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LAGUNA, Philippines — Despite losing her sight and hearing, Quinn Jade, a nine-year-old kindergarten student at the Los Baños Central Elementary School Special Education Center, is determined to finish her education.
She relies on a Braille board and a stylus to write Braille, a hand-operated device used to make dots on paper to write Braille. It consists of two metal or plastic plates hinged together with a slot for inserting a stylus to write Braille characters.
The devices, about the size of a file folder, are essential for blind children to learn to read and write, but they are hard to find and expensive, making them difficult for students and educational institutions to own.
In view of this situation, five materials engineering students from the University of the Philippines Diliman developed a more convenient, lightweight and cheaper Braille.
The Brailleant Blind Item (BBI) is a portable braille board with a unique folding mechanism that is unlike any braille device currently on the market. BBI was developed by Xyrille Belega, Faith Cuenca, Joemar Feliciano, Gabriel Laurente, and Chelsea Teodosio.
The product was developed as part of a materials engineering course project aimed at creating materials that can improve the quality of people’s lives.
“It’s good that we give them a choice, especially because the braille boards and styluses that would be more comfortable or more efficient for them are so expensive that they can’t afford them.” said Chelsea Teodosio, one of the inventors.
(It is best to let them choose their own braille board and stylus, as they are very expensive and cannot be purchased.)
The students initially contacted SPED students in Quezon City, where visually impaired students tested the invention. They received positive feedback.
“They say that as long as there is a visual impairment, the Braille board and stylus are really useful, especially for students,” Teodosio said.
(They say that as long as there are visually impaired people, Braille tablets and styluses will always be useful, especially for students.)
Braille Creativity
Typical Braille has similar features to typical writing, with a stylus that acts like a pen and presses dots into the paper, a slate that guides the writing of the Braille characters, and joints that secure the paper.
Modern braille tablets and styluses are usually made of plastic or polycarbonate, a polymer produced by a chemical reaction between its basic ingredients bisphenol A (BPA) and phosgene.
Students in materials engineering modified the design of an existing slate and stylus to facilitate Braille writing on the go.
BBI has a portable braille board with a folding mechanism – this is where it has an advantage over existing braille devices on the market.
Teodosio said that their BBI has eight lines, which makes the writing process more convenient despite its smaller size, so that users do not have to move the slate multiple times when writing on paper.
“Instead of moving it eight times, he only moved it three or four times. These are the innovations we made to improve the product,” Teodosio said.
(It used to take eight moves, now it only takes three or four. These are the innovations we made to improve the product.)
Engineering Process
The portable Braille tablet is made from polylactic acid (PLA) filament, a biodegradable, durable and lightweight thermoplastic polymer processed via 3D printing.
This method of bonding polymers is similar to heating and shaping chocolate, which hardens as they cool without undergoing significant chemical changes, making it a versatile material for BBI.
Xyrille Belega, who led the team, explained that each component was printed individually to make the folding process possible.
“With 3D printing, that’s what you need to make sure of. He made it in autoCAD (computer-aided design). You have to build it. It was actually printed separately, then the panels, then the back panel half so he could fold it,” Belega said.
(With 3D printing, you need to make sure of that. It’s done in AutoCAD (computer-aided design). You have to build it. It’s actually printed in parts, including the front panel and half of the back panel, so it can fold.)
When choosing the most appropriate material, the students considered other types of thermoplastic polymers, and PLA was the most suitable. It has the ideal ultimate tensile strength, which is the ability of a material to withstand stress before breaking.
Teodosio said they also found that the material was cheaper and had the right density compared to other thermoplastic polymers and commercially available Braille.
“When we buy quads, the most basic one is… P300. So we look for a cheaper material that we want. So in addition to being cheaper, hopefully he’ll be able to maintain enough power to still be able to do what he needs to do,” Teodisio said.
(When we bought the basic quad wire, it cost us 300 pesos. So we looked for a material that was actually cheaper. Besides being cheaper, it also needed to remain strong enough to still perform its required function.)
The students hope their class project will inspire companies and other materials developers to create similar devices to help visually impaired learners.
The current situation of special education
Experienced special education teacher Meili Gerano stressed that finding learning materials for visually impaired students is costly and difficult.
“These expensive things are no joke… It’s hard to make something like this and it’s hard to find where to buy it,” ” she said of the device.
(No joke, it’s so expensive to buy these things…it’s hard to make these things, and it’s hard to find where to buy them.)
She noted that the learning materials used to teach students with disabilities are donated.
“It’s very important because it’s their reading and writing… They learn to read. They learn to write… It’s very helpful for them to be able to learn and achieve their dreams.”
(This is important because this is how they read and write…they learn to read and write…which helps them a lot in learning and achieving their dreams.)
The importance of collaboration
The design process for the BBI spanned one semester, during which we consulted extensively with occupational therapists, special education teachers, and visually impaired students.
“After we developed the proposal … (we) really talked to our stakeholders. Our professors said we can’t do this without consulting them,” Teodosio said.
（After drafting the proposal, we made sure to communicate with stakeholders…Our professors reminded us that we cannot be like God and proceed without consulting them first.
Through these consultations, the team identified necessary lock-in features and brainstormed on the overall design of the BBI.
Meanwhile, Gellano stressed that innovations like BBI can help SPED students maximize their potential.
According to the Department of Health, as of May 8, 2024, there are 188,184 visually impaired people in the Philippines.
Additionally, a 2018 study by the Philippine Eye Institute revealed that 4 million Filipinos suffer from undiagnosed eye diseases, and socioeconomic barriers often prevent them from getting necessary eye care. By Gwyneth Habig and Marcus Saladino, Ireland/Rappler.com
Gwyneth Habiger and Marcus Saladino is a Bachelor of Science in Development Communication student at the University of the Philippines Los Baños. This article was written as part of the course requirement for DEVC 128 (Development Science Communication) and was reviewed by a Rappler editor before publication.
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