This a project I am working on called the BecDot which is a literacy teaching tool I invented for our daughter Rebecca that could be used to teach visually impaired children Braille concepts.. This video talks a bit about our mission.
Learn more about Usher syndrome and get involved
We are telling the world about Usher syndrome. Join us by visiting our friends at
Help us end blindness
Our friends at the foundation fighting blindness are workign on cures to fight blindness. Learn more here
You can also join us on May 5th for our anual funraiser. Learn More
The Story
We are the parents of two beautiful children, one of which has Usher Syndrome which is the leading cause of deaf/blindness. When we learned of our daughter’s syndrome we immediately began thinking of ways to adapt the world to her needs and to make it more accessible. I quickly realized that this would be no small task, but if I were to be successful it would mean that I was not only adapting the world for her but also for anyone else that had similar accessibility needs. The world is full of challenges for people with extra needs, I see it now more clearly then I have ever seen it before, but what I also see are the possibilities to make it more adaptable. I am the director of hardware engineering at a company, Onset Computer Corporation on the east coast of Massachusetts, who have been very supportive of this project. I have a background in product development from concept to design and through manufacturing. I am able to take my twenty plus years of experience in this space and use it to develop low cost innovative solutions to help reach many under-served people with extra challenges. I am not afraid to commit to something and figure out along the way how to get it done, I have committed to adapting the world to meet my daughters needs and I am determined to make that a reality and I am in the process of figuring out what that means. I have a fire in my belly and incredible passion to drive this philosophy forward, of adapting the world to her needs and helping others along the way. I hope to use her story and the products that are being developed to enable me to fund future accessibility products that positively affect the lives of many people with accessibility needs. We started our mission with a couple of open source projects that I was tinkering with and that expanded into a number of new ideas including our latest, the BecDot device which is a low cost braille teaching toy for visually impaired children. More on the device in the next section but we realized with this device that bringing it to market would enable us to fund future projects aimed to making the world more accessible.
The Device
The BecDot is an educational tool/toy that will be used to introduce braille at an early age to children that are visually impaired or who have been diagnosed with conditions that will eventually cause blindness or for children who are already blind. The device incorporates 4 braille cells that react to objects with pre-programmed NFC tags attached to them. It currently uses an Arduino Uno (what is an arduino) to drive the individual dots.
The biggest challenge with the design was to create a device that was very low cost. I studied some of the Braille readers on the market and found that these devices are very complex and as a result make them very expensive for the consumer. This is why not many devices are designed for children and most of the focus is on the older Braille reader, I mean who wants to give a 3 year old a $1000+ device. This is where after some trial and a lot of pain I came up with a design which could enable me to bring the device to market for under $100, enabling families, care givers, and educators the ability to afford the device. The innovation comes in the actuators that are lifting the individual braille cells and one evening I designed a new concept that is used in the device (more on the mechanism here Accessibility Through Technology). Once I got that figured out and got the first prototype cell working at some time around 2:00am on a Saturday morning, I immediately scaled it up to four cells which I thought was a good starting point for the age group I was targeting.
After this I incorporated an NFC reader (Adafruit PN532) into the device. The idea was that the reader would read a preprogrammed tag that a parent, caregiver or educator could place on a toy such as a letter block, a plastic dog, cow, goat, etc. When the child places the toy in the reader the device will display the braille equivalent of the object on the four cells. Of course lights and sounds would also come later in the development of the device.
So at this point all of that is working great and we have been cranking out prototypes the first one after about 24 straight hours of 3D printing was up and running and it was working well. I was showing it to family, friends and coworkers as well as teachers from the local schools for the blind and all I received was affirmation that this was a device that was needed. I also had my daughter Rebecca (hence the name BecDot) play with the device and she loved the lights and feeling the dots raise and lower. Of course being the first prototype I treasured it especially because of the time that went into making just the one. I was working on the design one day when I cringed to hear from the next room what could only be the BecDot crashing onto the floor. Luckily it mostly survived but many of the plastic bosses holding the thing together inside broke away.. Regardless, the device did not pass the first round of testing even if I was not really ready for it, but Becca sure was…
And that is where we are at. Working on additional prototypes and getting them in the hands of visually impaired children and educators so that they can continue to help us mold it into a perfect tool to help them teach and learn literacy.
The Need
Being able to read is fundamentally important to a person’s ability to successfully navigate our world. This device provides access to children with visual impairments and at a cost where it will not break the bank, it promotes and supports efforts to bring literacy to the forefront of education for visually impaired children. Teaching children early how to read is critical to their development and a visually impaired child is no different. For every 1 braille reader on the market today more than 10 of these devices can be put into the hands of children. Literacy is crucial to employment and with unemployment at 70% among the visually impaired, it is obvious that something needs to change. We want to be that change. We want Rebecca to grow up knowing how to read and write. We want the world to be accessible to her. We want her to learn, strive, and grow, and one day have a career and maybe a family of her own. It is so important to us that visually impaired children have the tools they need to succeed. The unemployment rate of the blind and visually impaired needs to be drastically reduced, and we would love nothing more than to have even a small part in making that happen.
