Optelec

• Alva 544
• Alva BC 640

Humanware

• Brailliant 24
• Brailliant 40

Freedom Scientific

• Focus 40
• Focus 80

Braille Displays

Braille displays provide direct access to information on the computer screen allowing a blind person to make full use of the potential of a personal computer.

These devices are built with a particular number of cells with 6 or 8 dots included in each cell. Braille dots are produced on the display by pins that are raised and lowered (refreshed) in combinations to form Braille characters. When used with screen-reading programs, Braille displays allow users to access any portion of the screen information.

Full size braille displays are 80 cells long. Braille displays with less than 80 cells cope with an 80 character print line by displaying it in stages, e.g. a 20- cell display would show it in four stages. This is not ideal, but smaller displays are much cheaper than 80 cell ones, and so are a more affordable purchase for many users.

Most Braille displays offer a variety of specialized features such as cursor routing buttons and status cells. A router button (or sensor) controls the position of the text cursor; user presses on the router button of a cell and the cursor moves directly over that letter in the text. Extra 'status' cells are available in some displays to provide additional information about text-attributes or line and column positions.

These devices can be connected to stationary or portable computers via parallel, serial ports and/or USB connection.

A refreshable Braille display can be an essential addition to a computer system especially for users working with computer programming languages or deafblind individuals providing them with better access to complex screen layouts.