Braille Appliances Unit

Braille Book Production Unit

 The Braille unit of the faculty has been rendering commendable services by contributing a huge number of useful books, text books, reference books, spiritual books, ballot papers, maps and other instructional materials in Braille catering to the needs of a large number of persons with visual impairment throughout India.

The faculty is one of the premier institution and relatively largest producer and supplier of Braille literature and text books in the country including talking books. The Braille production started as early as in the year 1984 in college of Education, Sri Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya with the assistance of CBM International, Germany. Until 2001, the Braille production unit obtained the credit of producing volumes of Braille textbooks in various Indian languages. From 2011 till date, the unit has produced 27,362 volumes of books which were supplied as per order throughout India with major focus on southern part. Braille literature, books and other instructional materials have been produced in many Indian Languages such as Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and English. The unit has produced English, Tamil, Telugu, Social science, Science and Mathematics textbooks in Braille. In addition, teacher trainees have been receiving Braille training in Hindi and Malayalam too.

The production of Braille textbooks started using manual Braille type writer ab initio. However, the unit upgraded itself and started printing and producing Braille books two Thiel printers which were analogue in nature. The capacity of these printers is 800 Braille pages per hour. The unit took a further step in upgrading itself in production of Braille, and it could be possible by procuring two digital Index 4 Waves Pro, a highly sophisticated Braille Embosser having capacity to produce 1000 Braille sheets every hour.

In addition to the above equipments, the unit is equipped with some unique software and equipments. The unit has Shreelipi software which can convert almost all major Indian Languages into Braille whereas Winbraille software can convert English into Braille. The main feature of the Braille unit is its Thermoform machine which helps in preparing multiple copies of embossed tactile diagram for persons with visual impairment.