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Downloadable Braille Materials

• TSBVI Braille Book Listing - you will need a password to download braille files. Complete the password request form below to receive a password. Books are available in uncontracted and contracted braille for the following file formats: Braille2000 (abt), MegaDots (meg), Duxbury (dxb), and ASCII format (brf). Note: DO NOT TRANSLATE the files into braille, they are already translated. You may need to use Embossit (see below) for embossing.
• Texas Talking Book Program in Texas Classrooms
  A guide for teachers and librarians in Texas using TBP materials in the classroom for students with visual, physical, or learning disabilities. Also, Web-Braille for Texas Students and Teachers password request.
• National Library Service (NLS) Web-Braille - You must have a User ID to access the Web-Braille books. To get a user ID for Web-Braille, contact your Regional Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped
• Files available without a password:
  • Periodic Table.brf (1K)  or pt.meg (3K) or pt.dxb (3k) - simple Periodic Table, contains element number (no number sign) and symbol. 11x11.5 paper, 2 pages to be taped together side by side. For Duxbury make sure lines per page is 26.
  • Elements.brf (10k) or elements.meg (13K) alphabetical list with element name, atomic number, symbol, atomic mass, electrons per shell, date of discovery, melting point and boiling point in Celsius, and radioactivity
  • Atomicno.brf (6K) or atomicno.meg (6K) numerical list of elements with atomic number, element name, symbol, and atomic mass.
  • PHscale.brf (1k) or PHscale.dxb (3k) or PHscale.meg (3k) - PH scale from 0 - 14 illustrated with common household chemicals
  • Nemeth Code Reference Sheets - Algebra 1 & 2, and Geometry
  • Set Notation

Other Book Resources

• BrailleInk -a new non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the experience of reading by providing materials with both print and braille in a unique, easy-to-use format that encourages shared reading and promotes braille awareness.
• Iowa Braille School Library and Instructional Materials Center Braille book files
• National Library Service (NLS) Web-Braille - You must have a User ID to access the Web-Braille books. To get a user ID for Web-Braille, contact your Regional Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped
• Ozone Publishing Specialty Printing & Publishing for Braille and Non-Braille Readers
• International Electronic Braille Book Library
• Project Gutenberg at HWG - look for files marked as HTML or XHTML. Duxbury, Megadots, and Braille2000 can all import this file type and produce fairly well formatted braille as output.
• Accessible Book Collection - Providing Digital Text to Persons with Disabilities
• Electronic Text Center - University of Virginia Library
• The Online Books Page - Listing over 20,000 free books on the Web
• The Frugal Connection - free ebooks
• Just for Nothing - Sources of etext and alternative media
• Embossit (1.29 mb) - a freeware standalone program that anyone can download to print Braille Formatted Files (brf, bfm, pok) from any Braille software, including but not limited to MegaDots, Duxbury, PokaDots, MicroBraille.
• Tactile Graphic Archive
• World Wide Braille Transcribers who produce braille
• Computers to Help People, Inc. (CHPI) Home Page - providing books on science and math in Braille and e-text on a worldwide basis
• Resources for Parents & Teachers of Blind Kids Kid's Books, Stories & News for Brailling
• NLS Factsheet Web-Braille - Web-Braille, National Library Service's new system for distributing braille books via the Internet, is now ready for use.  Grade 2 braille books are available for download or online use by eligible individuals, libraries, and schools with braille embossers, refreshable braille displays, and other braille-aware devices.  To retrieve Web-Braille files, you can use whatever braille equipment and browser you are most comfortable with. To get a user ID for Web-Braille, contact the library (NLS Cooperating Library Address List) that handles your braille magazine subscriptions. You will be asked to select a password and provide an e-mail address.  Currently Web-Braille contains braille books beginning with BR8827.  NLS will continue to add new books to Web-Braille as the press copies are approved for shipment.  You can access these new books through the online version of  Braille Book Review (BBR). 

Copyright of Special Format Materials for Individuals Who are Disabled--Discussions with the National Library Service have revealed that the US Copyright Law does not apply to materials that are distributed outside the United States. To prevent unauthorized distribution outside of the United States special format materials for people with disabilities are placed within a password protected directory. Please visit the NLS website for more information. To obtain a password, please complete the form above. Or email the webmaster with your name, address, and indicate your affiliation

• member of a nonprofit organization or a governmental agency that has a primary mission to provide specialized services relating to training, education, or adaptive reading or information access needs of blind or other persons with disabilities; or
• individual who is eligible or who may qualify to receive books and other publications produced in specialized formats for people with disabilities.

More materials to follow. Please send requests for other materials you would like to see available for download to jimallan@tsbvi.edu.

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Please complete the comment form or send comments and suggestions to: Jim Allan (Webmaster-Jim Allan)

Last Revision: February 9, 2009