All About Access

The 2005 Index Braille catalog arrived in the mail today. I was flipping through it and read the following:

Tactile Graphics

WinBraille includes standard Windows image control and the unique feature to convert images to tactile graphic format on-line. Braille text can be pasted into any position utilizing the increased graphical resolution (0.5 mm). Supported image formats: BMP, TIF, WMF, PNG, JPG, JPEG, GIF, and SIG.

[Kim Christiansen](http://www.christiansendesigns.com/ “Visit the Christiansen Designs web site”), an artist who creates jewelry with braille on it, will be interviewed today on NHPR’s ”[Front Porch](http://www.nhpr.org/view_summary/1/ “Learn more about the Front Porch”).” Here’s the excerpt:

Braille as Art as Braille

John Walters

Jewelry artist Kim Christiansen answered his phone one day and heard Stevie Wonder on the other end, calling to commission some of his work. Christiansen’s jewelry is ornamented with designs in Braille; his other textured work is drawn from rubbings of manhole covers. He tells host John Walters how his work has evolved.

“Front Porch” airs at 6:30 PM, Eastern Time. You can listen live: [Windows Media stream](http://azul.streamguys.com/nhpr “Listen to NHPR live – requires Windows Media Player”) or [MP3 stream](http://live.str3am.com:2480/listen.pls “Listen to NHPR live – requires software that can play MP3 files”). Or you can listen to the archived show when it is posted (usually within 24 hours after air time): [Windows Media archive](http://www.nhpr.org/audio/audio/fp-2005-04-13.wax “Listen to the archived copy of the interview – requires Windows Media Player”) or [Real Audio archive](http://www.nhpr.org/audio/audio/fp-2005-04-13.ram “Listen to the archived copy of the interview – requires Real Player”).
—jd

Those of you who use the Duxbury braille translator are undoubtedly familiar with that age old question, a question far more weighty than such trivial matters as the meaning of life and what not: Will my keyboard let me six-key?