| Sumario: | Abstract\nIMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATIONPurpose: Assistive technologies are frequently a means of communication for people with visual impairment. The availability and ease of use of modern, convenient accessories, however, are still limited, especially in nations such as India.Materials and Methods: This study aims to develop a user-friendly hardware-software Braille interface keyboard for the visually impaired which is cost effective and efficient. This system employs an ESP32 (Espressif32) Internet of Things (IoT) module, and has Bluetooth audio functions and local memory storage for reducing the incidence of typographical errors by using a library memory suggestion function.Results: The system was tested with a group of concerned people by assigning them eight tasks. The test results had text entry speed of 7.27 words per minute (wpm) and an accuracy of 97.4%.Conclusion: This device has a production cost of approximately 10 $ that proves to be an improvement compared to existing solutions for the people with visual impairment especially to the boarding schools for the blind.Access to expensive assistive technologies is a barrier to education, employment opportunities for visually impaired people, especially in India. Existing braille keyboards are costly and incompatible with computers. This $10 IoT-based Braille keyboard offers Bluetooth audio and memory suggestion functions for users to work with computers and laptops. In summary, this high-accuracy prototype will help to overcome physical and social barriers for around 5 million people who are visually impaired, for the benefit of schools for the blind in India and around the world.
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