The date of 4 January marks the birth of Loius Braille, the creator of the Braille reading and writing system, which makes life easier for blind people and their integration into society through touch. He was blinded at the age of 3 and at the age of 20 managed to form an alphabet with different combinations from 1 to 6 dots, consisting of 64 signs, engraved on raised paper, and read from left to right. These signs are combined in two vertical, juxtaposed rows like dominoes.

It was spread throughout the world and is still used today as the official way of writing and reading for blind people and that is where LASIGE researchers working in mobile accessibility enter. The most recent work on this subject of André Rodrigues and Tiago Guerreiro, LASIGE integrated members, explored how to integrate Braille input and output mechanisms for smartphones.

The lack of tactile and kinesthetic feedback on the touchscreen results in a slow typing process. Braille input has enabled faster nonvisual entry speeds on mobile touchscreen devices. Since the advent of touchscreen mobile devices, numerous input methods have been proposed for blind people. Braille chording approaches have been particularly effective in improving typing speed at the cost of accuracy.

LASIGE celebrates World Braille Day by continuing to explore how to improve input accuracy, adapting suggestions, editing, and correction mechanisms to the nuances of chord base input!

Know more about it here.