Interactive Braille Cell 1.0 With Makey Makey

A user will learn how to create an interactive braille cell, which a visually impaired or sighted student can use to learn uncontracted braille. I am hopeful that this project will be improved - by myself and others! so additional adaptive resources can be created for visually impaired students. It is very important that sighted students and adults also understand braille better as I feel it helps generate much better understanding about a world without sight.

Educator Tip:

The Scratch code uses variables, lists, index counters, and has a lot of lines of programming. Don't worry if you are new to programming. Take your time to parse through it to see how the code's logic works. Many times I am just duplicating lines of code and slightly modifying it.

Makey Makey Classic, shoebox, cardboard cut in shape of circles, conductive copper tape

Thanks to BuildaBetterBook.org and Ann at SensationalBooks.com, I can now understand Braille. Just like any language, you need to practice. This interactive Makey Makey Braille Cell will help both visually impaired and sighted students learn uncontracted braille. (This is. version 1.0, so there is definitely room for improvement, including creating a contracted version. Please remix!) Beginning to better understand braille and how to read the world with my fingers, helped me understand a little more how to better create adaptive technology. I use Makey Makey to create the interactive portion of the project and the programming is done in Scratch 3.0. Scratch 3.0 new text to speech functionality was helpful in making the programming simple and usability very realistic. A braille cell consists of six dots. The combination of any of the six dots equals a letter.

Follow Along the Google Slide Show to Create the Interactive Braille Cell Shell.

Here is the Scratch 3.0 link.

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/291249555/

To play the Interactive Braille Cell, select the dots to create your letter and then hit the 'Letter Sound' button 'S'. Next you can keep adding letters to a create a word. Once you have a word, hit the 'Word Sound' button 'D' and you will hear the word you spelled. To start a new word, hit the 'New Word' square 'D'.

Here is how I connected the Makey Makey to the Scratch Program. (You can choose differently if you like.)

Dot One = Space Bar

Dot Two = Up Arrow

Dot Three = Down Arrow

Dot Four = Right Arrow

Dot Five = Left Arrow

Dot Six = 'W'

Speak Letter = 'S'

Speak Word = 'D'

Start New Letter / Word = 'F'

Here is a video of the Interactive Braille Cell in Action:

****My next addition to version 1.0 is to add sounds for each letter. For example, if you touch letter 'D', you will hear 'D is for Dog' and barking.