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IN TOUCH – Braille Books for Education; Aira Smart Glasses

TX:Ìý 18.10.2022Ìý 2040-2100

PRESENTER:Ìý ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý PETER WHITE

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PRODUCER:Ìý ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý BETH HEMMINGS

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White

Good evening.Ìý Later tonight…

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Clip

I see a line of parked cars on your left-hand side by the kerb.Ìý There’s no obstructions that can be tripped over.

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White

An outing with Aira.Ìý Our senior correspondent in Washington runs the rule over the latest developments in how artificial intelligence can help us.

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But first, we make no apology for returning to the subject of braille.Ìý I know we devoted a programme to the RNIB’s recent changes to its library services a few weeks ago but some listeners still felt that we missed some key points, notably Dr Paul Jarman.Ìý Paul thinks that he may be unique in being a totally blind Doctor of English Literature and he feels strongly that what we missed in our coverage was the absence, now, of a large body of serious books in braille, which he regards as a major loss to current and future students.Ìý It was a long and considered email but we thought we should hear from Dr Jarman himself.

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Paul, first of all, in a nutshell, what is it that has got you so exercised?

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Jarman

Well, up until now, I think the premise on which this whole debate has been conducted is that the sole purpose for the existence of braille literature or a braille library is to enable reading for pleasure.Ìý Now I’m not, in any shape or form, demeaning reading for pleasure, it’s what most people do, I do plenty of it myself but it’s not the only reason why one might wish to read.Ìý

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When I was an undergraduate reading for my degree in English Literature at London University in the late 1980s, early 1990s, there were two resources of braille literature that I could tap into.Ìý The one was what the RNIB called their student library and the other was the National Library for the Blind.Ìý Its roots went right back to the Victorian period and it was the largest single repository of braille books in the UK.Ìý And I think it was around 2007 that the RNIB were allowed to get their hands on the entire NLB stock.Ìý And, of course, what this did was it left the RNIB as the sole custodians for all braille books.Ìý This situation set some serious alarm bells ringing but I don’t think what even we could have foreseen was that within only just over a decade that organisation would destroy a whole century of braille literature and make it impossible for any current visually impaired students to access the kind of English Literature degree that I did through the medium of braille.

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White

Can I just ask you – could it not be the case that as with a lot of what you describe as independent visual impairment organisations actually the job they were doing was too big for an organisation and too expensive to do and that probably lack of finance in the NLB was a problem?

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Jarman

Yes and you’re probably absolutely right.Ìý One of the things that I would like to see, as a result of what has happened now, is the whole concept of the braille library actually the responsibility for a library taken entirely out of the hands of charities, like the RNIB.Ìý In my opinion, the responsibility for running and funding any country’s sole braille library simply cannot be entrusted to a charity.Ìý They’re never going to be able to employ the specialist kind of librarians and archivists and so on that are needed.

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White

In truth though, isn’t the stable door open and the horse bolted, in a way and that there have been a number of technological changes that mean that books are available now in other forms?

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Jarman

Books are available in many other forms and, as with sighted people, there are opportunities to read electronic books and so on, both from the web and even through refreshable braille.Ìý But I would say that the real difference is that while any student or anyone reading for pleasure can still pick up a Kindle or an iPad and read their book electronically, they still have the option to walk into Waterstones, and other bookshops are available, of course, or go on the web and buy a printed copy.Ìý I’ve just gone on a well-known second-hand book website to have a look at how many copies are available of Jane Austin’s Mansfield Park.Ìý That website, alone, told me there were over 6,200 copies, which is rather a lot compared to the zero that’s now available for those of us who might like to read it in braille.

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White

But, of course, it is true now that – because you say how worried you are about visually impaired students – but they do have other ways of accessing these texts, they could access them digitally, using electronic braille on sophisticated machines, they could download books from services like Bookshare.Ìý How much of a problem is this really?Ìý I sense your indignation about it but can’t these books be recreated in other forms?

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Jarman

They could be recreated in other forms but when they already existed in braille and were available to read in braille, that choice has now been taken away from us.

