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A simple, affordable tactile device helping people of all ages learn Braille, explore STEM, and create Art. It's already changing lives worldwide. But manufacturing has now stopped.

During the pandemic, my blind students went home with nothing they could touch to learn with — only screens they couldn’t see. That experience led to the invention of BrailleDoodle®.

BrailleDoodle® combines Braille literacy, STEM exploration, and creativity in one simple, yet revolutionary tool — and works anywhere in the world with no electricity, batteries, or internet required.

The response has been extraordinary. More than 1,800 BrailleDoodles have already reached end-users, families, and institutions in 26 countries, and the feedback has been phenomenal.

@asfvision (19 Million Views!)

But after early success, our overseas manufacturing partner produced a defective batch with a nearly 40% failure rate, resulting in losses exceeding $160,000 for our small nonprofit. Rather than ship a product that did not meet the quality blind learners deserve, we halted distribution immediately.

To restore reliable production, the molds must now be rebuilt, a cost exceeding $100,000.

Independent mold engineers have already reviewed the tooling and identified the root causes, allowing the new molds to be engineered with strong oversight and quality controls. BrailleDoodle works - Hundreds of BrailleDoodles already in use around the world continue to work exactly as intended.

With your help, the TouchPad Pro Foundation can restart production and place BrailleDoodles into the hands of learners around the world who are waiting for them. Every contribution helps restore access to Braille learning. Please consider making a donation today.

Anything that you give, $1, $3, $5; it all adds up. It all makes a difference and helps speed manufacturing!

$50,000 — Restart Production

This allows us to rebuild the precision molds required to manufacture BrailleDoodle again.

$75,000 — Deliver to Learners Waiting

This covers the molds while also helping us fulfill existing orders and stabilize basic operations.

$100,000 — Long-Term Sustainability

At this level, we can restore stable production and begin distributing free BrailleDoodles to learners who cannot afford them.

$150,000 — Expand Access Worldwide

Everything above, plus the ability to provide 1,000 BrailleDoodles free of charge to blind learners and schools that need them most.

Q & A BELOW

The Full Story

BrailleDoodle: A Lifeline for Braille and Tactile Literacy

For more than 20 years, my classroom was full of laughter and creativity. During my tenure as a Visual Arts Educator at NYISE (The New York Institute for Special Education), a school for blind and low-vision students, I watched brilliant children show extraordinary curiosity and intelligence. I was inspired like never before by the enthusiasm of every child and teenager for life, and by their refusal to be defined by their vision impairment.

In early 2020, the pandemic hit. Overnight, the hands-on materials my students needed were unavailable. Most went home with nothing–to a screen they couldn’t see. The rate at which my students were learning didn’t just slow; in many areas, it stopped.

Day after day, I witnessed how, without access to assistive technology, their tactile learning was restricted. Braille instruction depends on sharp styluses, heavy, costly Braille paper, and expensive typing or electronic Braille devices that few families can afford. Tactile graphics, drawing, shapes, math, and diagrams were almost impossible to create independently. Soon, I learned this wasn’t just a pandemic problem. For students who are blind and have low vision, this is a global crisis. Multiple studies estimate that fewer than 1–10% of blind students learn Braille, and consequently, dropout and unemployment rates are catastrophic.

It became clear that the world needed a low-cost, durable device that could put tactile learning in the hands of everyone who could benefit from it. Such a device would allow anyone to learn, regardless of their location or economic situation.

I began sketching and tinkering. Night after night, I sat at my desk with magnets, toys from Amazon, metal beads, cardboard, duct tape, and my trusty X-Acto knife. I asked myself: How do we give a learner with a vision impairment something as fun as a toy, yet powerful and intuitive enough for any blind or low-vision child or adult to use at home or at school?

Over months of trial and error, a simple but revolutionary idea began to emerge, a two-sided tactile tablet—one for drawing and exploration, one for learning and practicing Braille. No electricity or Wi-Fi required. From touch and imagination to a pathway to literacy, creativity, and independence.

In December 2021, I founded The TouchPad Pro Foundation Inc. (TPPF). It took years of research, fundraising, and engineering to bring us to where we are now. Over time, we became a diverse team of parents, educators, accessibility specialists, researchers, clinicians, and nonprofit leaders, many of whom are blind or have low vision. Without help from the TPPF team, the BrailleDoodle, as it is, would not exist. Together, we bring deep expertise and lived experience to the expansion of Braille literacy and tactile learning worldwide.

