For braille embossers and other types of high technology, go to the department Technology and Electronics. 

For a list of transcribing groups, go to the department Transcription and Recording Services.

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American Printing House for the Blind
internet: http://www.aph.org/edresearch/guides.htm

"Guidelines for Design of Tactile Graphics"

Arc90 Laboratory
internet: http://lab.arc90.com/2009/03/02/readability/

"Readability" is software that removes pictures from web sites and presents the text in a linear, more readble form. http://lab.arc90.com/2009/03/02/readability/

Braille Authority of North America
internet: http://brailleauthority.org/

Keep up to date on the braille codes for North America.

Center for Applied Special Technology [CAST]
internet: http://www.cast.org/

They have a software program for converting documents from NIMAS format, called NIMAS Conversion Tool at http://nimas.cast.org/about/resources/conversion_tool

CoolPDF Software, Inc.
internet: http://www.pdf2exe.com/reader.html

There software "Cool PDF" is free. It is used to convert .pdf files to other formats, including .jpeg.

Dancing Dots Braille Music Technology
internet: http://www.dancingdots.com

Software Goodfeel translates printed music scores into braille for your embosser.  Preliminary scanning and editing of a printed score requires use of other commercial software packages: Midiscan or PianoScan and a Lime notation editor.

Dolphin Computer Access
internet: http://www.yourdolphin.com/

Sells several adaptive software programs of use to persons with visual impairments, including braille translation. Their new program will convert NIMAC files to other formats.

Foothill-De Anza Community College District
internet: http://www.htctu.fhda.edu/trainings/manuals/alt/Tactile_Graphics.pdf

This college has posted their guidelines for how to make tactile graphics.

International Association of Diecutting and Diemaking
internet: http://www.iadd.org/

"To better satisfy the needs of the visually impaired in North America, the International Association of Diecutting and Diemaking (IADD), located in Crystal Lake, IL, has created Can-Am Braille,' a set of guidelines and recommendations for the use of braille on packaging."

International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions
internet: http://www.ifla.org

There are here for reading several informative booklets written to describe how to create tactile illustrations.
http://www.ifla.org/VI/1/guidelines/tactile_picture_books_20080109.pdf
http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla73/papers/156-Ripley-en.pdf
http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla65/65ye-e.htm

Konvertor
internet: http://www.konvertor.net

Their Konvertor software converts electronic files between almost all current standard formats, including images, audio, video, and text.

Mobility International, U.S.A.
internet: http://www.miusa.org/ncde/tipsheets/languageguide/

Tipsheet "Accessing Foreign Language Materials as a Blind or Low-Vision Student".

National Braille Press
internet: http://www.nbp.org/ic/nbp/tour/index.html

A tour of their production facilities and processes.

N C H Software
internet: http://www.nchsoftware.com/

Their Pixillion is a free software program to convert image files from one format to another, including .pdf. Their Verbose program enables a text file to be made into .mp3. They also have voice recording software.

"On Editing Graphics for the Blind"
internet: http://www.stanford.edu/~sipma/grbl0.html

A booklet on-line.

Pentronics
internet: http://www.pentronics.com.au/index_files/PictureBraille.htm

Their software "Picture Braille" converts line drawings into a format acceptable to braille transcription software.

Source Forge
internet: http://sourceforge.net/

Their free software "Audacity" is a program for recording audio files. It is quite easy to use. It can be used to change audio tape output to files in .mp3 format. It comes in Windows and Mac versions. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ Their add-in program "Save as DAISY" works with "Word" software to convert those documents to audio DAISY format. http://sourceforge.net/projects/openxml-daisy.

"Tactile Access to Scalable Vector Graphics for People with Visual Impairment"
internet: http://www.svgopen.org/2004/papers/TactileAccessToSVG/

A paper written by a professor in Germany, describing a proposed tablet with pins to show graphics as refreshable braille.

Tactile Graphics
internet: http://www.tactilegraphics.org/

Information on how to make good tactile graphics, including reviews of available tools.

TactileView
internet: http://tactileview.com/

Software to help make tactile graphics.

TechAdapt
internet: http://accessiblemediacenter.techadapt.com/

Their software program Accessible Media Center converts files in NIMAS format to .rtf or .html formats.

There is a Google User's Group at http://groups.google.com/group/tamc-users.