Litera Braille: desenvolvimento e análise do dispositivo de baixo custo baseado na Máquina de Escrever em Braille

Abstract

The Braille system is an important Assistive Technology (AT) resource for accessibility and inclusion of people with visual impairments (VI), aimed at the reading and writing process. With great technological advances, different AT resources emerge and evolve every day, such as audiobooks, digital books and screen readers. These resources are important for the acquisition of knowledge by people with VI, but they do not replace the importance of literacy in the Braille System. Reading and writing in Braille makes it possible, for example, to understand the textual structure, punctuation and spelling rules, skills that are not obtained by students just by listening. Therefore, it is not possible to disregard the importance of developing reading and writing skills in Braille for blind students, just as the same should not be done for sighted students in relation to reading and writing in their languages. Among the existing technologies for learning and practicing Braille, the Braille typewriter presents itself as one of the interesting options, as it is more comfortable and efficient, compared to other solutions such as the reglete and the punch, as it allows the performing Braille writing with simultaneous keystrokes and enabling faster tactile feedback. Even given the relevance of Braille and Braille typewriters for people with VI, this equipment is not accessible to most of them, given the high cost of purchasing it. Ensuring the inclusion and accessibility of people with VI, as well as other people with disabilities or various difficulties, is a duty of the state and of all citizens. From this perspective, thinking, proposing and/or providing the development of tools and devices that promote the learning of Braille, a language used for writing and reading by people with visual impairments, is a way to provide autonomy and social inclusion. Given this scenario, this work proposes the development and evaluation of Litera Braille, a low-cost electromechanical device for practicing Braille writing and reading, with functionalities similar to traditional Braille typewriters. To this end, the case study was used as a research method, to evaluate the accessibility and usability based on the user experience, characterized as a qualitative and quantitative research, in addition to considering the assumptions of the Design Thinking methodology for the development of the device. For the physical structure of Litera Braille, the open source project of a laser-cut MDF Braille printer, called La Picoreuse (Durand, 2018), was used as inspiration, with the possibility of changes. In addition to this technology, others were also used: a keyboard based on the Braillestick device (Santana, 2021) as a Braille character input interface; the print head with a specific function for marking the Braille Cell dots using 3 servomotors to perform this function; 2 stepper motors, one for delivering the paper and the other for moving the print head over the paper positions; and an Arduino Mega 2560 prototyping board, for controlling the electromechanical components, in addition to collecting and processing signals related to the activation of the Braillestick keys. After the development and assembly of Litera Braille, tests were carried out to verify the general functioning, as well as speed analysis and cost assessment for future replication. Finally, Litera Braille was submitted for evaluation by research participants to collect feedback regarding usability and user experience. The developed device received positive reviews with averages close to 90%. The results found point to Litera Braille as an accessible technology mainly due to its price, weight and ease of transport characteristics, enabling the expansion of the use (reading and writing) of Braille by people with visual impairments