The touch tablet computer display for the blind is one of those devices that I was sure must already exist in our high-tech world but in fact it does not. However, BLITAB® of Austria is not only bringing one to market but at a reasonable price, something that is fairly uncommon for such aids for the handicapped: This $500 Tablet Brings Words to Blind Users’ Fingertips – Technology Review
BLITAB describes the device as follows:
BLITAB® is the World’s first tactile tablet for blind and visually impaired people. BLITAB® is a next curve Braille device for Braille reading and writing that displays one whole page Braille text at once, without any mechanical elements. It is like an e-book which instead of using a screen displays small physical bubbles. For the first time our users can have an overview of a whole document. The new developed technology used in the BLITAB® tablet provides an opportunity for an affordable, 100x better solution, disrupting a market that has no innovations in the last 40 years.
We developed a multi-line Braille tablet that delivers real-time content to people with visual impairments. BLITAB® offers completely new user experience for Braille and non-Braille readers via touch navigation, text-to-speech output and Perkins-style keyboard application. It allows a direct converting of any text file into Braille from USB sticks, Internet and obtaining information via NFC tags. BLITAB® is not just a tablet, it is a platform for all existing and future software applications for blind readers. So we do not compete, we integrate and collaborate.
