We’re proud to be championing one of the social enterprises, that was supported through investment by the South West Social Investment Tax Relief (SITR) Fund, during National Braille week: Bristol Braille. This social enterprise is working to reverse the decline in Braille literacy by developing new Braille technology.
This week is National Braille week – from 14th to 20th of October - a week dedicated to celebrating Braille as a vital tool for communication and literacy among people with visual impairments. It’s also a chance to highlight the role Braille plays in promoting independence, equality, and inclusion for blind and visually impaired people. Right now, there are over 2 million people in the UK living with sight loss. Every day 250 people begin to lose their sight – that's one person every six minutes[1]. Around 7% of people who are registered blind or partially sighted use braille [2]. Bristol Braille aims to increase this number, and boost Braille literacy through its Canute 360 - a piece of specialist Braille equipment designed to serve as a ‘Kindle’ for Braille readers – and to make Braille more affordable and accessible.
With support and an investment of £200,000 from Resonance’s South West SITR Fund, Bristol Braille was able to pioneer the Canute 360. For context, a traditional Braille display for computers only allows twenty characters on screen before a user has to hit a key to read more (by touch) which can be slow and frustrating for users. Thousands of blind people still read like this. The Canute, however, displays a whole page at a time and is synced to nine lines and 360 cells of special Braille enabling users to read full pieces of text at a time, not just short fragments.
The investment from the South West SITR Fund into Bristol Braille contributed to the final stages of product testing and early manufacturing and distribution of the Canute. This piece of technology enables people to pursue ambitious routes in their education or career, helping Bristol Braille achieve their mission of helping blind and visually impaired people to gain literacy, employment and independence.
The Canute was co-designed alongside the Braillists Foundation CIO, the National Federation of the Blind, among other partners. So far, 230 Canutes have been sold across the UK and numerous other countries, worldwide.
“Everyone in the Bristol Braille team is hugely grateful to Resonance for backing Canute. This is a device designed with, by and for Braille readers the world over. We look forward to seeing it being used to expand the range of opportunities available to Braille readers, and blind people generally, as a direct result of Resonance’s investment.” Ed Rogers, Managing Director at Bristol Braille Technology
With one in five people estimated to live with sight loss in their lifetime [2], Bristol Braille has pioneered an innovative piece of technology serving a real need in, and beyond, the UK. Thanks to this investment, Braille readers are able to access modern, up to date technology, reversing the literacy decline.
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[1] https://media.rnib.org.uk/documents/Key_stats_about_sight_loss_2021.pdf
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