The Texas prison that produces braille textbooks | Metaglossia: The Translation World | Scoop.it
Many braille textbooks are transcribed in prisons. For the last 25 years, the Billman Braille Center in Gatesville has prepared women for careers on the outside.

The country’s biggest braille transcription center is inside this Texas prison
Many braille textbooks are transcribed in prisons. For the last 25 years, the Billman Braille Center in Gatesville has prepared women for careers on the outside.


"Trichele Allen, braille translator, translates a college course anatomy book at Patrick O’Daniel unit, a women’s prison, in Gatesville, Texas on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. Allen has worked at the Billman Braille center for 11 years. The center teaches inmates to read and write braille to translate textbooks for Texas students.


Tucked in the back of a women’s prison in Gatesville, 40 miles west of Waco, the Billman Braille Center is a hub of activity.


Women in white jumpsuits transcribe textbooks on computers, while others practice their skills on Perkins Braillers —  typewriter-like machines that punch dots into the page.


Trichele Allen has been at the braille center for 11 years. She is transcribing the graphics in a college-level anatomy book.


“We make the picture as big as we can for the page and then we do a key page,” she said. “Like this would be a texture. This texture here will tell them that those are the ribs.”


Patricia Lim / Texas Standard


Sheets of braille are loaded into a machine used by the women at the Billman Braille Center.


The center has been here for over 25 years and has ballooned into quite the operation, employing around 90 prisoners who fulfill transcription contracts in Texas and beyond.


Like most prison jobs in Texas, the transcribers aren’t paid. But program manager Delores Billman, for whom the center is named, said the goal is to offer mission-driven work behind bars.


“I wanted to give the female population a job and a career that would be meaningful to them also,” Billman said.


The center’s work creates access to braille that is essential for those who need it.


“For those of us who read braille, braille is literacy,” said Robert Englebretson, the chair of the Department of Linguistics at Rice University. “Braille allows us to read in our own voice and at our own pace. Braille allows us to see how sentences are structured and how punctuation works and how things are formatted on the page.”


The Billman Braille Center teaches inmates to read and write braille to translate textbooks for students.


Englebretson has been a braille reader since kindergarten. And despite the rise in other technologies that assist blind and low vision people, he said transcription services are still necessary.


“The automated braille transcription systems often get things very wrong,” he said. “If you want textbooks for kids, you want to make sure that the braille is accurate. And so human-based braille transcription is still essential.”


Billman started as a correctional officer. She started the program to provide workforce training to female inmates at a time when most programs focused on men’s prisons.


“I wanted the ones that were going to be released to have a job that they could do and make money and support themselves,” she said.


Marilyn Wilkes, braille translator in training, does braille drills at the Billman Braille Center. Wilkes has been working at the Billman Braille Center for two months.


This remains a primary goal of the center. The U.S. added over 160,000 jobs in August, but many seeking employment report that it feels difficult to find work. People with criminal records are among those hit hardest when the job market is tough — often experiencing an unemployment rate around 30%.


Billman and her original cohort taught themselves braille until they were proficient enough to earn the Library of Congress’ transcription certification. She said the hardest part in those early days was finding contracts.


“We could study as long as we wanted to, but it wasn’t going to get us anywhere until we actually started production,” she said. “And we had to find clients to work for.”


The Billman Braille Center is the biggest of the 45 prison braille programs across the U.S., and the only one in Texas.


Prisoners play a big role in producing braille textbooks. Jayma Hawkins is the leader of the National Prison Braille Network at the American Printing House for the Blind.


“In the fiscal year 2025, 70% of all textbooks orders for American Printing House for the Blind were transcribed by prison braille programs in the United States,” Hawkins said.


The National Federation of the Blind said incarcerated people make up the majority of those certified in literary braille transcription by the Library of Congress each year.


Christina Harris said knowing she’s helping blind people go to school has kept her working in the Billman Braille Center for the last eight years.


“It was a natural fit for me. I truly love my job. I have a background in education. A long time ago I was a teacher. I taught fourth and fifth grade,” Harris said. “This is how I’m able to use my degree and still make a difference.”"
By Sarah Asch
September 22, 2026
https://texasstandard.org/stories/braille-transcription-billman-center-texas-prison-gatesville/
#metaglossia
#metaglossia_mundus