I found this is the June, 1993 issue of the Braille Monitor, published by the National Federation of the Blind. You can view the entire issue by going to http://www.nfb.org/bm/bm93/brlm9306.htm. THE MOUNTBATTEN BRAILLER AND BRAILLE LITERACY by Tim Connell Tim Connell is a Director of Quantum Technologies in Sydney, Australia, producer of the Mountbatten Brailler. This year he is working with Human Ware, Inc., the Brailler's American distributor. Almost anyone who reads and writes Braille is familiar with the Perkins Brailler. Not many of us, however, have tried or even observed the Mountbatten Brailler. It seemed to us to be in the best interest of the Braille-writing public to publish information about this interesting new piece of equipment. Here is what Mr. Connell has to say about it: This article is about the Mountbatten Brailler: what it is, what it does, and why it is important to the literacy of blind children in America. It is essential that we organize our efforts behind a plan to promote Braille literacy in schools and advocate the Mountbatten Brailler as one of the most diverse and effective means available to teachers for the successful accomplishment of this vital goal. At present we are witnessing a resurgence of interest in teaching Braille; however, the fact remains that only twelve percent of visually impaired people in America are Braille- literate. In 1965 fifty percent of visually impaired people were Braille literate (ref: National Literacy Hotline). One of the reasons for this decline has been the belief that computers with speech synthesizers would remove or minimize the need to learn Braille. This view is still held by some, though they are now in an ever decreasing minority. The following poem is dedicated to them. When this poem is spoken by a voice synthesizer, it sounds correct. When it is run through a spelling checker, no errors are detected. Read on! The Hearing Herd Now I no computers are not always write, But they are pretty good for people with no site. Just like this poem, I can be shore, My writing has improved so much moor. In just a while I'm applying four a job, I know my resume will leave them all agog. Get with it kid's; don't learn Braille, Be dependant on electronic mail. If your blind they'll understand, Its just two hard to reed with your hand. You'll find those dots are for the birds, Come join us hear in the hearing heard. Literacy is the fundamental building block upon which an individual's educational potential is established. Braille literacy is every bit as important for a person who cannot read print as print is for the sighted, and the work of the National Federation of the Blind in focusing attention on Braille literacy is to be widely applauded. Literacy includes both reading and writing. To teach children to become literate in Braille, they must read, not listen. To do this, they need a Braille keyboard to write on and immediate Braille output to read, i.e., a Braille writer. The only Braille writer that is being used widely in American schools is the Perkins. The Mountbatten Brailler was developed primarily as an electronic alternative to the Perkins Braille writer. Why should we use the Mountbatten Brailler instead of the Perkins? Many people would say that the Perkins was fine for their education. As a matter of fact, they still use it, so why should schools do things any differently? That is a plausible argument, but not one applied to the education of sighted children, and the lack of fifty-year-old mechanical typewriters in schools today will reaffirm my point. It is not my intention to denigrate the Perkins; it has served hundreds of thousands of people around the world very satisfactorily and reliably for nearly fifty years. However, in today's electronic environment it is both limited and limiting. One of the most significant advantages of the Mountbatten Brailler is the keyboard. It has the same feel as a computer keyboard (light touch and positive click). But most important, it has been designed ergonomically. This means that each key is under a finger when the hand is at rest. Both sides of the keyboard are offset a little, forming a wide print V, so that there is no need to bend the wrists. These factors add up to a stress-free keyboard that greatly reduces the risk of repetitive strain injuries (such as carpal tunnel syndrome, arthritis, etc.). It is also much easier to use than the Perkins, especially for young children just starting out with Braille or for anyone with special keyboard needs. The Mountbatten Brailler keyboard also teaches the skills needed to progress to a computer keyboard. The Perkins keyboard teaches all the wrong keyboard skills, such as using a lot of force and incorrect positioning of the hands and wrists. This was unimportant when the likelihood of a student's using a computer during the rest of his or her education was remote, but today it is highly probable that all students will be using computers at some stage. The Mountbatten Brailler also has all the basic features one would expect to find in an electronic typewriter. These include auto correction (yes, it actually flattens dots), selectable tabs and margins, and the ability to use paper of any size or thickness. The Mountbatten Brailler also has a memory so that documents can be stored and reprinted at a later stage. In the standard unit the memory is 32K, or about forty pages of Braille, and can be expanded to 160K or two hundred twenty pages of Braille. The memory can also be used to store a letterhead, for example, or a Braille form, and multiple copies can be printed as needed. For silent note-taking, information can be typed directly into memory without the Brailler printing, or it can be done, of course, with the Brailler printing. In the classroom the Mountbatten Brailler provides a gentle introduction to basic computer concepts, like naming and saving a file and retrieving a file from memory. With this training, moving on to a computer is a natural progression. While these features are exciting to most Perkins users, we should not forget that typewriters with these features were available twenty years ago. Why has it taken so long for Braille- writing technology to catch up? One of the main reasons is the size of the financial investment required to develop a Braille writing device from scratch. More than three million dollars was spent over a period of eight years to bring the Mountbatten Brailler to market. Much of this money came from public sources, primarily the Mountbatten Trust in the United Kingdom and the Australian Government. With such a large amount of money invested, considerable time was spent making sure that the Mountbatten Brailler would meet the needs of the people who would be using it. Over a hundred organizations from around the world (including the National Federation of the Blind) had input and made recommendations about what the Mountbatten Brailler should be. The resulting specifications, therefore, reflect