It’s World Braille Day, so in this blog our Quality and Evaluation lead Abi looks at the cancer information we produce in Braille – and other accessible formats – for people with visual impairments who are affected by cancer.
This annual day celebrates the birthday of Braille inventor Louis Braille, who was blinded in an accident at a young age. Invented when Louis was just 15 years old, Braille is a code that uses bumps and indentation on a surface to represent letters. These can then be recognised by touch, enabling blind people to read and write.
Did you know that Macmillan will produce any of our cancer information in Braille if someone needs it? We also produce large print versions of our content on request, and our range of eBooks, audio content and fully-optimised website provide a choice of formats through which people with visual impairments can access our information.
Here are some of our other formats that people with visual impairments may find helpful:
eBooks
Our range of eBooks are easy to navigate and can be viewed on a wide variety of devices including mobile phones, tablets and laptops. You can make the font larger and with the right software they can also be turned into audiobooks.
Audiobooks or listen online
We have over 50 audiobooks to order as CDs or download as an mp3 file. These cover cancer symptoms, cancer types, treatments and living with cancer.
Website
Our website is optimized for screen readers. This means we add clear descriptions of all our images and make the content as easy for everyone to access as possible. Screen readers read out menus and buttons, web pages and documents to help you use the computer if you can’t see the screen.
Large print
We can send you a large print version of any of our cancer information. Email us at cancerinformationteam@macmillan.org.uk to make a request.
Would you like information in Braille?
To order information in Braille, just email us at cancerinformationteam@macmillan.org.uk to tell us what you need. It takes us about two weeks to complete an order.
To see what else Macmillan's cancer information team has been blogging about, please visit our blog home page! You can subscribe to receive our blogs by email or RSS too.
We're with you every step of the way
The Macmillan team is here to help. Our cancer support specialists can answer your questions, offer support, or simply listen if you need a chat. Call us free on 0808 808 00 00.
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