Tag: software

Poor Usability in Open Source Software and How to Improve It

Cynthia A. Lockley on

This should be an interesting series to follow. Matthew Paul Thomas will be posting updates in the coming months to his identification of 15 usability problems with free (open source) software "Why Free Software has poor usability, and how to improve it" (211 Kb .pdf pulled from archive.org) that he posted on August 1. He plans to present an example for how to solve each one of the problems he's identified.

Also by Matthew Paul Thomas: "What Do You Mean by "Usability"? (211 Kb .pdf) pulled from the Internet Archive a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more.

Braille Resources

Cynthia A. Lockley on
  • About Braille from the National Braille Press (NBP). If your child or student is blind, you may be wondering whether or not they need to learn braille. Read on to find out more about how braille works, why it's important, and where to find braille resources.
  • The Braille Bug The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) created the Braille Bug web site to teach sighted children about braille, and to encourage literacy among all children.
  • Braille Displays:
    • Blind and Low Vision Products AbleData's database of products for people with visual disabilities. Major Categories: Computers, Educational Aids, Health Care, Information Storage, Kitchen Aids, Labeling, Magnification, Office Equipment, Orientation and Mobility, Reading, Recreation, Sensors, Telephones, Time, Tools, Travel, Typing, Writing (Braille).
  • Duxbury Systems leads the world in software for braille. The Duxbury Braille Translator (DBT) and MegaDots, are used by virtually all of the world's leading braille publishers. No one supports more languages than Duxbury Systems—DBT supports grade 1 and grade 2 translation for over 130 languages. The software can produce contracted and uncontracted braille, mathematics, and technical braille.
  • Perkins Brailler Product Comparisons – Specifications manufacturing Braille Embossers for over 140 years.  Updated
  • Howe Press & the Perkins Brailler History  New
  • Humanware – Blindness products makers of the BrailleNote and BrailleNote PK, screen readers, embossers, reading machines talking GPS, and other items for blind, low vision, deaf/blind communication solutions.
  • Unified English Braille (UEB) is an English language Braille code standard, developed to permit representing the wide variety of literary and technical material in use in the English-speaking world today, in uniform fashion. From Wikipedia.
  • U.S. National Library Service (NLS) Factsheets: Web-Braille

    See our Web-Braille page for more information about Web-Braille.  New