Braille Files

[Thistlekitten]

Hi folks, I'm a new to braille user and am looking to convert my ebooks into the .brf format. I can go around the houses by converting kindle to epub in Calibre, then shift to a different app to open a single epub at a time to convert to brf, but I was wondering if Calibre might start supporting conversion to brf? I have 900 books to convert and it's going to take me ages. 😅

Any other blind readers here?

Cheers for reading.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by Thistlekitten

Any other blind readers here?

I've always assumed that most visually impaired readers simply use screen readers or text-to-speech apps for reading books
For example, the free Thorium epub app comes with text-to-speech support.

You could also use the free Tobi app to add text-to-speech generated audio overlays to epub3 books. Unfortunately, very few mobile apps support this particular epub format. IIRC, it's currently only supported by the free Menestrello app.

If you'd rather use a Braille display, you could convert your books to text files with Calibre or use the Send To Braille tool.

EDIT: One of the Canute 360 UI developers, Matt Venn, has already written a PEF converter plugin for Calibre. (The Canute 360 supports both .brf and .pef files.)
Unfortunately, it doesn't work with the current Calibre version, because it was written in Python2.

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by Thistlekitten

I'm a new to braille user and am looking to convert my ebooks into the .brf format. I can go around the houses by converting kindle to epub in Calibre, then shift to a different app to open a single epub at a time to convert to brf, but I was wondering if Calibre might start supporting conversion to brf?

I'm not sure on exact conversion tools like that.

I never heard of the BRF format before... but blind readers are one of the reasons why I love digitizing print books into ebooks!

You may want to check out DAISY Consortium's website: DAISY.org and DAISY's Youtube channel.

They have a lot of resources for (blind) readers + digitizing and making fully Accessible books.

Here's one example Youtube video:

• DAISY Consortium: "Ways People with Print Disabilities Read"

Especially watch:

• 33 minutes and beyond where they describe Screen Readers + Refreshable Braille Displays
• 44 minutes and beyond where they describe different devices/apps/programs for mobile/desktop.

* * *

Side Note: Just last month I ran across this fantastic Reddit post:

• /r/explainlikeimfive: "ELI5: Why is Braille dots and not letters? Is there a reason why Braille needs to be dots and not the alphabet?"

where a blind user, coarsing_batch, described the switch over to "Universal English Braille" in 2016.

He also linked over to the AFB (American Foundation for the Blind).

Maybe they will have some other helpful resources for you too.

Originally Posted by Thistlekitten

I have 900 books to convert and it's going to take me ages. 😅

What is the name of the tool you're currently using?

Originally Posted by Thistlekitten

Any other blind readers here?

Not that I'm aware of, but you guys could be secretly lurking everywhere online! :P