National Braille Press is a Boston-based nonprofit printing and publishing house founded in 1927. They have made the Fenway their home since 1946.

Blind Italian immigrant Francis B. Ierardi founded National Braille Press to publish the first braille weekly newspaper in America, fulfilling a dream that blind people might have the tool for good citizenship - current news. This dream expanded through the years, and now National Braille Press is internationally recognized as a leader in braille literacy, with programs designed to bring braille books and literacy materials to adults and children through the United States.

These programs include ReadBooks! Because Braille Matters - a partnership to bring braille books, toys, and materials to every family in the United States with a preschool-aged blind child who has the capability to read. All of the Press's book publishing and recent initiatives to strengthen the promotion of early braille literacy are heavily dependent on philanthropic support.

National Braille Press - which last year pressed 15 million pages of braille using special translation software and computer-driven equipment - has been a recipient of the Literary Market Place award, recognizing "excellence and innovation in the publishing arena."

Producing braille books is labor intensive. Braille production and their historic Fenway facilities have benefitted from individual and corporate volunteer involvement over the years. A number of companies in the Boston area have volunteered staff time for projects such as collating and boxing Harry Potter volumes and assembling book bags for ReadBooks!, improving the physical work environment, and other special projects.

National Braille Press is also heralded in national publications as a unique place to visit and tour, because braille production is particularly interesting to experience in person. There is no cost and no official minimum age, although children should be at least 6 years old to appreciate the tour best.