Member Detail: Institute Nazareth et Louis Braille

Located near Montreal, Quebec, The Institut Nazareth et Louis-Braille is a rehabilitation centre offering services to visually impaired. One of its mandates is to do all that is possible to facilitate the social, cultural, educational and professional integration of the blind. One way of doing so is to provide the printed information in various alternative formats such as braille, large print, tactile graphic and digital. Our involvement in the development of the digital book has been limited up to now. We consider ourselves to be still at an experimental stage. However, we want to be able to develop our collection of full text and audio reference books. From a unique source file, we produce the braille version of a document as well as the text part of a digital book. Not being equipped for audio recording, we are developing a partnership with some organisations that will produce the audio part for us. We are also involved nationally and internationally in the research and development of alternative format material. We, among other things, participate to elaborating a unified French braille code throughout the French speaking countries and developing reference standards for tactile graphic production in North America. We also bring our contribution to a working group that surveys braille teaching and learning services in Quebec.