Sheet.
Girl using braille notetaker