Technology

Notetaking information sheet

Summary: This information sheet describes a number of portable electronic notetakers with speech and/or braille output. It also provides information about portable tape cassette, digital recorders and speech based organisers.

• What is a notetaker?
• Braille notetakers – availability and cost
• QWERTY Keyboard Notetakers – availability and cost
• PC notebooks – availability and cost
• Digital organisers – availability and cost
• Digital recorders – availability and cost
• Cassette recorders – availability and cost
• Where can I buy a notetaker?
• Further information

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What is a notetaker?

It is a portable device that is used to take notes, record and organise information. It is a useful tool for students who wish to take notes in lectures, to people in work who want to make notes in meetings or work at home. Others may just want to be able to record a shopping list or a telephone number. There are many different devices available from specialised notetakers to digital memos and cassette recorders. Specialist notetakers will have a braille or a QWERTY keyboard and no screen. They feed back information by speech and/or braille output.

Some braille displays have notetaking facilities. More information about braille displays can be found in our ‘Using a computer without vision’ information sheet.

Braille notetakers – availability and cost

These specialist notetakers have a braille keyboard which has six keys and a space bar, arranged in a typical way for typing braille.

They feedback information using speech output and/or, braille output, by means of a small braille display integrated into the device. Combinations of the six keys are used as function keys to initiate programs within the notetaker such as a word processor, calendar, clock, phone book and in some cases internet and email.

Picture of a BrailleNote Notetaker

They can also be connected to a printer and in some cases a braille embosser, to produce braille. Some of these notetakers will run a Windows based operating system.

Braille Lite Millennium Series

M20 has a 20 cell braille display and the M40 has a 40 cell braille display. Speech output and can connect to a PC to synchronise files. Built in modem and email capabilities.
Available from Blazie
Approx M20 £2,800 and M40 £4,500

Braille ‘n Speak

Has it’s own bespoke operating system and can connect to other devices. Speech output but no Braille display.
Available from various suppliers including Blazie Engineering and Sight and Sound Technology
Approx £1,050

BrailleNote BT

Available with an 18 cell or 32 cell braille display and runs Microsoft Windows CE operating system. Has an internal modem and email and internet capability. Can connect to other devices. GPS can be included for an additional cost.
Available from HumanWare
Approx 18 cell £3,200 and 32 cell £4,200

BrailleNote PK

Available with an 18 cell braille display and runs Microsoft Windows CE operating system. Provides access to the Internet and email and is smaller than other braille notetakers.
Available from HumanWare
Approx £3,595

ELBa

Runs with Linux operating system but uses Windows shortcut keys. Available with a 20 or 32 cell braille display. Can connect to other devices and includes Internet and email capability.
Available from Professional Vision Services
Approx 20 cell £3,000 and 32 cell £4,000

Mountbatten Brailler

Semi-portable electronic braille writing machine with a built-in embosser and speech output. It can be connected to a PC.
Available from Modern World Data
Approx £2,000

NANO pda-lite

NANO is a braille input personal organiser the size of a bar of chocolate. It includes a voice recorder, calculator, calendar, address book and task reminder.

Available from Vis-Ability and Computer Room Services.

Approx £230

PACMate BX

Based on the iPaq PDA and runs the Pocket PC operating system. Can connect to other devices and has email and internet capability. There is a speech only, 20 cell braille display or 40 cell braille display version.
Available from various suppliers including Blazie Engineering and Sight and Sound Technology.
Approx Speech £1,800, 20 cell £2,900 and 40 cell £4,400

Voice Note BT

This is a speech output only version of the BrailleNote.
Available from HumanWare
Approx £1,800

QWERTY Keyboard Notetakers – availability and cost

These notetakers have a standard QWERTY keyboard and are useful for blind people who are not braille users, those learning braille or people who prefer touch typing. Information is fed back by speech output and sometimes also a braille display. These notetakers have similar functionality to the braille notetakers and some will run a Windows based operating system.

