Ellen Forget

@ellenforget.bsky.social

2558 Followers 807 Following

Academic studying braille, print disabilities, and small-press publishing. Editor by trade, academic at heart. she/they. ocd & chronic pain & cane user.

A green and yellow conure with a grey head and red tail sits on Ellen's shoulder.
A kobo screen with a notice that says Your eReader is not authorized to open this book. This book has been protected by Adobe Digital Rights Management. You need to re-authorize your eReader with your Adobe ID using Adobe Digital Editions. Please visit kobo.com for more information.
A blue 3D-printed object. It has the tactile outline of a hand and text written in braille.
A sparkly blue 3D print of a page that should have tactile raised type in French, but the characters are flattened. There are two horizontal lines imprinted on the page, showing the materiality of the original book.
A folding cane with a blue, green, and white leaf pattern and a brown handle, cane tip, and wrist strap.
A conure in her cage, which has a label that says "silly goose." She is clinging on to the cage sideways and seemingly looking down at the label. Her vibrant red belly and yellow body are prominent.
The Canada geese are back on campus From: Health, Safety and Environment It’s that time of year … nesting season. Here are tips to minimize conflict with our favourite fowl: Geese are protected under federal law, so nests eggs and birds must not be disturbed. Give geese plenty of space when travelling by, especially around nests. Proceed calmly — don’t speed by. Geese typically provide warning signs before becoming aggressive. If a goose hisses, lowers its head or spreads its wings, slowly back away. Don’t turn your back: make eye contact instead. Never feed the geese Geese are wild animals and deserve to be treated with respect. It’s best to leave them be.
The Hughes type alphabet with printed Roman characters and tactile characters in Hughes type, which consists of braille-like dots and dotted snowflake-like characters. The page also shows dipthongs, punctuation signs, and numbers.
Screenshot of two BlueSky posts. The bottom is Iva Cheung's: "Happy International Fact-Checking Day!" The top is a quote-post of Alex Zalben's post showing an Esquire Singapore magazine article that was a generative AI fabricated interview.
Another page from Valentin Haüy's book, which is ink-printed and, theoretically, embossed in French raised letters.
A large corner section of two pages that were previously glued together, but have since split apart. The inside of these pages are seemingly blank with no visual or embossed text.
The bottom edge of a book, showing red page edges and a typical hardcover binding with a firm spine.
A page with 13 lines and a header in fairly large print. The text is in French.
Ink-printed title page for Valentin Haüy's book.
Close-up of a page of embossed text with a math equation.
Screenshot of 3D modelling program Rhino. The object being edited is the title page of a book embossed by Louis Braille.
Screenshot that says "You are not a Tech Bro. 0% agreement with tech bro ideas."
Two samples of text in moon. The top piece has the English moon alphabet, with tactile and printed letters, and the text "god is love". The bottom piece also has the alphabet plus a paragraph written in moon.
A table placard with Louis Braille's signature, a quote in French "À celui qui a ouvert à tous ceux qui ne volent pas les portes du savoir" which also appears in braille. There are buttons for audio descriptors as well.
The placard in front of his tomb. It says Louis Braille, 4 janvier 1809–6 janvier 1852, inventuer de l'Ecriture des aveaugles—inventor of the writing system for the blind.
Title page for an arithmetic book. It is embossed in raised type in French. The name L. Braille appears in large letters in the middle of the page, and it is dates 1838.
A blurry close-up of Pippin leaning into the camera while standing on Ellen's hand. Pippin is a conure (small parrot) with yellow, red, and green feathers.
The title page of volume one of The Gospel of John embossed in moon type.
Award announcement for the 25th-anniversary fellowship from SHARP. This year we've awarded two fellowships in recognition of the funding pressures on scholars. The recipients are: Ellen Forget, Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Alberta, for their project "A History of Tactile Writing and Reading." And Harrison Mmerenu, PhD candidate at Texas Tech University, for his project "The Farafina Era: Literacy in Public, Value and Agency in Postcolonial Nigeria Publishing."
A residential sidewalk. A small portion near the foreground is completely clear, and then there is a large pile of snow blocking the sidewalk for a few feet. There are large piles of snow on either side of the sidewalk also, so there is no clear path.
