THE world's first eLearning system for Braille — but aimed at people who can see — was recently launched at North Rocks.
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"Braille is fundamental to the development of language and literacy in people who are blind," said Dr Frances Gentle, the project leader of UEB Online — the name of the new system.
Dr Gentle is also a vision impairment lecturer for the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children, which launched the Unified English Braille (UEB) code system for the web on March 11.
"Designed for people who can see, UEB Online creates opportunities for families and mainstream educators to access a simple system that will allow them to support children and adults with vision loss who are using Braille — no matter where they live," Dr Gentle said.
"This is critical to the development of literacy, with research showing that children who are blind and using Braille have better employment outcomes as adults."
A RIDBC spokeswoman said the previous system for a sighted support person to learn Braille was cumbersome, difficult to access, required use of a Brailler, and was costly.
Dr Gentle said: "Since our soft launch to industry, UEB Online has seen over 3000 users access the program."
There are six official UEB countries: Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Canada, South Africa and the UK. However, 5 per cent of UEB Online's participants come from 83 other countries.
RIDBC provides therapy and services for people with vision or hearing loss.
