These colorful, tactile sheets provide a simple way to create graphs and adapt games and art projects.

With Hop-a-Dot, students can learn braille while being physically involved and active – an exciting alternative to routine, sedentary tasks.

Color Raceway is an exciting board game adapted for children who have visual impairments, including those with a CVI diagnosis.

BrailleBlaster version 1.1.24-beta is now available. Of particular interest is the new embosser support. We are asking users to help us test this and identify embossers not yet directly supported.

In this release:

Embossing work has been completed on the models listed below. If you have any of these embossers, we ask that you please run a few test pages and contact us with the results. We have done internal testing on many of these models, but feedback is always appreciated.

Before testing, please make sure that you configure your embosser to use the correct Model and Manufacturer. To configure your embosser, go to Settings > Embosser Settings, and select “editing your embosser configuration.”

• Juliet Classic
• Juliet 120
• Juliet 60
• Trident
• Phoenix Silver
• Romeo Pro 50
• Index Basic-D
• Everest 3

Additional Feedback

If your embosser is not listed above and you are still having issues, please contact us by emailing support@tech.aph.org so we can get your issue corrected in a future update. Please tell us what embosser you have and what issue you are experiencing.

APH has invested a great deal of resources into the development of BrailleBlaster because we want to make quality braille available to all. Please consider donating to this effort by clicking on the “Donate” link at http://brailleblaster.org.

If you or your colleagues have used TactileDoodle with students who are blind or visually impaired, we’d love to hear from you to ensure your product needs are met. Please consider taking this brief 15-question product feedback survey by clicking on the following link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TactileDoodle

Calling on teachers with students who are braille users or who are learning braille and are ages kindergarten through grade 12 to test the Mantis Q40: a 40-cell refreshable braille display and laptop-quality QWERTY keyboard.

The keyboard connects to a host device (i.e., a mobile phone or PC) via USB or Bluetooth. Field evaluators will work with their student(s) to test the device and provide feedback on all its functions, including its simple editor and book reader apps.

Testing will begin in February 2020, and 3 to 4 weeks will be allowed for evaluation. If you are interested in participating in this field test, please fill out this APH Mantis Field Evaluation Application Form.

Braille/Tactile Embosser

APH is looking for TVIs, teachers, transcribers, and tactile graphics designers interested in reviewing a new braille/tactile embosser. Reviewers must be frequent BrailleBlaster users and available to test the embosser and complete a review survey in February. If interested, please complete the interest form by January 15: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/QT3JLH2. Due to the limited number of prototype units, we are only able to select a small number of reviewers. If you have any questions, please contact Rachel Bishop (rbishop@aph.org) or Karen Poppe (kpoppe@aph.org).