History

Category: Braille

The History of Compass Braille

mortonhampstead

Between 1978-1985, 2 of the founders, Tony & Rona Gibb worked in India among people with visual disabilities. Hindi and Tamil Braille New Testaments had been produced 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 the need for Braille Bibles in Indian languages, Compass Braille was established  

Compass Braille Entrance

The photograph on the left shows the outside of the Methodist Chapel in Devon where the work of Compass Braille began. In 2008 we relocated to Ware, Hertfordshire - the entrance to these premises is pictured on the right. In 2023 we moved to our current address at Torch House in Leicestershire, the home of Torch Trust for the Blind.

A retired professor, Don Rogers, came on board and wrote a computer program to convert Hindi script into Braille code. This enabled the work to begin but because Bible texts were rarely computerised volunteers were found to type various languages onto computer and others simultaneously proof-read the work.

braille_press

Soon after, Steve Brown joined Compass Braille and he became the first Production Manager. He oversaw the installation of the Braillos (pictured left) and produced the first ever computerised Braille Bible volumes in Hindi for India.

We now have local volunteers who come into the press to help with production.

Please explore the rest of our web site to discover how Compass Braille has developed and what it does today.