For braille embossers and other types of high technology, go to the department Technology and Electronics. 

For a list of transcribing groups, go to the department Transcription and Recording Services.

---

American Printing House for the Blind
internet: http://www.aph.org/edresearch/guides.htm

"Guidelines for Design of Tactile Graphics"

Braille Authority of North America
internet: http://brailleauthority.org/

Keep up to date on the braille codes for North America.

Center for Applied Special Technology [CAST]
internet: http://www.cast.org/

They have a software program for converting documents from NIMAS format, called NIMAS Conversion Tool.

Dancing Dots Braille Music Technology
internet: http://www.dancingdots.com

Software Goodfeel translates printed music scores into braille for your embosser.  Preliminary scanning and editing of a printed score requires use of other commercial software packages: Midiscan or PianoScan and a Lime notation editor.

Dolphin Computer Access
internet: http://www.yourdolphin.com/

Sells several adaptive software programs of use to persons with visual impairments, including braille translation. Their new program will convert NIMAC files to other formats.

Foothill-De Anza Community College District
internet: http://www.htctu.fhda.edu/trainings/manuals/alt/Tactile_Graphics.pdf

This college has posted their guidelines for how to make tactile graphics.

International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions
internet: http://www.ifla.org

There are here for reading several informative booklets written to describe how to create tactile illustrations.
http://www.ifla.org/VI/1/guidelines/tactile_picture_books_20080109.pdf
http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla73/papers/156-Ripley-en.pdf
http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla65/65ye-e.htm

Konvertor
internet: http://www.konvertor.net

Their Konvertor software converts electronic files between almost all current standard formats, including images, audio, video, and text.

Mobility International, U.S.A.
internet: http://www.miusa.org/ncde/tipsheets/languageguide/

Tipsheet "Accessing Foreign Language Materials as a Blind or Low-Vision Student".

National Braille Press
internet: http://www.nbp.org/ic/nbp/tour/index.html

A tour of their production facilities and processes.

N C H Software
internet: http://www.nchsoftware.com/

Their Pixillion is a free software program to convert image files from one format to another, including .pdf. Their Verbose program enables a text file to be made into .mp3. They also have voice recording software.

"On Editing Graphics for the Blind"
internet: http://www.stanford.edu/~sipma/grbl0.html

A booklet on-line.

"Tactile Access to Scalable Vector Graphics for People with Visual Impairment"
internet: http://www.svgopen.org/2004/papers/TactileAccessToSVG/

A paper written by a professor in Germany, describing a proposed tablet with pins to show graphics as refreshable braille.

Tactile Graphics
internet: http://www.tactilegraphics.org/

Information on how to make good tactile graphics, including reviews of available tools.

TactileView
internet: http://tactileview.com/

Software to help make tactile graphics.

TechAdapt
internet: http://accessiblemediacenter.techadapt.com/

Their software program Accessible Media Center converts files in NIMAS format to .rtf or .html formats.