By Brittany Shoot (original source Smithsonian)
“According to the National Federation of the Blind, fewer than 10 percent of 1.3 million blind Americans can read Braille. By comparison, in the 1950s, more than half of blind children learned to read the series of raised bumps.
This change has been brought on, in part, by the growth in assistive technology. In the past decade, voice-to-text software has dramatically changed the lives of the visually impaired. There are software programs that read text aloud, and most consumer hardware devices such as smartphones and tablets come equipped with software that can answer questions or provide small bits of information. A surprisingly few people with low vision or blindness even have access to Braille materials.”
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