brailleOverlays

brlov}lays

Part of synthaccess

ABILITY Project / Integrated Design & Media
NYU

Files:

• README.md - this file
• img - folder containing example images

brailleOverlays is a set of design guidelines and examples for adding braille lettering to synthesizers.

Introduction

If your synthesizer is “one affordance per function”, one of the simplest and most effective ways to add tactile accessibility for Blind / Low Vision users is to label the synthesizer with braille. Below, we outline three methods (from simple and inexpensive to somewhat complex) for doing this.

Braille is a standard tactile writing system invented in 1824 that uses a two column by three row grid of six dots for each character. The braille system not only specifies the layout of these dots for each character in the writing system, but also defines the characters’ nominal dot sizing and spacing. In other words, there’s no such thing as “jumbo braille” or “mini braille”. There’s just braille. There are standard mappings for common writing systems across the world. Languages that use logographic writing systems (such as Chinese) will use a phonetic alphabet to create a braille mapping.

Level 1 braille defines a basic mapping for the alphabet, numbers, and punctuation. Level 2 braille has contractions, leveraging context and unused characters to reduce common words, letter combinations, and syllables to fewer characters. Level 2 braille is specific to the language being written (e.g. English vs. French), wherease Level 1 braille is standardized by character set (e.g. the Roman alphabet versus Cyrillic). Free software such as BrailleBlaster can be used to convert text into braille that includes these level 2 contractions.

If you use Level 2 braille, you can save space. For example, the phrase:

“Some little children adding 2+2 might count it as 22.”

maps to…

,"s ll *n add+ #b"6#b mi<t c.t x z #bb4

Option #1: Braille Tape

The simplest way to add braille to a synthesizer is to use a low cost braille labeller (such as this one) and some labeling tape (such as this). You can then punch out braille labels and apply them directly to your synthesizer front panel. If you use clear labels, you can place the labels over your synthesizer.

Suggested Mappings

When designing braille overlays for physical synthesizers, space may be at a premium, so shorhands, abbreviations, and contractions will be super useful for labelling things. Below are some suggested mappings for common synthesizer controls. For more high density interfaces, the tactileSynths part of this repository might be helpful as well.

Label	2	3	4
p{} Power	pr pr	pwr pwr	powr powr
h1dph"os Headphones	ph ph	ph ph	phns phns
voltage-3troll$ oscillator Voltage-Controlled Oscillator	vo vo	vco vco	vco vco
voltage-3troll$ filt} Voltage-Controlled Filter	vf vf	vcf vcf	vcf vcf
voltage-3troll$ amplifi} Voltage-Controlled Amplifier	va va	vca vca	vca vca
attack decay su/a9 rel1se Attack Decay Sustain Release	eg eg	eg eg	adsr adsr
5velope g5}ator Envelope Generator	eg eg	eg eg	eg eg
sample & hold Sample and Hold	sh sh	sah sah	sah sah

Gallery