Guide to Requesting Braille

The TARGET Center is available for Brailling small documents for the USDA or providing resources for larger Brailling jobs. Brailled documents are on single sided, 11" by 11.5" sheets of Braille paper. A two-page standard text document will be approximately four pages when converted to Braille. TARGET Center's equipment can only convert plain text documents containing no graphics or mathematical equations.

At this time, the TARGET cannot convert documents in foreign languages into Braille. TARGET staff can convert a document into Braille within seven days from the date a client submits a document of five pages or less. For longer documents, TARGET Center maintains a list of organizations with fee for service Brailling. The average time organizations require for Brailling is two weeks notice although clients are instructed to call their selected organization for details.

To request Brailling services or information, call or email the TARGET Center. Examples of documents that may be Brailled are memorandums, meeting schedules, instructions, and handouts. The TARGET Center asks you do the following before sending out the job for Brailling:

• Review document to be sure there are no graphics, tables, charts, boldface, underline, or italicized print. Provide text descriptions of any graphics or information removed from document.
• All text should be left justified, meaning that every line should be started on the left margin.
• Submit information to be Brailled to TARGET Center via email or by 3.5 inch diskette if possible.
• Information can also be submitted in printed text if it cannot be submitted in electronic format . Please submit these with more advanced notice since scanning and file clean up will be necessary.
• Provide TARGET Center staff with any special instructions at the time you submit the job.

TARGET staff will notify clients when the Brailling is completed and they can either pick up the job or the staff will mail it to them. The TARGET Center does not charge for Brailling services although documents submitted to outside organizations will be subject to charge.

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USDA TARGET Center
1400 Independence Ave.
Room 1006-S
Washington DC 20250-9876
(202) 720-2600 (V / TTY)
(202) 720-2681 (FAX)
target-center@usda.gov

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