A Revolutionary Solution

BrailleDoodle®

International Patent Pending

BrailleDoodle is an innovative, affordable educational and creative device suitable for use by people of all ages. The BrailleDoodle uses magnets, metal beads, and Etch-a-Sketch-like technology to provide Braille literacy and tactile images.

It features hundreds of tiny holes, each with a metal bead that can be raised to the surface using a magnetic stylus. When raised, the beads are securely locked in place for touching and can be erased with a push or sweep of the stylus.

The Braille Side

With its ‘no pressure’ and ‘no fail’ instructional surface, the Braille Side of the BrailleDoodle is suitable for learners of all ages and skill levels. Using proven, motivational, multisensory teaching methods, anyone can learn to read and write Braille!

The Doodle Side

With the learner forming and feeling every dot, the Doodle Side has hundreds of holes that form a gridded space. This blank canvas invites users to:

Create maps on the go.

Unique Cover/Stencils –Learning Without Limits

Held in place by built-in notches, these covers can form dozens of Braille cells and teach students subjects such as science, math, maps, art, shapes, and graphs.

Below is an example of how the BrailleDoodle can be used to teach advanced math concepts through self-discovery and touch.

Sets in the future will include those that can teach Braille in any language.

Not Just for Kids

Adults who are blind from birth or who lose their vision later in life have an affordable way to sketch ideas on the fly, learn mobility skills, interact with their children and grandchildren through play, and learn Braille in a no-pressure way.

An extraordinary response.

Over 1,800 BrailleDoodles have already been shipped to families and schools across 26 countries, and they are praising the fact that BrailleDoodles are:

Independent Study Confirms Effectiveness

A five-month, third-party field study conducted by a U.S. organization with more than 165 years of service to blind and low-vision learners evaluated the BrailleDoodle with 55 students, 20 educators, and service providers.

The results were clear:

Our Manufacturing Journey

Our first manufacturing run produced 900 excellent units with near-perfect quality, shipped to 17 countries, and helped establish BrailleDoodle’s global momentum.

As demand accelerated, we launched a second production run of 2,000 units. Unfortunately, quality declined, and nearly 40% of the units contained defects that made them unacceptable.

Rather than ship a product that did not meet the standard learners deserve, we made the difficult decision to halt distribution immediately. For a small nonprofit, this decision carried real financial consequences, but protecting the trust of blind learners, families, and educators — and delivering the level of quality they deserve had to come first.

After the defects emerged, we made the difficult decision to seek a new manufacturing partner.

Restoring Manufacturing the Right Way

After recovering the molds, independent mold engineers conducted approximately five months of testing and remediation attempts. Their conclusion was clear: the molds are fundamentally non-functional and must be completely remade.

This independent engineering review allowed us to fully understand the root causes of the earlier failures. As a result, the new molds will be engineered and manufactured under significantly stronger quality controls and oversight to ensure the reliability BrailleDoodle learners deserve.

The estimate to replace and properly engineer new molds exceeds $100,000 USD.

We are working with reputable mold engineers and experienced manufacturing partners to rebuild the tooling properly so that production can restart with stability and confidence.

BrailleDoodle is proven - More than 1,800 BrailleDoodles already in use around the world continue to work exactly as intended.

A Major Opportunity Lost

During this same period, we were in advanced negotiations with HumanWare, one of the world’s leading assistive technology companies, for a global master distribution partnership. The agreement would have included an initial commitment of several thousand units, representing more than $250,000 in product, and would have been a major step toward worldwide scale.

As manufacturing instability persisted, HumanWare ultimately chose not to move forward with the partnership.

A Critical Turning Point

Today, BrailleDoodle stands at a critical turning point.

The product works.

Educators believe in it.

Families around the world are asking for it.

What stands in the way is not vision or demand; it is the resources needed to rebuild stable production.

When BrailleDoodle reaches a learner, something powerful happens.

A child who has never had a simple way to explore tactile graphics can suddenly understand STEM concepts and graphs through touch. A student learning to read and write can practice Braille with confidence. An adult who loses vision later in life can sketch ideas, learn, and create again.

BrailleDoodle brings together Braille literacy, tactile STEM learning, and creative expression in one simple, durable tool with no batteries or screens.

And when tactile literacy becomes accessible, learners gain the tools to explore, imagine, and build their futures with confidence.

Website

https://www.brailledoodle.org

The Blind Life - Sam’s full review and demo of BrailleDoodle

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