Perkins Products and Product Development Technologies (PDT) Honored by GOOD DESIGN Award for Perkins SMART Brailler

 

Perkins Products and Product Development Technologies (PDT) Honored by GOOD DESIGN Award for Perkins SMART Brailler®

 

Perkins Products and Product Development Technologies (PDT) are proud to announce they have won a 2012 GOOD DESIGN™ Award in the Electronics category for the Perkins SMART Brailler®. The Perkins SMART Brailler marries the world’s most widely used braille writer with first-of-its-kind multi-sensory technology designed to make learning and teaching braille easier.

 

Founded in Chicago in 1950, GOOD DESIGN remains the oldest and most recognized award program worldwide for design excellence. It is organized annually by the Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design in cooperation with The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.

 

The GOOD DESIGN award was given for the Perkins SMART Brailler’s innovative method of enabling learning. Current high-tech braille products only work if users already know braille, but the new Perkins SMART Brailler gets even new users connected instantly to braille. The SMART Brailler features instantaneous audio and visual feedback and Acapela text-to-speech (in English, and a range of other languages), plus downloadable lessons for braille beginners, and electronic document saving, editing and transfer capability via USB. Because it is built around a Perkins Next Generation Brailler®, the new device also generates hard copy braille as the user types.

 

“We’re thrilled and honored,” said David Morgan, Perkins Vice President and General Manager of Perkins Products. “The 2012 GOOD DESIGN award highlights the significance of Perkins SMART Brailler in advancing literacy through braille for people who are blind.” GOOD DESIGN covers new consumer products designed and manufactured in Europe, Asia, Africa, and North and South America.

 

Perkins Products is a division of Perkins, home of the first school in the U.S. for students with visual impairments. Perkins provides education and services to help build productive, meaningful lives for more than 500,000 children and adults in the U.S. and 67 countries worldwide. The Perkins Products division ships its braillers to 175 countries. Founded in 1829, Perkins pursues its mission around the world, in the community and on its Watertown, Massachusetts, campus. Learn more online at www.Perkins.org.