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White

There’s one other point.Ìý You also feel, I think, that these books, as objects in themselves, have a great significance which is what is worrying you about what might have happened to them?

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Jarman

They do, Peter.Ìý I’m sitting here talking to you in my office and in front of me now, on the desk, I have a copy of the poems by Rupert Brooke.Ìý This book was published in 1928, that’s just 10 years after the close of the First World War.Ìý It’s possible to imagine this kind of book in the hands of what would have still been fairly young First World War blind veterans.Ìý Now to the RNIB iconoclasts, what I’ve got here is just a tatty old book that deserves to end up in the dustbin but this kind of book is really important because it’s part of my heritage both as a braille reader and as a literary historian.

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White

Paul Jarman, thank you very much indeed.

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Well, we did invite the RNIB to put someone up to discuss this with Dr Jarman, they didn’t want to.Ìý They did have sight of his email, so they were aware of the issues he was raising.Ìý In a statement to us RNIB Reading Services Manager, James Bartlett, told us:

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Statement – James Bartlett

RNIB is continuing to republish printed material in braille and publish at least 30 new titles a month consistently for the library.Ìý At the time when RNIB upgraded its braille library service to provide braille books on demand, we explained that a large majority of our collection had not left the building in several years and was in a poor condition.Ìý It is also important to remind people that the National Library for the Blind was the equivalent of a public library, not an academic library.Ìý Until the merger of the two libraries, RNIB published academic material.Ìý The way students access printed materials has changed a lot over the past two decades and our services have changed to reflect this.Ìý Technology has changed the way many people read and we are determined to provide choice for our customers which embraces physical and digital braille.Ìý The changes made to the braille library last year have resulted in customers coming back to the library for hard copy braille, something we didn’t expect but celebrate.Ìý The RNIB Bookshare education collection provides textbooks and materials to support the UK curriculum.Ìý RNIB offers a range of accessible formats that can be read electronically or adapted to suit the personal reading needs of the learners, including physical braille.Ìý We now have nearly a million titles with more being added all the time.

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White

We just thought, as an afterword, it would be interesting to hear how the students of today regard braille and how they use it.Ìý Lydia and Caden are both studying A Level English Literature at special school New College Worcester.

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Lydia

The majority of the time I would read it in electronic form and honestly, I don’t find it much different to hard copy because it’s not like using a screenreader where you’re not actually physically reading, by reading electronically you’re still physically reading something.Ìý I have a Braille Note, which basically is like – like a computer but more compact and has a braille display.Ìý If I wanted to use hard copy, it would normally be because it’s just – that’s how the teacher’s decided to do it, they’ve embossed something and the whole class would have that.

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Caden

I’m also doing A Level English Literature but I’m also doing A Level History and Politics.Ìý And for English Literature, practically the same as what Lydia said, but for the other two I find it easier to have hard copy braille because there’s a lot of reading involved in that.Ìý And sometimes we get given full books that we have to read and in that case, depending on how large they are, I’d use audio or I’d have an electronic braille version, so on a Braille Note.Ìý The articles and reports and different things that we get given in class, I find it easier to use hard copy because it takes away all the difficulty of technology and having to find it online, it's easier to read them and analyse and compare them when you have hard copy.

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White

So, if you wanted a particular book, whether it’s for coursework or because you just wanted to read it and it wasn’t instantly available, say, in your library, what method would you normally use to get it?

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Caden

I’d ask either a teacher if I could have a braille version.Ìý My history and politics teacher’s really good with that.Ìý Or RNIB Bookshare, you can very often get braille books from them, I’ve done that multiple times.Ìý If I listen to an audiobook sometimes I find it quite interesting to re-read it but in braille, depending on what it is, just to see if the way I interpret something changes, if I read it in braille to when I’m listening to someone else read it.

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White

Do you think the braille hard copy book has had its day to some extent?

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Lydia

To some extent yes but it’s all down to personal preference.Ìý For example, in the mornings I have a book, I’d probably choose to read that as a hard copy, just for the feeling and because a hard copy is something that takes you away from school, you know, if you’re reading a book from the same devices you’re reading everything in school it feels different to pick up.Ìý But I think it’s important to be able to have access to everything, to be able to make an informed decision and I don’t think it would be fair to say that hard copy has had its day because for some people and in some circumstances that is the best way forward.