Screenshot of an image in 3D scanning software. The image is the title page of the New English Bible Gospel of John, written in the tactile code moon. The entire page is blue and there are white circle markers placed randomly on the page.
The word "book" written in braille with ghost dots.
A colour wheel with 12 colours from blue and purple to pink and red to orange and yellow to green and blue again. Each colour is sectioned into three shades.
The spine of a book that says The New English Bible John in 3 volumes, volume 1. The top and bottom edges of the spine are quite worn.
Title page of the moon bible, which is embossed in the moon tactile code. It says that it is volume one of three and that it was published by the Moon Society, a branch of the Royal National Institute for the Blind in London.
Ellen wearing their red and black convocation gown standing next to Jaime, who also has short red hair and glasses.
Ellen is standing next to her supervisor, Alan. Ellen has short red hair, glasses, and is wearing a doctoral convocation gown in red and black. Alan is very tall and is wearing a convocation gown in purple and blue.
A brown and white greyhound–husky standing in a field of snow. He has a pile of snow on his nose, and he has very floppy ears.
Ellen wearing a Vancouver Canucks jersey and Geoff wearing a Calgary Flames jersey. Both are wearing glasses, and Geoff has a long beard.
A brown and white greyhound–husky with perfect, floopy ears.
A screenshot of a visual representation of a braille apostrophe and closing single quote mark. The text is correct, with the single closing quote mark as dot 6 then dots 356.
A white and brown greyhound–husky sitting with his ears at attention and staring just to the left of the camera, intently as if the photographer was holding a treat.
A brown and white greyhound–husky sitting on a brick patio with the sun shining on his face.
A brown and white greyhound–husky dog resting his chin and neck on Ellen's head, who has short red hair, is wearing glasses, and looks unimpressed with their hat.
A brown and white greyhound–husky wearing a black onesie. He is standing on a dog bed in front of a large window and looking to the left of the camera.
A brown and white greyhound–husky with floppy ears. He's sitting and looking at the camera expectantly, almost like the photographer is holding a treat.
A very handsome brown and white greyhound–husky lying on a dog bed in front of a large window.
A brown and white greyhound–husky lying on top of a blue crocheted blanket. His eyes are closed and he looks relaxed and sleepy. Ellen's hand is gently petting his ear.
A brown and white greyhound–husky lying down in Ellen's lap for a snuggle on top of a blue crocheted blanket.
A computer shut down menu that shows a required update that will take 20 minutes to one hour to install.
A brown and white greyhound‐husky wearing a black onesie and lying in a dog bed. He's alert with his head up and looking towards the camera.
A brown and white greyhound–husky wearing a black onesie. He is snuggling in Ellen's lap on top of a blue crocheted blanket.
A brown and white greyhound–husky lying on a dog bed. He has a small, bright orange bandage wrapped around one leg. He looks very snoozy.
A brown and white greyhound–husky lying in a dog bed with his chin propped on the side of it. He's looking out a window at a lawn and suburban street. He's wearing a black onesie.
A brown and white greyhound–husky dog lying in a dog bed and wearing a black onesie. He's curled up and using his paws as a pillow.
A close-up photo of a brown and white greyhound–husky dog. He is wearing a black onesie and be is using his back feet as a pillow to rest his chin.
A brown and white greyhound–husky dog lying on a dog bed with a puppy pad under him. Small squares on his front legs are shaved from IV access.
A brown and white greyhound–husky dog lying in a dog bed by a large window with a plastic cone around his neck.
A brown and white greyhound–husky dog lying on a brown blanket with an IV hookup attached to one of his front legs.
A brown and white greyhound–husky lying on a couch with a Playstation controller tucked between his paws.
A white and brown greyhound–husky runs away from the camera over four hurdles, receives a treat at the end, then runs back towards the camera over the four hurdles. Voices call his name, Moscato, and cheer him on.
Ellen wearing a green sweater that says U of A, University of Alberta. Ellen has short red hair and large-frame glasses. Trees and green shrubs in the background.
Title page for a dissertation. Accessible Innovations in Contemporary Independent Publishing: How Disabled Readers Access Books by Ellen Sharron Forget. A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Faculty of Information University of Toronto. Copyright by Ellen Sharron Forget 2025.
The head of a white and brown greyhound–husky is resting comfortably on a homemade crochet blanket, which is also wrapped around his body.
A very long white cable still coiled and in its plastic wrapping.