Digital Braille device gets modern upgrade

Perkins Products, a company affiliated with the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Mass., has combined its mechanical Braille typewriter invented in 1951 with a computer. Called a Smart Brailler, it now includes tutorials, a computer screen to display letters being typed and a text-to-speech feature. "It gives the teacher of the visually impaired, the sighted classroom teacher, the parent, a window into Braille," JoAnn Becker, trainer and technology support specialist for ­Perkins Products, said. The Boston Globe (tiered subscription model) (12/10)  http://bostonglobe.com/business/2012/12/10/braille-typewriters-get-smart/me6Vt3ipFaLJ5w5OX3fRxM/story.html