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ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿ strengthens commitment to accessible learning with Braille innovation

Wednesday, 15 July, 2026

ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿ is further strengthening its commitment to accessibility, inclusion and innovation by investing in specialist Braille technology that will help make learning and research more accessible for blind and visually impaired students, staff and visitors.

The University has been working with local social enterprise Bristol Braille, alongside a team of Creative Computing lecturers and students, to explore new uses of emerging Braille technology in education. As part of the Creative Industry Challenge, second-year BSc Creative Computing students - supervised by Computing Lecturer Hollie Baker, who is visually impaired herself, and Senior Lecturer Coral Manton - developed an interactive story maker for the Canute Console, along with two interactive fiction pieces. These require ​users to write their own stories and games on the console and even upload them to popular interactive fiction platforms like Twine. The work was showcased at Bath Digital Festival.

Bristol Braille specialise in multi-line Braille devices, enabling Braille readers to read prose smoothly, explore spacial and tabular data, read both hands of sheet music on one display, read specially arranged mathematical formulas and matrices, and view several lines of source code to better understand the flow of the program. 

The partnership was showcased at the recent Braille Space event held at the University's Locksbrook Campus, where members of the public, businesses, students and staff were invited to experience innovative Braille technology first-hand and discover how it can support greater independence and accessibility. The event featured Bristol Braille's pioneering multi-line Braille devices, including the Canute Scientific workstation designed for science, technology, engineering and mathematics education. 

As a result of this growing collaboration, BSU intends to acquire two Bristol Braille devices to support learning and accessibility across campus.

One device, the Canute 360 e-reader, will be made available within the library, providing an accessible resource for students and visitors to read electronic Braille books. The second device will be the Canute Scientific, a specialist workstation capable of connecting directly with scientific and laboratory equipment, enabling measurements and data to be presented as Braille output. This has the potential to open new opportunities for blind and visually impaired learners to engage more independently with scientific study and experimentation.

The initiative reflects the University's wider commitment to creating an inclusive learning environment where technology can help remove barriers to participation. It also demonstrates how collaboration between students, academics and local businesses can create meaningful solutions that benefit the wider community.

By partnering with Bristol Braille, BSU is supporting a small, innovative organisation that is helping to transform access to information for Braille users. The collaboration combines academic expertise, student creativity and specialist technology to explore new ways of making education more accessible for everyone.

Karl Shearer, Contracts and Software License Manager at BSU, said:

"We believe accessibility should be designed into learning experiences from the outset. Working with Bristol Braille allows us to explore how technology can empower learners, while providing our students with valuable opportunities to contribute to projects that deliver real-world impact."

The University looks forward to continuing its work with Bristol Braille and supporting future projects that advance accessibility, inclusive design and assistive technology development for the benefit of the wider community.