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Canute Console

N.B. The Canute Console can be bought direct from our shop. Please note these are in limited supply whilst we roll out the newest edition to the Canute family, the Scientific Premium. The Scientific has all the same functionality as the Console, but in an updated and integrated chassis with improved modular electronics for future upgrades.

Photo of the Canute Console on a desk, with white keyboard extending out from under the black Braille display and 13in visual monitor above the display.

The nine line 360 cell Braille workstation

9× the data, 9× the uses, no extra cost

A Braille display and workstation that shows a whole page at a time rather than a line at a time, the result of over a decade’s development and thousands of hours of testing by the Braille community.

A retractable QWERTY keyboard; a high contrast 13″ monitor synced to a 360 cell Braille display for collaboration between blind and sighted peers so both tactile and visual readers have the same information and layout; hard, proud, signage quality Braille that is easier to read; and a modular design for field repairs.

“The Canute Console can bring more young people into coding and technology, which means that we can create the new engineers of the future.” — Katy Deacon, Institute of Engineering and Technology & The Royal Academy of Engineering

Unique Open Source software for viewing spreadsheets, creating diagrams and schematics, generating graphs, proof-reading Braille, exploring maps, playing tactile videogames, programming spatial applications for visual and Braille users, writing spatially formatted documents and reading with maximum pleasure.

We are proud to annouce that the Canute Console Premium — and other Canute displays from the Bristol Braille range — is now available on our store for between £2,495 and £4,995.

Close up photo of two hands reading multiple lines of Braille; one hand is on line one, the other is on line six.

The best way to read, review and edit Braille

Download and edit documents, Braille files and tables from cloud storage, shared drives or external media and edit them on the Canute Console.

Type on a QWERTY keyboard which pulls out on a tray under the display and tucks away when you want to read without your wrists pressing keys. A luxurious 360 cells of Braille that maintains print white-space and centring.

“It’s really easy to read because the quality of the Braille cells is very crisp and very easy to detect. The spacing is perfect, your hand doesn’t drift, its much easier to keep track of where you are.” — Mary Lea

With that much real estate you can read as many as twenty columns of a table at once, greatly improving the comprehension and composition of technical data. You can even edit two different documents at the same time, next to each other on the same Braille display with 160 cells each.

With the Canute Console Premium as your workstation you can write better, review better, and you can collaborate better.

Photo of a blind user and a sighted user working together on the Canute Console, with the sighted person gesturing at the visual display and the blind user reading the same data on the Braille display.

Collaboration between equals, blind or sighted

Would your organisation benefit from blind people knowing with confidence what something looks like visually? Or from sighted people being able to structure documents in Braille or tactile graphics without knowing the first thing about Braille?

The Canute Console is the first computer to feature parity of display data for tactile readers and visual readers. The visual monitor and the Braille display update to show the same information with the same layouts.

“I’ve added multiline Braille support to my videogame so that as well as connecting to phones and computers you can actually connect with multiline Braille displays. The Console is really useful if you want to view maps in real time.” — Theo Holroyd, Canute Console owner

A blind business owner can better check their sighted employee’s work, a sighted colleague can develop a tactile document for their blind colleague, or two totally blind students can develop a spacial, visual application without sighted assistance.

With a Braille display that mirrors the visuals, and visuals mirroring the Braille, undoing assumptions about what blind people can and cannot do, it unleashes new creativity in the field of tactile applications. What will you use it for?

Photo of a tactile graphic of a football match being replayed under a Braille reader's hands as a visual replay of the same match plays out on the visual monitor.

Create, explore, program, publish

We’re pushing the boundaries of what can be done with Braille and tactile diagrams. Using Braille characters as symbols you can created whole tactile worlds and experiences that were previously inaccessible by touch.

The Canute Console runs a user friendly menu system from the Linux command line. It includes a variety of programs out of the box for viewing and editing rich text documents, spreadsheets and tables, code, online maps, vector diagrams as well as the rich ecosystem of thousands of Linux applications.

“I use it for weather and astronomy, both very visual in nature. The potential is great! It needs to be used in schools and higher education and where there are gateways into employment.” — Roger Firman, UK Association of Accessible Formats & British Standards Institution

With the Premium package you also get development time from the Bristol Braille team. Commissions have included robotics, graphing, star maps, Norse runes and original videogames.

The Canute Console Premium combines the the not-for-profit ethos of Bristol Braille and the ambitions of the tactile reading community to build a new future where tactile readers take back control of Braille and tactile media.

Photo of a Braille reader using the Canute Console editing code using the 9 line Braille display whilst the same nine lines are also on the visual display.

The Canute Console Premium is now available

The Canute Console Premium is available for customers anywhere in the world to buy at £4,995 from our web shop or one of our distributors; the same price as a single line Braille display with 1/9th the Braille and none of the spacial capabilities.

The Premium package comes with a Canute 360 Braille display which can be detached and used as a stand-alone e-reader, an extended two year warranty, an aluminium flight case and a day’s custom development time from Bristol Braille.

“Canute is a landmark development in Braille display technology. Boasting 9 lines of Braille with a total cell count of 360, it offers many possibilities for structured braille that haven’t been possible in the past.” — Dr Judith Dixon, International Council for English Braille

The Canute Console Premium is also available in the UK via Access to Work and Disabled Student Allowance. We have a pilot loan scheme for trial periods and for those waiting on ATW or DSA applications.

Call, message or book a meeting or demo using our online calendar.

Further information