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From: curt@boombox.micro.umn.edu (Curtis Griesel)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: Braille fonts?
Message-ID: <16111@bunker.UUCP>
Date: 4 Dec 90 04:43:46 GMT
References: <16043@bunker.UUCP>
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Reply-To: curt@boombox.micro.umn.edu (Curtis Griesel)
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Organization: University of Minnesota, Minneapolis - CSCI Dept.
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Index Number: 12196

In article <16043@bunker.UUCP> campbell%hpdmd48@hplabs.HP.COM
(Gary Campbell) writes:
>Index Number: 12128
>
>I am looking for fonts to print braille on printers such as laser or
>inkjet printers.  I heard that there is one for the Mac.  Does anyone
>know where I could get it, or of any others?

Marie Knowlton, a professor at the University of Minnesota, is
doing somthing like what you describe.  She has created braille
fonts which show up under the "fonts" menu of Macintosh word
processors.  These fonts consist of braille cells rather than the
standard English characters.

What do you want to use the fonts for?  As far as I know, a
standard computer printer will only print these cells in ink, so a
document produced this way would be visual, not tactile.  (A person
could see the braille but not feel it).  Do you know some way to
get tactile printing out of these printers?

To produce tactile braille, Marie prints onto what I think what is
called "thermal-cap" paper.  She then runs this paper through a
transparency maker (any evenly-heated source might work), which
caused the thermal-cap paper to expand wherever there is black ink
on it.  Thus, the visual braille cells raise up, and can be read!

She hasn't combined these fonts with a braille-translator, so
anything that you want in grade 2 has to be typed in as grade 2,
but it is a neat idea.  There is especially great potential for
creating tactile drawings this way, complete with braille text, by
using something like MacPaint or MacDraw.

I havn't asked her permission to spread her address around the
world, so if you want more info, drop me a note and I'll pass it on
to her.  I'm also using this technique so would be glad to hear
from you.

---
Curtis Griesel
Coordinator of Adaptive Technology,  University of Minnesota
MWNC,125 Shepherd Labs, Minneapolis MN 55455
curt@boombox.micro.umn.edu                  612/626-0365        


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