Local turns Braille into big business

Richard Dortch worked translating school text books

Richard Dortch started Valley Braille Service in 1999, but his experience with the dotted language for the sight impaired began much earlier. In the early '90s he learned to read and write Braille in an effort to correspond with a blind friend.

"The deeper I got into it the more more I liked it and the more I found I was good at it. It just blossomed from there," Dortch said.

The Henderson resident never considered Braille a business opportunity until he began work translating books as a Clark County School District contractor. From there he went out on his own, beginning with just one customer.

"And I've never looked back since," he said.

Now Dortch works on textbook translations for a number of clients including the New York Public Schools, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and the Metrolina Association for the Blind which serves schools in North Carolina.

One of his most well-known customers is Ray Charles. Dortch translates music and personal correspondence for the musician. Valley Braille Services employees worked as consultants on the new Ray Charles voice activated Braille slot machines under development at Bally's in association with Gamemakers Inc.

Dortch feels Braille is a versatile medium.

"If you can put it in print, we can put it in Braille," he said.

Dortch is skilled in two rare varieties of translation that are hard to come by -- Braille for math and music.

"We get music Braille from Valley Braille. That's even trickier than normal Braille," said Robert Kraus, the testing coordinator for UNLV's disability resource center said. "They have a very fast turn around. A lot of times we get things back within four weeks."

"Music is a very intricate Braille and he's certified with that," Clark County School District specialist Andy Macklberg said of Dortch. "He's terrific. Whenever we need something done, the turnaround time is much quicker than we expect. If we didn't have our own Braillists we would recommend the district contract everything through him. He does an excellent job."

Dortch estimates that only 400 people in the nation are certified in Nemeth Braille, the variety used for advanced mathematics. Less than 70 in the country are certified to translate Braille for music.

Since fingers are needed to read and to play, sight impaired musicians must memorize the music before they can play the piece. Dortch has translated music for a local cellist from her middle school years to college.

"I must have translated 6,000 pages of music just for her since she was in sixth grade," he said.

The braillist had to make up a symbol for an advanced musical move when the standard code didn't provide one. Years later when he ran across the same move he called the musician and asked her if she remembered what symbol he had used. Not only did she recall the symbol, she knew the piece it had been in down to the correct measure.

"She's just amazing," Dortch said.

Braille translation is time consuming and it doesn't come cheap. Valley Braille Vice President Donald Peterson said it can take more than a month to translate even a basic textbook.

"I can do 2,000 to 2,500 Braille pages a month," he said.

Since it takes more than three braille pages to convey the information on even one text page, the average textbook must be converted into volumes. A single book can tower waist high when all the volumes are stacked together.

While charts and graphs must be embossed by hand, each text page is scanned into a computer program, rearranged and then translated into Braille. After the computer conversion is complete a certified translator must check every word for accuracy. Once the edit is done, the final dots are printed out on a Braille printer and then the original printout is put through a thermaform machine that makes raised dot copies of the original.

Even small translations can run $500 to $2,000 per book. Music must be hand typed on a special machine and much of math translation is done by hand, so books in these subjects can range from $2,000 to $20,000 each.

Peterson said translating books is more interesting than it may sound. Reading textbooks all day is a great way to gain knowledge.

"Every time I get a book, there's something new in there I've never known before. I always learn something. It's definitely a challenge," he said.

Although both Dortch and Peterson can read braille faster than most people read text, that doesn't mean they can read in the dark.

"I don't know any sighted person who can read it by touch," Dortch said.

Valley Braille Services can be reached at 733-6941.


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