The History of Compass Braille

  

Between 1978-1985 two of the founders, Tony and Rona Gibb, worked in India among visually impaired people. Hindi and Tamil Braille New Testaments had been produced at that time but in other Indian languages there were, at the most, only 1 or 2 Gospels and English Braille was not widely known. So in 1990 to address this need for Braille Bibles in Indian languages, Compass Braille was established. 

 

At that time, a retired professor, Don Rogers, had written a computer program to convert Hindi script into Braille code (typed into a standard computer using a special word processor).  This enabled the work to begin but because Bible texts were rarely computerised volunteers had to be found to type various languages onto computer, while others proof-read the work as it was being done. 

 

The photograph above shows the outside of the Methodist Chapel in Devon where Compass Braille began its work. (We are now located in Hertfordshire).

 

Steve Brown met Tony and Rona at this time and they soon recognised his skills. He became the first Production Manager and he oversaw the installation of the braillos (pictured right) and other equipment and he produced the first ever computerised Braille Bible volumes for India.

 

We also have volunteers who often work from home but mostly local volunteers come into the press to help with actual production. 

Please explore the rest of our web site to see how Compass Braille has developed and what it is doing today.