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help please with braille sign fonts?
Hi
We were talking today of a poor man’s version of engraved braille signs and welcome comments on feasability.
If we machine small holes and superglue small beads in to them do you think this would work and be acceptable quality.
Presumably there is a cutter which will cut an ideal shape for a small bead. Mind getting a really small bead is another problem. I even thought of small BB gun pellets but might be too big
There seems to be several braille fonts but the RNIB have a font so presumbably this would be acceptable to most clients.
This is only an idea which popped up to day so we have not had a chance to research the matter fully other than it cost £1000’s for software, licence and specialised cutters, bead planters etc.
Mike
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17 Replies
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Mike, your idea is a good one and is RNIB approved – we bought one of the drills about 3 months ago and have been making our own braille signs (where appropriate and where a ‘standard’ product won’t work).
If you PM me I’ll let you have the details.
Guy
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Guy
Thank you – at least I know I am not being a nugget.
regards
Mike
(mod-edit) :police3:
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Guy
Just a gentle nudge to send any info you can
Regards
Mike
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Sorry Mike, I hadn’t forgotten you…..honest!!
I’ll email the info and pictures through to you first thing in the morning.
Guy
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Guy
Have you sent any mail yet as not received anything.
Anything you can do to point me in the right direction
Mike
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Spandex used to sell a router tool that allowed you to router using the Braille font. It basically "hogged out" the material you didn’t want, leaving only the Braille raised, we used good old Perspex. I used it extensively before the Photo-polymer systems came into use in the UK. As for the ball bearing type idea, you need to use the proper stuff really so not going to be a cheap way of doing it, there is a toll you use to "punch" the rasters (beads) into place after drilling the holes using the Braille font.
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Its not a cheap start up as the license mainly applies to the use of the raster beads. When I was looking into entering the engraving sphere 18 months ago I had a couple of demos done by Gravograph, no special braille software required, just the applique cutter and braille drill. The method of getting the beads into the holes was the next problem with varying techniques used. Gravograph was the all singing and dancing option, however http://www.Suregrave.co.ukalso have a braille system which is slightly cheaper.
At that time, I know some of the braille fonts (and one was on the RNIB site) were slightly wrong.
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We use a Novacryl type of photopolymer. Ours are set by ultraviolet light and then washed off with water. We set up the artwork and then output to a clear film with the raised areas printed in black. It’s very similar to preparing a screen for silk screening. I’m not sure if you know this or not, but you can’t just take a Braille font and type in the exact message you want. You will need a program to translate the message for you (obviously some people know all of the Braille symbols by memory and can set Grade II Braille without any translators.) I’m in the US so I don’t know exactly what the laws in Britain are pertaining to Braille Signs. Hopefully this advice was helpful. I’ll go ahead and apologize if you already new this info. If I can help any more, ask and I’ll try to be of assistance.
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Simon, could be wrong but I would guess that very few people knew as we still seem to be way behind when it comes to this sort of thing. As for the Laws well they were pretty much taken from your ADA laws as you were about 3 steps ahead of us.
They had a drive on upgrading some of the council buildings where I live and most of it has been done incorrectly for one reason or another.
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Hi Martin, Thanks for the info! I just didn’t want to assume that everyone used the same specs that we do. Especially since the ADA stands for (American with Disabilities Act). It’s definitely good to know though. I think we use to produce signs that had the Braille as pegs that fit into routed/drilled holes, but have discontinued using them. I think mainly because a.) they would break off very easily and b.) the photo method is less labor intensive. I agree that you often see ADA done wrong. It’s usually either the producer doesn’t know the laws, or doesn’t like the graphic restrictions / increased costs. Luckily our companies VP use to be on the ADA board. So we’ve had a valuable resource when it comes to the info on the rules associated with ADA.
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The DDA here in the UK is a sign time bomb waiting to happen. An authority/company is yet to be taken to court over failing to provide sufficient assistance to the disabled under the Act. Once this happens successfully, watch the orders flood in as everybody leaps to comply!!!!
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That won’t be pretty for the buyers having to replace all of those signs. It will be a boon for sign manufacturers though. I’ve never heard of anyone being sued here either. Churches are exempt here (understandable), but strangely so are government entities (yep, do as we say do, not as we do).
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Tactile signs can be quite easily screen printed using special ink
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Interesting. I’d never heard of it. Is that Grade II compliant? Thanks Steve. Do you have the name of the ink?
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I will try and find out, the guy we got our equipment from did a whole library building using it, I think its a variation of the puff additive type ink that swells when heated, but dries hard.
I will try and get some info on it -
I’m sure it will be great information for people that can’t afford the more expensive Braille equipment. I’d like to read more about it as well. Thanks for taking the time.
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quote martin:Simon, could be wrong but I would guess that very few people knew as we still seem to be way behind when it comes to this sort of thing. As for the Laws well they were pretty much taken from your ADA laws as you were about 3 steps ahead of us.They had a drive on upgrading some of the council buildings where I live and most of it has been done incorrectly for one reason or another.
quote Graeme Harrold:The DDA here in the UK is a sign time bomb waiting to happen. An authority/company is yet to be taken to court over failing to provide sufficient assistance to the disabled under the Act. Once this happens successfully, watch the orders flood in as everybody leaps to comply!!!!For an example of an ADA-compliant system that conforms to Grade 1 and Grade 2 Braille standards, here is link to Accent Raster Braille:
http://www.accentsignage.com/HowItWorks/RasterBraille.php
The Accent system uses two tools for inserting beads in drilled holes. The first is a Raster Pen, which is a hand-held bead insertion tool. This is good for small jobs and touch-ups. The second is their Auto-Raster Deluxe, which is an attachment for your cutter that will insert beads in the drilled holes. Essentially, run the job to drill the holes, then use the Auto-Raster Deluxe to insert the beads using the same tooling operations. Much faster than doing by hand. It should be noted that Gravograph, Vision, and Quality One provide router models that are compatible with the Auto-Raster Deluxe.
Accent offers their Raster Braille system as a license that includes well-organized procedures about how to approach the ADA sign specifications for different materials and types of beads (i.e., acrylic versus metal beads). Procedures are provided for appropriate cutting depth per material, positioning with respect to raised tactile lettering, usage of compressed air, layout for visually appealing signs, etc.
With respect to Braille translation, EngraveLab provides translation and positioning for Grade 1 and Grade 2 Braille, automatic checking for ADA-compliant visual and tactile fonts, and is able to drive the above-mentioned routers. The latest EngraveLab includes additional functionality for organizing the job components with respect to bead placement, raised lettering, and visual compliant lettering. Essentially, if you have designed a sign with bead/raised/visual components, then you can quickly tell EngraveLab which portion you want to output.
Regards,
Rod at CADlink
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