Computers are rapidly becoming indispensable tools for blind people. Screen-reader software programs combined with either refreshable computer braille displays or voice synthesizers provide unparalleled access to electronic literature. Computers are also excellent tools for producing high-quality inexpensive 2D tactile pictures.
Many images needed by blind students or professionals are increasingly available as computer files.
Software for creating and editing graphics files is relatively inexpensive and user-friendly. A number of computer programs, discussed in the next section, are becoming available specifically for creating tactile images. If there were such a thing as a personal tactile-image printer, the creation of 2D tactile pictures would become essentially a trivial exercise in manipulating and printing graphic computer files. Computers can also assist enormously in conveying information to blind users about 2D pictures. This topic is discussed extensively in a later section.