As a blind adult who has learnt braille from my infancy and who has used braille throughout my professional and personal adult life, I feel it is important to emphasise the impact of using braille technology on a person's every-day life.

Braille devices are becoming more numerous and smaller, meaning they are portable and as such they can be used for a greater range of activities.

Braille devices can be stand-alone or connected to a range of other devices and this makes them more versatile and portable. Access to books has become more mainstream and braille devices can be used to read these rather than a reliance on audio.

Social media is a big part of people's lives and this can be accessed through the use of a braille device.

Use of the internet is essential to a person with a vision impairment today, and activities such as research; shopping or studying can be done easily using a braille device.

Watching foreign films using a braille display and certain devices is now possible as subtitles can be read and are available to a person with a vision impairment.

Plus more … Use of braille may increase privacy and multi-tasking. Access to such technologies means less to carry around. The adult with a vision impairment is able to use a range of technologies for a range of purposes and can choose what is best for the task. There are of course limitations and negatives and I am not advocating this as a do-all approach, but in teaching blind young people and adults to use a range of technologies (and braille seems to be an obvious example) it will make them more able to work in a range of ways.