the views of a wide cross section of the world's blind community. The two highest priorities were that it should be electronic and portable (battery operated). The third was that it should be designed to avoid obsolescence. To achieve this, all the electronics are on a card that can be changed by the user. All upgrades will be done via this card, thereby protecting the original investment. So, on the basis of its functions and features, few would disagree that the Mountbatten Brailler can make a valid claim to be the successor to the Perkins. The big question that follows is "What does it cost"? The Mountbatten Brailler is sold as either of two packages: the Mountbatten Brailler Standard and the Mountbatten Brailler Educational Package. To compare the cost of the Mountbatten Brailler directly with the Perkins is unfair without first mentioning that the Mountbatten Brailler Standard, in addition to being a Braille writer, can also be used as a Braille embosser when connected to a computer. This means that the Mountbatten Brailler will emboss Braille files sent from any type of computer (including Apple, IBM, and Braille note-takers like the Braille 'n Speak and the Eureka) in the same way other Braille embossers will. It is not as fast as dedicated Braille embossers, but for personal use it is very suitable and easy to use. Its ability to use paper of different widths and thicknesses is a distinct advantage. The Mountbatten Brailler also has a graphics mode and can be used for printing Braille graphics. So the Mountbatten Brailler Standard at $2,495 means you are buying not only a Braille writer with numerous advantages over the Perkins, but also a Braille embosser. Even if a child is not going to use the Mountbatten Brailler as a Braille embosser straight away, the fact that it is available in the classroom or home means that there is a greater likelihood that Braille will be produced. And, when the child progresses to a computer, it will not be necessary to raise the money for a separate Braille embosser. The Mountbatten Brailler may be more money, but clearly it is a better value. Another significant factor in the decline of Braille literacy has been mainstreaming, where adequate resources are often not available to the student or the teachers. The problems that regular classroom teachers face are very real. There is a constant need to translate from print to Braille and Braille to print. The Mountbatten Brailler Educational Package has features that truly facilitate mainstreaming by overcoming these problems. It puts a whole range of capabilities into the hands of students and teachers that now exist only in resource centers or regional offices. The Mountbatten Brailler Educational Package is the Mountbatten Standard with the addition of back and forward Braille translation software, additional memory, a connector box for connecting the Mountbatten Brailler to a range of other devices at the same time, serial and parallel cables, and a computer keyboard. Undoubtedly one of the most important capabilities of the Mountbatten Brailler Educational Package is its capacity to allow a person to type on a standard computer keyboard and produce Braille on the Mountbatten Brailler. The keyboard is connected to the Mountbatten Brailler, so there are no software or special commands to be learned. Now anybody at all can produce Braille. Before people purchase the Mountbatten Brailler, this feature is not always assessed as the most important, because it has never been available before. However, once it is in use, most people find it to be one of the most important features. The regular classroom teacher can now write up notes or any information in Braille. The school administration can write Braille letters to parents who are blind. In offices a sighted co-worker can leave messages in Braille for blind colleagues. A whole range of information that was never Brailled before is now available. This is not a threat to the role of the transcribers. Rather, it takes the pressure off them while producing a greater volume of Braille. Apart from the importance of making Braille more accessible is the issue of privacy. No blind person needs to be told about the lack of privacy in reading personal communications. When a Mountbatten Brailler is in a school, we find invitations to parties, birthday cards, Christmas cards, and the whole range of notes that kids write to each other put into Braille. Parents who don't know Braille can type up messages, letters, cards, and even lists of chores in Braille. The more Braille is written to communicate with blind students, the more these youngsters will use it, and the better the chances are that they will become proficient in its use. No other device exists that so encourages the production and use of Braille on a personal level. We expect sighted children to become literate, and in order to assist them in achieving this goal we give them textbooks, comics, magazines, environmental information (signs, advertising, etc.) as well as personal communications. Blind children get Braille textbooks and sometimes a small amount of recreational reading in Braille. This is not equal access to information, nor is it equal education. The Mountbatten Brailler helps bridge this gap. The Mountbatten Brailler Educational Package costs $3,295, including all the options listed above. The translation software is contained in the Mountbatten Brailler. The forward translation software converts text into Grade II Braille. The text can be in a file on your computer or can be typed in directly from the additional computer keyboard. The back translation software converts Grade II Braille into text. When Braille is typed onto the Mountbatten Brailler keyboard, a perfectly translated copy can be printed simultaneously on a printer. Any type of printer can be used. By use of the Connector Box, the Mountbatten Brailler can be connected to many devices at once, avoiding the time-consuming process of changing cables. By simply entering commands, the user can turn the Mountbatten Brailler into a Braille embosser, a forward translator, a memory note taker, and a back translation system. And don't forget it is still just a Braille writer. Just turn it on and write on it like a Perkins. The Mountbatten Brailler brings Braille writing into the twentieth century, but as many have already noted, the twentieth century is nearly over. This is not a flippant remark. All the effort, time, and money that are being spent on promoting Braille literacy standards and legislation are being done without due consideration of the tools needed in schools for Braille literacy. The organized blind in this country must become the advocates to ensure that blind children are receiving the appropriate tools to enable them to live up to their potential. The Mountbatten Brailler is a tool that will facilitate Braille literacy and mainstreaming. It is not the total solution, but it is an important part of the solution.