Designboom
21st July 2022
This finger tape device helps the visually impaired correct braille misprints
The Braille Correction Device is a hand-worn finger tape that, as its name suggests, addresses an issue that not many of us consider — writing in Braille. Publishing in Braille is far more challenging and rare than regular printing, and field tests have shown that it has a very high error rate, making it even more difficult to edit typos and misprints without risking paper damage.
Designers Tian-Yi Chen, Chao-Jie Hu, Yi-Xuan Li & Xue-Nan Zheng from Zhejiang University of Technology, China, have decided to help the visually impaired community with a smart finger tape that’s easy to operate. The Braille Correction Device tapes over simple, easy-to-fix mistakes, just as correction fluid fixes tiny errors (not entire phrases or paragraphs). The device has earned the Golden Pin Design Award in the Product Design category because it is straightforward, user-friendly, and created to be a totally analog instrument.
A winner of the Golden Pin Design Award, The Braille Correction Device uses tape with a certain thickness to cover the errors found in Braille prints. Given that Braille is a monospaced language, using the Braille Correction Device is rather easy when it comes to swapping out old characters with new ones. After locating the error, users can press a button on the side of the device to load the tape and cover the incorrect word, and then press the front upper button to dispense the tape. The correct spelling now overlaps the old incorrect one.
The global population of people who are visually impaired is estimated to be almost 2.2 billion people. Consequently, there is a large market for Braille correction products but no available product designed to help. The emergence of the Braille Correction Device fills the gap, offering an easy fix to a problem that’s much more common than expected.