Braille provides a way to read without sight, using a series of raised dots that can be felt through fingertips. While text to speech technology is widespread and makes it easy to consume text content as audio, it doesn't provide a straightforward way for listeners to understand the spelling and punctuation of text. Braille provides the ability for low vision and blind users to read words, getting the spelling and punctuation as intended by the author.

I personally use a mixture of text to speech and Braille, and I am extremely pleased that I learnt to read Braille, while still terribly slow and inefficient, I have the option and can check word spellings. I am a firm believer that Braille should be available to everyone and therefore was pleased to hear about the Nexis Braille display released in India.

Paper Braille is costly to produce, requiring specialist embossers, translation software and heavy. paper stock. Many schools in India have limited text books available, and are unable to produce braille. The Nexis is designed to provide easy and cost effective access to Braille in schools, providing teachers the ability to provide the same level of access to materials as sighted peers. Teachers can copy text and send it to the Nexis via a web interface, providing the same access as sighted peers.

Braille technology is expensive to produce and maintain, any progress in helping to reduce the cost and make the technology more available, is critical to removing barriers to education and enabling visually impaired citizens to be part of society.