The demand for Braille Textbook Transcribers continues to increase. Today, the United States needs at least 380 new Braille Textbook Transcribers to serve the K-12 school population. By 2012, that number will rise to an additional 1,020. And this projection does not even consider the need for transcribers of college-level textbooks. According to the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB), 77 percent of respondents from 40 states had insufficient numbers of braille transcribers to meet their need for production of special materials.
A Braille Textbook Transcriber's work ensures that students have braille textbooks and learning materials at the same time as their sighted peers, offering them access to equal educational opportunities.
NATIONAL JOB OUTLOOK
Typically, individuals who transcribe textbooks into braille are independent contractors, although there are many who are considered staff members of an agency, college, school district or private business.. Potential employers or contractors include colleges and universities, state education and rehabilitation agencies, local school districts, city, state and national entities, and private businesses. Transcribers also work for national, state, or regional instructional materials centers for the blind or visually impaired or braille production centers throughout the country. If the job targets students in K-12th grade local school districts may hire or contract with transcribers to produce supplemental materials in addition to the textbooks. These may include handouts, worksheets and teacher-made tests.
A career as a Braille Textbook Transcriber does not limit program graduates to transcribing K-12 school textbooks and materials. Brochures, college textbooks, menus, schedules, annual reports, legal documents, manuals, labels, signs, memos, etc., have to be transcribed into braille for government or private agencies, organizations, or businesses serving the blind and visually impaired.
To produce braille textbooks, the Braille Textbook Transcriber receives electronic publishers' files and converts those files into electronic braille files which can be e-mailed to their contractor anywhere in the world. Because the work is computer-based, the transcriber does not need to be located near those who contract for their services.
