Draft Press Release To Caretakers Magazines, Assistive Technology Magazines
New technology revolutionizes possibilities for the blind, their families and caretakers

For all of the assistive technology that has, over the years, been developed to increase the quality of life and freedom of the blind, there has continued to be a great deal of struggle in maintaining and providing for it. Those in the healthcare profession know all too well that the resources available only go so far in their ability to continually provide.

In a project that began with a dream and a scenario, a new technology has hit the market that opens up a whole new realm of possibilities for the blind, and for the enhancement of their freedom. The project, spearheaded by The National Federation of the Blind in their partnership with the Miami-based company, Labels for Literacy, is designed to provide greater access to information through Braille, and to increase the rate of literacy among the blind. The technology, developed by the Miami-based company Technology Tree International, creates Braille through the use of a clear epoxy that is placed atop any surface to create durable literature. It is cheap, prints extraordinarily fast, and revolutionizes the field of assistive technology for the blind.

Access to information has long been considered the crux of freedom. Through history, conquering powers have continually denied the conquered access to texts, academic resources, and written language, knowing that these items form the backbone of power, freedom, and self-expression. Today, issues of information access have begun to resurface, most notably in discussions about granting equal access to the Internet to different socioeconomic groups in the country. Why should some children from some areas be exposed to information and others denied it? How can we ensure these resources benefit society across the board?

For the blind, this issue takes a whole new form. Access to printed information, in the form of Braille, is scarce. This has become the case for two primary reasons. Traditionally, Braille is printed through a process that pokes indentations into a page. The bumps that result from it are highly susceptible to damage and can wear out quickly. Secondly, printing Braille is extraordinarily slow and financially exorbitant to do. Until the release of this new Labels for Literacy technology, the use and application of Braille has been limited, and has been largely substituted for by audio cassettes. Certainly audio is a viable medium for the transmission of information - however it cannot be stated clearly enough: listening is not literacy. It is largely due to the emergence of electronic and computer technology that literacy among the blind has diminished so greatly. Since 1963, the percentage of legally blind children using Braille as their primary reading medium has dropped from 51% to 10%. This is not due to the lack of learning potential among blind children, but instead is due to the lack of resources and texts available to them.

The issue is more complicated, though, than literacy; access to information hits home on a very immediate and personal level, and additionally has far reaching implications on the national and global levels. The Labels for Literacy program is currently most focused in the consumer goods realm. With the company tagline reading, "Equal Access in Advertising," Labels for Literacy's goal is to put out more Braille in the consumer market, where the blind can have access to brand information and product recognition. While there already exist assistive technologies that read bar-codes and "speak" the names of the products aloud, such technologies can be expensive, complicated, and not at all fault-proof. The way that the Labels for Literacy program works cuts through these complications and gets right to the heart of the matter. Corporations and brand-name companies sponsor Labels for Literacy by producing sheets of labels with Braille text on them; Labels for Literacy then compiles these sheets and sends them out in packages to the blind. Thus, the blind can place labels on their products either right there in the aisles of the supermarket or once the products are back in their home. Caretakers may be necessary in the aisles, but once in the home the blind have total freedom and access to their products. No more doubt about what can of soup is being opened.

And it goes even farther than that. William Kelly, president and CEO of Technology Tree explains the philosophy behind the program, "Our mission is to raise the social conscience and make sure Braille is made more available. I want more Braille in front of kids, more Braille within reach of children sitting at the breakfast table, more Braille on the packages that children pay attention to." The belief is that there should be equal opportunity in advertising and labeling for everyone; that blind and sighted persons should have the same information available to them.

"This product and program will have as significant impact on the lives of the blind or visually impaired," says Dr. Mauer, President of NFB, "Labels for Literacy products simplify everyday events and act as a communication tool for the visually impaired consumer giving them a role of independency and ultimately enhance their lifestyle."

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