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White

Can I put the same thing to Caden?Ìý Does it feel an old-fashioned way of doing stuff?

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Caden

No, I don’t think so.Ìý In many ways it’s more beneficial because if you’re listening to someone read, especially depending on what voice they have, it can be quite easy to drift off.Ìý For example, a lot of people use audiobooks to help them to get to sleep.Ìý But if you’re reading something that you want to understand, especially if it’s for a course, then I think reading it in hard copy is better because with braille you don’t really drift off because you’re paying attention to what your hands are doing.

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White

Now there are times, no matter how adept you think you are as a blind person, that sighted assistance is useful, indeed vital.Ìý Well, a number of technologies have emerged in recent years, to offer such help with apps on smartphones now able to read out printed text and visual interpreting services you can call that use the camera on your phone to connect you to a sighted person for help.Ìý One of the main services in this area is Aira, which has trained agents that you can ring and you pay for a certain number of minutes per month.Ìý Well, Aira has joined up with another company in this field called Envision and they’ve developed some smart glasses with a camera mounted on them, so you can connect to help hands free.

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Our reporter, Gary °¿â€™D´Ç²Ô´Ç²µ³ó³Ü±ð, has been testing the new combination out and he joins me now.

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So, Gary, tell us about the Envision glasses and what they can actually add.

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°¿â€™D´Ç²Ô´Ç²µ³ó³Ü±ð

Well, Envision started off as an app on a phone, like a lot of these do, now they’ve brought out a set of, what’s called in the jargon, wearables.Ìý So, these are glasses, they kind of come in various kinds of frames and I’ve got them in front of me and they’re – you can hear they talk…

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White

Everything talks.

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°¿â€™D´Ç²Ô´Ç²µ³ó³Ü±ð

Everything talks.Ìý And if I touch the side of the arm…

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Envision glasses’ voice

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Various options on that that you can tap on and make it do things.Ìý What everyone wanted, of course, was this sort of technology to be paired up with the ability to call a sighted person and actually get live assistance through this sort of wearing a camera on your glasses.Ìý And now you can touch the side of the glasses and get an agent up and running, talking to you, whether that’s reading something or in the street.

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White

And what particularly does having the glasses – what does it enable you to do that you couldn’t do before?

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°¿â€™D´Ç²Ô´Ç²µ³ó³Ü±ð

I think it’s the hands-free part of it that is key to this.Ìý This does mean that you can still have a bag and a cane, a bag and a dog without trying to balance a phone in one hand.Ìý In a sense, it doesn’t give you more than you have already, other than the dexterity or increased dexterity.Ìý I took a spin with the glasses, in a navigation sense, just outside where I live and tried to get the agent to show me back to my own front door.

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So, I’m standing about probably 20 or 30 yards from my apartment block.Ìý And in this case, I’m going to use a button on the glasses that allows me to use voice control to summon an Aira agent, so here we go.Ìý

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Call an Aira agent.

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Aira voice

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Aira agent

So, as you’re walking here, I see a line of parked cars on your left-hand side by the kerb.Ìý On your right-hand side there’s a like metal fencing.

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°¿â€™D´Ç²Ô´Ç²µ³ó³Ü±ð

So, nothing on the sidewalk in front of me to trip over here as far as you can see?

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Aira agent

Correct yeah, there’s no obstructions that can be tripped over currently.

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°¿â€™D´Ç²Ô´Ç²µ³ó³Ü±ð

Okay.

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Aira agent

The fencing ended and there’s going to be an entrance to an apartment building on the right-hand side.

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°¿â€™D´Ç²Ô´Ç²µ³ó³Ü±ð

Ah.Ìý Has it got any lettering over it or any wording?

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Aira agent

There’s like a rug on the floor and it says 2201 West Borough Place?

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°¿â€™D´Ç²Ô´Ç²µ³ó³Ü±ð

That’s Westbrooke Place, that’s me.

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White

It’s interesting, Gary, because we’ve talked about this.Ìý You can fly across the world but still not be able to get to the precise address that you want to get to.Ìý You can get within 10 feet easily, then it gets difficult.

