University of Michigan

Access to reading materials can be hard for the blind. As text-to-speech software has grown in popularity, braille has done the opposite -- according to the Royal National Institute of Blind People, fewer than 1% of the two million visually impaired people in the UK use the tactile writing system. And, while text-to-speech software can provide increased accessibility to blind people using tablets and computers, it's also unable to convey the same kind of visual information as braille, which can show textured images. Braille keyboards have been available for some time, but they're heavy, not portable and expensive.

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Now, researchers at the University of Michigan are developing a braille tablet that they hope could make access to science and maths easier and more affordable for the blind.

Unlike existing braille displays, which use plastic pins pushed up and down from a motor, the device uses liquid or air to fill bubbles which 'pop up' and create the patterns of raised dots that braille is made up of. This technique frees up space, meaning displays can be tablet-size -- and therefore portable. It can also display more complex information than traditional devices.

or spreadsheets or any kind of spatially distributed information."

Because the manufacturing technique relies on layering, rather than the assembly of an excess of small parts, the tablet could retail for less than £700. "One of the main consequences for blind people not being able to access braille is that they're limited in terms of the kind of scientific and mathematical things they can do. Even being able to do something fun like see a graphic that represents the performance statistics of their football team," said Sile O'Modhrain, a visually impaired performing arts professor who is working on the tablet. "It's the kind of thing that people with vision do all the time, and it would be really nice to think that we could bring that back."