For what activities will people use the ELIA® Tactile Alphabet?
It is expected that people will use ELIA® in much the same way that Braille readers use Braille. An estimated 83% of Braille readers use Braille only for labeling and brief note taking and the other 17% of Braille readers (about 10,000 people in the U.S.) use Braille for labeling, note taking and for extensive reading. They also use voice technology and books on tape for their reading. If ELIA were used in a similar fashion to Braille by the non-Braille severely visually impaired population then 1.5 million people would be using ELIA for labels and brief notes and about 300,000 would be using ELIA for all their reading needs. However, given that it has been shown that the ELIA® Alphabet is significantly easier to learn than Braille, it is possible that ELIAs readership rates could extend beyond the severely visually impaired community to include the visually impaired community of 8.9 million people in the U.S.
