[NFBMI-Talk] Co-Developer Of Braille Blaster Software Memorialized In Wall Street Journal

[Kane Brolin]

This has received astonishingly little coverage across the various
blindness listservs I subscribe to, so I am writing to several to
spread the word.

John J Boyer certainly did a lot to deserve our gratitude in this
movement.  It is significant that his passing was memorialized in both
the print edition [February 11, 2023] and the digital archives of The
Wall Street Journal.  If you were an NFB-NEWSLINE® subscriber, you
could have read this article free of charge by now.  Two sighted
people in my sphere of influence in Northern Indiana have come to me
this week, having noticed the article about Mr. Boyer, even though
neither of them has had extended contact with the blind.  So the
announcement about his passing has made an impact.

I reproduce the first few paragraphs below.

"John J. Boyer, raised on (sic.) a Minnesota farm family with 12
children, was born blind and lost most of his hearing by the time he
was 10 years old.

"None of that stopped him from setting up a basement science lab and
aspiring to be another Thomas Edison. What did frustrate him was a
lack of textbooks in braille. “When I was in high school, my physics
book was older than I was and didn’t even explain what made the sun
hot,” he would later tell the Wisconsin State Journal.

"He studied mathematics and computer science, learned to live on his
own, married only to lose his wife to death a few years later, and
sank into depression. He credited his recovery to counseling and his
Roman Catholic faith.

"Then Mr. Boyer fulfilled what he saw as his duty: He developed
Liblouis as free, open-source software—now used around the world—to
translate text into braille. ViewPlus Technologies Inc., an
Oregon-based maker of equipment used to create and format braille
documents, commissioned Mr. Boyer to develop the software and covered
his expenses. ...

"He helped develop BrailleBlaster, an interface that facilitates such
tasks as creating braille textbooks. That software is made available
through the American Printing House for the Blind, a nonprofit that
serves blind people. His software is also used in screen readers
allowing people with visual impairments to read material displayed on
computers.

"Mr. Boyer died Jan. 17 at a hospital in Madison, Wis. He was 86 and
had been under treatment for pneumonia.

"“My working relationship with the Lord is that I do what is possible
and He will do the impossible,” Mr. Boyer said."

Cordially,

Kane Brolin
President, Indiana State Affiliate
National Federation of the Blind
(574)386-8868 (mobile)