The slate and stylus are tools used by blind persons to write text that they can read without assistance. Invented by Charles Barbier as the tool for writing night writing, the slate and stylus allow for a quick, easy, convenient and constant method of making embossed printing for Braille character encoding. Prior methods of making raised printing for the blind required a movable type printing press.
The basic design of the slate consists of two pieces of metal, plastic or wood fastened together with a hinge at one side.
The back of the slate is solid with slight depressions spaced in braille cells of six raised dots arranged in a grid of two dots horizontally by three dots vertically. In the shape of an inverted braille dot of approximately 1.5 mm (0.059 in) diameter; .75 mm (0.030 in) depth or height; the horizontal and vertical spacing between dot centers within a braille cell is approximately 2.5 mm (0.098 in) cell to cell (dot 1 center to dot 1 center horizontally) 6.5 mm (0.26 in).
The front of the slate has a corresponding rectangular cells with indentations in the side of the cell, over the depressions in the back so the blind user can properly position the stylus and press to form a dot.
There are pins or posts in the back of the slate positioned in non-cell areas to hold the paper in place and keep the top properly positioned over the back. The pins align with matching depressions on the opposite side of the slate. A slate as designed for a normal 8.5 inch piece of paper has 28 cells. It can have any number of rows, usually at least four.
The stylus is a short blunted awl with a handle to comfortably fit the hand of the user.
Writing is accomplished by placing a piece of heavy paper in the slate, aligning it correctly and closing the slate. The pins in the back of the slate puncture or pinch the paper securely between the two halves of the slate.
The person writing begins in the upper right, each combination of dots in the cell has to be completed backward. The awl is positioned and pressed to form a depression in the paper. The writer moves to one of the other dots in the cell or to the next cell as appropriate.
The slate is repositioned as needed to continue writing on the paper. When completed the writer removes the slate and turns the paper over to read the braille by feeling the dots that were pushed up from the back.
Source: Wikipedia
This footage is part of the professionally-shot broadcast stock footage archive of Wilderness Films India Ltd., the largest collection of HD imagery from South Asia. The Wilderness Films India collection comprises of 50, 000+ hours of high quality broadcast imagery, mostly shot on HDCAM / SR 1080i High Definition, Alexa, SR, HDV and XDCAM. Write to us for licensing this footage on a broadcast format, for use in your production! We are happy to be commissioned to film for you or else provide you with broadcast crewing and production solutions across South Asia. We pride ourselves in bringing the best of India and South Asia to the world...
Please subscribe to our channel wildfilmsindia on Youtube for a steady stream of videos from across India. Also, visit and enjoy your journey across India at www.clipahoy.com , India's first video-based social networking experience!
Reach us at rupindang @ gmail . com and admin@wildfilmsindia.com