Picture of a PACMate Notetaker

BrailleNote QT

Same as the BrailleNote BT, but with a QWERTY keyboard.
Available from HumanWare
Approx 18 cell £3,200 and 32 cell £4,200

ELBa

Same as the ELBa in the previous section but with a QWERTY keyboard.
Available from Professional Vision Services
Approx 20 cell £3,000 and 32 cell £4,000

PACMate QX

Same as the PACMate but with a QWERTY keyboard.
Available from various suppliers including Blazie and Sight and Sound Technology.
Approx Speech £1,800, 20 cell £2,900 and 40 cell £4,400

Type ‘n Speak

Same as the Braille ‘n Speak but with a QWERTY keyboard.
Available from various suppliers including Blazie Engineering and Sight and Sound Technology
Approx £1,170

VoiceNote QT

Same as the VoiceNote but with a QWERTY keyboard.
Available from HumanWare
Approx £1,800

PC notebooks – availability and cost

Lightweight, portable computers can be used as notetakers. Sony Vaio, Toshiba Portege and Dell Latitude ranges all have small notebooks. Some may have a smaller than average keyboard or a reduced processor speed, which may not be sufficient for the speech to function with adequately. It is important to check compatibility before purchasing. There are also some notebooks available that are aimed at blind and partially sighed people as they are supplied by specialist companies.

CVIP Elite-4

This PC looks like a thick keyboard. It contains a full size keyboard, and includes a floppy and a CD drive. Can connect to a monitor if required.
Available from C.V.I.P
Approx £845

PDAs with Pocket Hal

Dolphin have developed a version of the Hal screen reader to run on Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) running Windows Mobile 2003. This will give speech output for the functions of the PDA, such as Pocket Word, Pocket Excel and Pocket Outlook. A Pocket PC PDA can be connected to a range of QWERTY and braille keyboards and some braille displays are supported.
Available from Dolphin
Approx £500

Digital organisers – availability and cost

Like the notetakers above, these talking portable organisers have been designed for people with sight problems. They have a good range of organiser features including a phone book, notepad, appointment book, alarm clock and calculator. Information can be retrieved by voice recognition and easy to use buttons.

Picture of the Voice Diary

Voice Diary and Voice Diary Imp

1, 2 and 4MB versions available. Operated by push buttons on the front and voice prompts are used for all the keystrokes. Voice recognition is included for retrieving telephone numbers. Can be connected to a PC.
Available from C.V.I.P
Approx 1MB £60, 2MB £90 and 4MB £170

Digital recorders – availability and cost

Digital recorders used may be specialist aids, or aids which have been created for the mainstream market. Some digital recorders are small and will only hold a few minutes recording, so can be used a short memory aids, such as for shopping lists or to record a telephone number. Other recorders may replace tape recorders for notetaking. mini disk players are also used for recording, although information is shown on a display that is inaccessible for people with little or no useful vision.

Picture of the VOICE IT digital recorder

Long recording time

Milestone 311

Milestone is a talking MP3 player and voice recorder. It has a two hour recording time using the internal memory or can be used with SD memory cards of up to 2GB.

Olympus range

Store from 90 minutes to many hours of dictation. Some have PC connectivity.
Available from Hagger Electronics
Approx £50 - £250 depending on model

Sony ICD range and Sanyo ICR range

Store from150 minutes to several hours depending on model. Some have PC connectivity.
Available from Hagger Electronics
Approx £90 - £190 depending on model

Short recording time

Talking Mini Memo

This can record one message of up to 20 seconds.
Available from RNIB
Approx £7

Mini disk players

Some mini-disk players can be used by people with sight problems, but it does depend on how easy to use they are. Usability is a personal judgement and can depend on the users level of vision.
Available from Hagger Electronics (Sale or Return)
Approx £150 - £250

Mobile phones that have organiser features

There is speech output and magnification software available for some mobile phones. This is for handsets running some versions of the Symbian operating system. As these are smart phones they include a range of software and organiser facilities.
Contact a supplier for further details.
Available from Vodafone or Computer Room Services

Cassette recorders – availability and cost

There are a number of tape recorders available that use standard C30, C60, C90 and C120 cassettes. These are not much larger than pocket memos and may be suitable for some people who just want a simple recording device. Most products have tone indexing facility, which enables the user to find their way around the recordings on the tape effectively. There are also recorders available with a four or two track recording and playback. Mainstream products are available from standard office suppliers.

APH Range

These products have a two or four track capability.
Available from Hagger Electronics
Approx £189 - £269

Where can I buy a notetaker?

Read our list of suppliers contact details

Further information

This information sheet is intended as an introduction to the subject for blind and partially sighted people and their supporters. It is not intended as a complete list of all products and services available, nor should it be inferred that products and services mentioned in this information sheet are recommended or endorsed by RNIB.

Technology Information Service
Email: technology@rnib.org.uk
Web: Technology homepage
Tel: 0870 013 9555

Information sheet written June 2006.

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Content author: technology@rnib.org.uk

Last updated: 06/03/2008 15:41