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°¿â€™D´Ç²Ô´Ç²µ³ó³Ü±ð

That last 20 yards.Ìý Yeah.

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White

Yeah, yeah.Ìý It’s not just for outside either, is it, you can use it inside the home?

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°¿â€™D´Ç²Ô´Ç²µ³ó³Ü±ð

Yeah, in fact Aira say themselves that actually most of their service is taken up with information – people getting stuff read to them.Ìý So, I thought I’d take the combination of the glasses, the original glasses, and Aira for a spin in my kitchen.

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Now I do know there’s something in my freezer that I can’t identify, it’s a box of something and I’ve forgotten what it was.

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Aira agent

Connected to [indistinct word].Ìý Can you raise the box just a little bit higher?Ìý Right there is perfect.Ìý It’s paneer tikka masala, Indian kitchen brand.

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°¿â€™D´Ç²Ô´Ç²µ³ó³Ü±ð

Very nice.Ìý I’m wondering if you can – if I turn it over do you think there might be some cooking instructions on the back?

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Aira agent

Looks like they’re not on the back, so they’re probably going to be on one of the edges.

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°¿â€™D´Ç²Ô´Ç²µ³ó³Ü±ð

One of the edges, yeah let me try that one first.

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Aira agent

Yeah and the cooking instructions are right here.Ìý So, it says microwave on high for two minutes.

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°¿â€™D´Ç²Ô´Ç²µ³ó³Ü±ð

That is perfect.Ìý I think that might be my supper tonight.Ìý Thank you very much for that.

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Aira agent

Sounds delicious.Ìý No problem, Gary, have a great rest of your day, okay?

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°¿â€™D´Ç²Ô´Ç²µ³ó³Ü±ð

Thanks for your help, thanks.

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White

Was it any good, did you actually eat it?

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°¿â€™D´Ç²Ô´Ç²µ³ó³Ü±ð

Very nice it was, yeah very nice.

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White

Well, Gary, we come to the bitter bit, what about the cost?

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°¿â€™D´Ç²Ô´Ç²µ³ó³Ü±ð

It’s really expensive.Ìý I hesitate to say because it’s so expensive.Ìý The glasses really start at about £2,000 before VAT and of course you have to have an Aira subscription as well, so this is not a cheap option.Ìý Well, I’ve certainly heard of cases of people getting it through things like the Disabled Students Allowance, a case could be made through Access to Work as well.Ìý And you can see that for service providers that this sort of outlay may be actually the cheapest option in the long run rather than lots and lots of expensive care.

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White

Just one final question – I think it’s fair to say you’re one of the fairly adept blind person, how much, as things stand at the moment, would you actually use this?

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°¿â€™D´Ç²Ô´Ç²µ³ó³Ü±ð

Well, I use Aira a lot and I use it for all sorts of different things.Ìý I use it in a professional sense.Ìý I remember doing this at a shooting I went to in Texas where I just wanted to Tweet something and I got Aira up and I got them to say – What can you see – and they say – I can see a police line and the tape.Ìý So, then I said – Take a screenshot of that and then send me the photo you take.Ìý And I was able to Tweet out a photo, that I had, in that sense, authored and I had editorial control over it because I knew what was in it through the agent.Ìý But right from that, Peter, to kneeling on the floor pointing the camera at the washing machine to make sure it’s on the right program, it is another tool in the toolbox, I think, is what I would say.Ìý Sometimes it’s not always the right option but they are increasing, I think, our choices and our independent choices.

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White

I shall cherish the picture of Gary °¿â€™D´Ç²Ô´Ç²µ³ó³Ü±ð kneeling in front of his washing machine and washing his shirts.Ìý Gary, thank you very much indeed.

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And that’s it for today.Ìý We welcome your queries and your suggestions of what else we should be covering.Ìý You can email intouch@bbc.co.uk, leave voice messages on 0161 8361338 or go to our website bbc.co.uk/intouch.Ìý

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From me, Peter White, producer Beth Hemmings and studio managers Amy Brennan and Simon Highfield, goodbye.

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