[nfbmi-talk] New, Easy-To-Produce Braille Via The Everyday Printer?

[Kane Brolin]

This story on touchable ink came to my attention when I looked at the
Twitter feed for the San Diego Center for the Blind @SDCBlind.

The technology is being developed in Thailand, thanks to a joint
venture between a university there and the huge global marketing and
communications company J. Walter Thompson.
http://www.thedrum.com/news/2016/04/22/j-walter-thompson-has-invented-touchable-ink-help-visually-impaired

I find this story hugely exciting and potentially very significant for
three reasons:

(1)  It has the potential to make printed Braille much cheaper and
more inexpensive to produce--probably even quicker to produce--than it
is now through any embossing method that I know of.

(2)  The technology is not being developed in the United States, but
in an emerging economy--Thailand.  This means Braille could be much
more readily available to those even less able to afford or procure it
than we are here in the Northern Hemisphere.

(3)  This represents a public-private partnership between established
organizations that aren't dedicated exclusively to empowering blind
people.  What this says to me is that our perceived credibility and
economic power throughout the world is growing.

A little deeper background on how this project developed could make
for a really interesting article in "The Braille Monitor," don't you
think?

-Kane