Text description: This video highlights ABLE’s Braille Services. It begins with ABLE’s logo which fades to an image of a man reading a braille book. Following this are animated images of groups that ABLE creates braille for. Next, images of science textbooks in print and braille are shown featuring complex equations. Following this, ABLE recipient Bennett Lehman speaks to camera from an oak chair in a grand room. The next section features a montage of ABLE’s brailling process at the ABLE office: a padded envelope containing the requested book, ABLE staff removing the book’s spine with a bespoke laser-guided cutting machine, the book cover being scanned on an office printer, a staff member converting the scanned page images into editable text on their laptop, another volunteer using computer software to convert and format the text into braille, a staff member creating tactile graphics pages on their laptop, some physical examples of tactile pages in a printed book, ABLE’s proprietary braille printing machine embossing braille onto paper, a blind volunteer proof-reading the printed braille and making corrections on her laptop while her guide dog lays beside her on the floor, a volunteer adding written notes to the embossed braille print, another volunteer tearing off the perforated edges of the braille print-out, separating the pages, and binding the book on a binding machine, multiple copies of the braille book being placed in a box along with print copies, then sealed and shipped. We return to a clip of Bennet Lehman speaking to camera. This is followed by images of the ABLE website, featuring it’s ‘Donate’ page. The video ends with an animation of the ABLE logo alongside a QR code labeled ‘Donate Here’, as well as the ABLE website URL ‘ablenow.org’.
*credit to Dreamstime for stock clips
As the only recognized braille transcription service in Southeastern Wisconsin, ABLE has the staff, the technology, and a cadre of dedicated volunteers who can provide blind and visually impaired children and adults with brailled materials. Our final products are produced in Unified English Braille (UEB), bound and embossed, and then sent through the mail. It is also possible to produce files that can be sent via computer through a secure file share.
Books transcribed into braille are entered on a national database so they can be reproduced for recipients not only in Wisconsin, but across the country.
Having my book The Christmas Carriage and Other Writings of the Holiday Season in both audio and braille is certainly a dream-come-true—thanks to the staff and volunteers of ABLE. With my heartfelt appreciation,
Alice Massa
