COMPUTER ACCESSIBILITY RESEARCHERS at North Carolina State University are getting closer to developing a display system that would allow the blind to take full advantage of the web and other computer applications.

Current electronic Braille displays can show only one line of text at a time and they're very expensive.

However Neil Di Spigna, a research assistant professor at NC State and his team are working to develop a full-page, refreshable Braille display.

The display should translate images into tactile displays, effectively mapping pixels in an image and allowing the full-page Braille display to represent the images as raised dots.

His current plan is to use a hydraulic and latching mechanism, which is made of an electroactive polymer that is very resilient and inexpensive. This allows the dots to be raised to the correct height so they can be read. Once the dots are raised, a latching mechanism would support the weight being applied by a person's fingers as the dots are read. The material also responds quickly, allowing a reader to scroll through a document or website quickly. µ