Hutchinson ? A Wichita company is hoping inmates at the Hutchinson Correctional Facility can take part in a pilot program that aims to help fill a growing need for Braille transcribers.

Randolph Cabral, president of the Wichita-based Kansas Braille Transcription Institute, met with 16 inmates recently to tell them about a three-year pilot project within the prison he hoped would turn into a full-time industry.

Cabral’s organization transcribes things from simple brochures and children’s books to complex college math and science textbooks. The company transcribes in 127 languages.

About a third of the men in the meeting would be chosen to join the training, with a second group of five brought in a few months. It would take six months to a year of study and practice to become proficient enough to take a national certification test before paid work could begin.

HCF Warden Sam Cline has been working to bring the Braille transcription jobs to Hutchinson since he arrived. If it succeeds, Hutchinson Correctional Facility would become the 24th prison in the nation to operate the service.

The need, studies show, is great.

“As people doing it age, no one is replacing them,” Cabral said of transcribers. “There is a critical shortage in translation.”

Federal law mandates that blind students have access to Braille, but only one in 10 is taught to read it because of a shortage of both teachers and Braille texts, Cabral said.

A survey in 2000 by the American Foundation for the Blind estimated a need for at least 750 new Braille transcribers in 2005 and 1,000 by 2010.

Computer programs can translate typewritten text into Braille dots in seconds. But someone needs to read the text to get it in the proper margins and format, Cabral said.

Inmates will earn only standard prison wages – about a dollar a day – until they achieve certification. Then they’ll be paid on a contractual basis.