The Write Solution

Mechanical engineering students turn a senior project into a writing tool for the blind. BY LYNNE SHALLCROSS

WHEN undergraduate engineering students play with clay, don't assume that they're finding their inner child. They might just be making Braille writing simpler in the United States and combating illiteracy among blind people in developing countries.

Four Johns Hopkins University (JHU) mechanical engineering students created a lightweight, portable Braille writing device in an effort to give the blind a lowcost, low-tech way to write.

As part of an Engineering Design Project class, the students took on the assignment from the Baltimore-based National Federation …