By John T. Moore
A Web-based Braille transcribing service that allows people to mail cards, notes and letters to blind friends and family has been launched, but the founding partners are looking for funds to keep it growing.
The Web site -- HotBraille.com -- was created by high school student Khaled Saad and his friend, Olivier Giulieri. Visitors to the site can type a message up to four Braille pages long -- about 500 words -- that Saad will print out in Braille and send via regular mail to visually-impaired recipients.
HotBraille.com doesn't incur any postage costs because it uses "Free Matter for the Blind" stamps that allow mail to be sent third class.
Giulieri, a software engineer who worked with Saad's father about seven years ago, is the chief technician of HotBraille. He is responsible for the database architecture, the user interface and the site's other technical aspects.
Saad prints and mails the messages from his parent's house. He produces about 30-40 letters per day. Saad says the production costs could get expensive if the organization grows too quickly.
The two men work with about two dozen site visitors per day-- 30 percent of whom are blind. That number has increased from one or two users per day when the site was launched Nov. 15.
Saad and Giulieri began working on the site thanks to inspiration they got from a visually-impaired friend, Peter Cantisani, a technology specialist with more than 20 years of assistive technology experience.
During his college days, Giulieri had done some volunteer work with a children's organization in France that provided a free Braille summary version of the local weekly newspaper to blind residents in the South of France.
Saad says that job came about to satisfy his curiosity in computer technology, but Cantisani provided Giulieri and Saad the tools necessary to take that Braille transcribing service a step further.
"He helped by providing resources and tips on how to best create a Web site for the blind," says Saad.
Cantisani also helped with the Braille production process, which Saad says can be difficult to print.
Although HotBraille.com has been incorporated, Saad and Giulieri don't know if it will become a nonprofit or stay a "dot.com." HotBraille.com is funded entirely by Saad and Giulieri.
"We don't see exactly where we're going to bring in money [for the site]," Saad says. "That's why we're hesitant." The only funding model that's interesting to HotBraille.com's founders is advertising, but Saad admits that since not many companies market to the blind, the advertising model isn't as commercially viable.
Saad says the goal is to keep the service free. HotBraille.com will never charge members for sending the letters -- which are printed and mailed in complete privacy.
"Essentially, we're waiting for someone to approach us about funding," Saad says.
Several companies have contacted HotBraille.com about using the site to produce technical documents in Braille for people who request them. No corporation has yet approached the founders about funding, though.
Since Saad and Giulieri want HotBraille.com's growth to be controllable, it doesn't advertise its service. But that hasn't stopped plans for the site's future. A membership initiative was started Feb. 20 to build a virtual community of sighted and blind people.
The membership directory compiles people's interests, hobbies, likes and dislikes so potential pen pals can meet from around the globe.
The membership idea came to fruition after the mother of a blind girl e-mailed HotBraille.com, suggesting it would be nice for her daughter to get letters from pen pals. Until then, the daughter had never received a letter of her own, and only read Braille in books.
Saad says that helping the handicapped is a motivating factor for him. He was accepted at California Polytechnic State University and intends to pursue a career in computer science, but HotBraille.com will be a continuing part of that education.
John T. Moore can be reached at
johntm@mindspring.com
