BETT Awards 2010 winners’ videos: Special Educational Needs Solutions: RoboBraille
Voice Over
Barbara is an adult learner and a part time tutor at Lancaster & Morecambe College. With her visual impairment she needs support to access mainstream learning material.
Barbara Creighton, Adult Learner – Interview
I have recently been introduced to RoboBraille and I didn’t realise what potential it has.
John Latham – Interview
Before we had RoboBraille here at the college we had to get a member of staff to transcribe documents which is a time consuming procedure. Now we can do it with a click of a button and students can get their documents within minutes rather than days.
Phillippa Howsley, Learning Support, Interview
Previously we had a lot leaner’s who are denied any access to education whatsoever because they cannot simply read the written format.
Voice Over
RoboBraille is an email based service that translates text into audio recording and then if required, then into Braille.
John Latham – Interview
Using RoboBraille is a straight forward process. I often get text which I need to make into mp3’s from a tutor or even a student.
Phillippa Howsley, Learning Support, Interview
To convert a document into a RoboBraille format, I would need to first ensure that it’s in a written text form and then send it to our Assistive Technology Officer.
John Latham – Interview
I’ll send those directly to an email address with a subject header. Within maybe 2 minutes that file comes back as an mp3 which I can then forward to the tutor or directly to the student.
Barbara Creighton, Adult Learner – Interview
What I did is save it to my phone card and put it into my phone. Went to my music player and played it. It literally is as easy as that and it was absolutely really lovely and clear.
John Latham – Interview
An mp3 seems to be one of the preferred ways to get your resources these days or even your feedback from a tutor. It’s very accessible, easy to use and the majority of these students have devices which can play these back.
One of the other uses of RoboBraille is to actually a Braille output on a refreshable Braille display for our blind computer users. This is especially useful if you are learning Braille. This is a device that reads out Braille from a Word document for instance.
Phillippa Howsley, Learning Support, Interview
I think this is a really useful tool because it means that everybody gets the same chances and I would use it quite a bit not necessarily just with visually impaired learners. I think it has the potential to be extremely freeing for a lot of learners who struggle with written text.
John Latham – Interview
RoboBraille had the potential across lots of other different areas of the college. We initially brought it in to help visually impaired students but it was so easy to use, we are now using it to support dyslexic students across college. It even offers support in language teaching.
Phillippa Howsley, Learning Support, Interview
One of the big advantages of this system is the speed at which is processes the information. I would use it in the classroom when I am accessing a piece of written text and the students are doing some work that pertains to that written text. It would mean Barbara could have that information on an mp3 player through her headphones and answer the same questions at the same time as all the other learners in the classroom.
Barbara Creighton, Adult Learner – Interview
When I heard about RoboBraille at first I thought, I don’t know whether I will be able to use it but after being shown, even after one time it was so easy to use, so it’s useful for anybody.
Phillippa Howsley, Learning Support, Interview
Anybody can use it. I had no specialist knowledge whatsoever and I’d be very confident about using it.
John Latham – Interview
Students, tutors, anybody who wants to use it basically can access their documents in a timely and efficient manner.