Webstandards, Accessibility and Usability at Penn State

The Web Blog "Dingo Access" (http://www.dingoaccess.com) has a great video of a refreshable Braille display.
http://www.dingoaccess.com/accessibility/refreshable-braille-and-the-web...

A Braille display is a row of 32 blocks (or cells) of pins. Each pin can be raised to represent a dot in a Braille character or lowered as needed. When connected to a computer, it reads 32 characters at a time raises the appropriate combination of pins for each character.

Once the reader has processed each line he or she can press a button to continue. As the demo shows, an experienced Braille reader can read quite quickly. But it also shows how narrow a window a content the reader has. Every character really counts in this scenario.

FYI - If you are interested in the Braille script in general, I did create a page at
http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/international/bylanguage/braille.html

Links to Braille Hardware and Software are listed at the end.

There is also information about some assutive technology tools used in the University Libraries
http://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/disabilities/technology.html