I am a parent of a child with a disability who is determined to adapt the world to her. In doing so I am hoping to help others along the way as well by creating low cost solutions that promote accessibility. -Jake
Memories for Rebecca 
Love you guys thank you for your hard work and determination to get the job done.Best parents any child could ever have
LikeLiked by 1 person
[…] Braille is a tactile system of communication, used the world over by those with vision impairment. Like any form of language or writing, it can be difficult to teach and learn. To help solve this, [memoriesforbecca] has developed Becdot as a teaching tool to help children learn Braille. […]
LikeLike
[…] Braille is a tactile system of communication, used the world over by those with vision impairment. Like any form of language or writing, it can be difficult to teach and learn. To help solve this, [memoriesforbecca] has developed Becdot as a teaching tool to help children learn Braille. […]
LikeLike
[…] el Braille es un sistema táctil de comunicación, utilizados en todo el mundo por aquellos con problemas de visión. Al igual que cualquier forma de lengua o de la escritura, puede ser difícil de enseñar y de aprender. Para ayudar a resolver esto, [memoriesforbecca] ha desarrollado Becdot como una herramienta de enseñanza para ayudar a los niños a aprender Braille. […]
LikeLike
[…] Braille is a tactile system of communication, used the world over by those with vision impairment. Like any form of language or writing, it can be difficult to teach and learn. To help solve this, [memoriesforbecca] has developed Becdot as a teaching tool to help children learn Braille. […]
LikeLike
This looks so great. I have a 16 year old Braille user, and this would have been a great device when she was a baby. Do you mind if I give 2 feedback points? One is it would be fantastic if it also ‘said’ the word, which I’m sure you are aware – which I have no skills in this type of field so not sure how difficult that is. My second point, which Braille users and/or educators may or may not agree with me, but is the Braille cells (dots), be able to made smaller? In our early learning, it was taught that the Braille is the size it is, so feedback is given at once on the pad of a finger. I think this toy is absolutely fabulous so please don’t take it as me being negative, just something that I learned now that we have passed the early learning stage. Great work!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank nickymb, the device does play sound it moos when the cow is placed on it etc.. The idea is to introduce the concept of braille more than to teach how to read braille. Eventually I could see the need to move a child to a device geared more towards teaching how to read. Thanks for the feedback. All the best, Jake
LikeLike
[…] For this purpose, Jacob Lacourse, whose daughter Rebecca was born with Usher Syndrome, developed the BecDot educational toy. […]
LikeLike
[…] For this purpose, Jacob Lacourse, whose daughter Rebecca was born with Usher Syndrome, developed the BecDot educational toy. […]
LikeLike
[…] Source: AB : MFR […]
LikeLike
Looks great! Maybe a “next” or “scroll” button for words that are longer than 4 letters?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Amy, Thanks for the feedback. I like the idea of scrolling the letters I was also thinking of having different versions one with five letters and one with six.
LikeLike
Looks awesome. I also work on a project for teaching braille for children.
http://www.perkinselearning.org/technology/posts/taptilo-new-smart-device-teach-braille
It seems your link for “Accessibility Through Technology” not working. Can you share more idea about it?
Thank you.
-Han Kim-
LikeLike
Hi Han Kim, Yes I saw your device and think it is great. I will repair the link soon. I am working on some modifications at the moment which will change how the mechanism works.
All the best,
Jake
LikeLike
May I ask what you mean by “mechanism works”? I am curious whether you are referring to actuator part of the braille movement–I have been working and studying this part for years.
LikeLike
I am referring to the actuator part of the braille movement. I created a design that works well for the purposes of this device.
LikeLike
Yes. Actuator part is very interesting. I also have own technology that operates Taptilo’s braille cells.
LikeLike
I’m so excited about the Bec Dot. Our grandson is 5 years old. He has very limited sight in one eye and no sight in the other. I would love to get this tool to help him. He is struggling in school. Please help him. Thank you. Mary Lich
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Mary, We are workign hard to bring the BecDot to market and will hopefully have more news soon. All the best to you and your family.
LikeLike
Consider connecting with American Printing House for the Blind. As a teacher of children with visual impairments for almost 30 years, I’ve ordered numerous items over the years for use with my students. Looks like it would have wide appeal in early intervention. I would suggest you add more Braille cells, too. Great idea! God bless you and your family on this lifelong journey. Rebecca is a beautiful child. I am certain she has been and will continue to amaze you!
LikeLike
My son has Usher syndrome and I feel the same emotions you carry. Way to be proactive, and give her the tools she needs to succeed. I would love to spread the word about this product and or purchase Bec dot.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We are hoping to have it to market within the coming months, and we will keep you updated. How old is your son? Thanks for writing!
LikeLike
I look forward to seeing this available for purchase. As a Youth librarian, this is a group we have a hard time reaching and serving.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We actually connected with the American Printing House while we were out in Las Vegas at CES and showed them the device. We are working on making the braille cells smaller, and right now it is geared towards younger kids with only four cells, but we may eventually add more cells. Thank you so much for writing!
LikeLike
Hi, I’m Ed from Bristol Braille and from the Braillists Foundation, both in the UK. Its good to hear that you’ve spoken to APH. If you’re interested in running tests in the UK let me know and we can look into arranging those for you through the Braillists Foundation.
LikeLike
Thank you so much for developing this MUCH needed product. I hope we can use in to teach children soon we need something like this amazing device. I hope there is eill be an auditory component to it, so the child has the option to hear the word also.
LikeLike
[…] and make that technology available to the people who need it the most. We are starting with the BecDot and will use that as both a platform and stepping stone to develop many solutions for people with […]
LikeLike