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| Braille King available from rnib.org.uk/shop £14.39 inc VAT £11.99 ex VAT |
I’m planning on doing a video of this when my new mic comes in the post enabling me to do voiceover work in iMovie. Until then I couldn’t wait to share my new gadget with you guys so here are a few pictures and info.
The Braille King is a lightweight, pocket braille writing frame. Perfect for short notes, phone numbers, shopping lists and to do’s. It’s perfect for sighted and blind users, especially those new to reading and writing braille. It has the full braille alphabet on the reverse enabling sighted users to copy and write a braille message to their blind/partially sighted friends without knowing a single letter or number of braille before hand. You write in the same way a sighted person would with a pen, left to right, unlike it’s predecessors where you had to write backwards and upside down. This is much easier, a lot of fun and way way cheaper than buying a traditional paper braille writer ie.. a Perkins for around £500.
The Braille King frame holds 60 braille cells, four rows of 15 each. It produces single sided braille which I prefer and is great for newbies. There are also tactile markings at the top of the frame letting you know where you are in your message, also a couple of pins at the bottom of the frame to keep the paper in place so that you can lift the top frame, read your message and check for mistakes, then clip the top back down and continue your message, a nice touch!
The Braille King (Code BF21) comes nicely packaged and included are:
- The plastic wallet that keeps it all together.
- A Spiral bound brailon paper notebook. (Code BP63).
- Braille alphabet on the reverse blue on white.
- A plastic braille stylus (Code BS08).
- Blue plastic braille cell frame.
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I’ve been making notes since it arrived this afternoon. I’ve been learning braille for just over a year and I still don’t feel very confident with reading it on paper. Reading and writing braille on my electronic refreshable braille device and writing/typing out on the Perkins brailler, no problem, but reading paper braille grade 1 and 2 I struggle with a lot. This pocket size gadget is perfect for me to write grade 1 notes to myself and get used to the different feel of paper braille, personally I think electronic, refreshable braille is more prominent and easier to read but reading paper braille is essential to any blind/partially sighted person especially when you need to read braille on medication. The whole thing is about 3” by 5” so takes up hardly any space at all. You don’t have to push down very hard on the stylus to make the braille but I do recommend using it on a flat surface so you can push down if you need to. Extra stylus and brailon notebooks are available from the rnib shop if you need them.
The stylus is really comfortable to write with, there’s no rubber grip or anything but it fits nicely in the hand and I don’t think it would be a problem for lefties or righties. I’m ambidextrous and found it worked with both nicely.
On the reverse with the alphabet, it’s a clear contrast with the blue text on a white background. The letters and cells are explained, however the numbers or number sign are not shown or explained so if someone is giving you their mobile number it will be better for you to write it out as they have no number references. Braille numbers J – 0, A – 1, B – 2, C -3 …. I – 9. More info on Braille numbers here.
I’m really glad I bought this gadget I’m sure it will help me a lot in my braille journey and I strongly recommend it if you are learning braille and struggling with paper reading. Stay tuned for my youtube video covering The Braille King where I’ll demo using it and talk more about it, if I can think of anything else to say about it other than to quote the Aldi Parrot ‘Like it, like it, like it, like it, likelikelikelikelikelikelikeit!’ If you can’t wait for my video here is a great demo from the RNIB team.
This is also on my too get list. I could get back into writing a paper diary and snail mail letters to blind friends.
that is fantastic. it's like a slate and stylus but you don't have to write opposite! I think that would be great for a young student instead of jumping into slate and stylus but then again, that's just my perspective as a braillist. however, it does sound like you like it!
I've heard of older frames that you have to write upside down and back to front to read it but I've never experienced it myself. I've never had any tutor help learning Braille. It wasn't an option in my school so I've had to try and teach myself which is so hard. Using a reading and writing braille course from the rnib or hereford, not sure.. but yeah mum had to figure out the tape cassettes and we try and work through it but I'm still so slow, especially with reading. Writing isn't a problem but reading gr 1 is faster that 2 but still hit and miss. This has def made my day I wrote several notes and could read them all back so yeah. Perfect for new braille students! and cheap at under £15.