The new Braillo 650 SF2 machines were recently installed at the charity’s Gateshead site. They will streamline the process of producing texts in the braille format for blind people, allowing RNIB to grow its braille collection by an extra 20 titles a month.

RNIB said the acquisition of the new kit was made possible thanks to the help of players of People’s Postcode Lottery, which supports the charity through funds awarded by Postcode Care Trust.

The sight loss charity ran a competition through its social media channels for supporters to suggest names to give the new devices. A shortlist was compiled, and staff then voted for their favourites.

RNIB chief operating officer Mari Jones said: “We are grateful to everyone who took time to suggest names and vote for their favourite and we couldn’t be happier with the choices and welcome ‘Bill Brailey’ and ‘Dottie’ to our Gateshead site.

“Our new braille printers can produce 650 braille characters a second and 1,950 pages an hour. The machines offer a complete braille production process, you can send a file and pick up a book in next to no time, so our braille customers can get the text in the format they need faster.” 

Players of People’s Postcode Lottery have raised more than £8.3m to support RNIB’s work in the past six years.

2024 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Louis Braille, who invented the braille system which uses combinations of raised dots to represent letters and numbers.