[accessibleimage] Re: Future of braille?

David,

Remember that the relatively small club of which you speak are the blind
community as a whole, who else but that small club would need or want to
use braille? These are precisely the people that braille was invented
for!  Therefore for this small club, I still maintain it is an
advantage.

 

Sure you can write and print via electronic media, and as the
portability of computer technology improves and the price drops more
people will have access to the higher end technologies. What about the
blind persons in less affluent places (or even in your own country) who
don't have access to technology? Are they to be illiterate? 

 

I still maintain there is a place for a simple and (relatively) quick
and cheap hard-copy system. After all, you can fit a slate and stylus in
your handbag, or pocket, and use it anywhere. I'd love to see someone
set up a laptop and Everest on a bus!!

I have sat in a meeting and watched, in awe, an older blind lady take
minutes on a slate and stylus almost as fast as one could speak, I have
also watched the same procedure done by a younger person on a Braille
Note, they both used braille, one used more technology than the other.

 

Without braille you cannot use a portable refreshable display on a
computer, I for one would hate having an electronically produced voice
droning away in my ear incessantly! As you yourself said you miss all
that wonderful formatting.

 

Just a few more things to think about <smile>

 

Alan

 

________________________________

From: accessibleimage-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:accessibleimage-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of David
Poehlman
Sent: Monday, 9 January 2006 9:56 AM
To: accessibleimage@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [accessibleimage] Re: Future of braille?

 

I can type and print.  I can read electronic files.  I can address
envelopes and much more all without braille.  While it is true that
anyone who can use braille can write in it, its limitation is that many
people cannot read it if you write it.  Don't get me rong, I'm not
saying braille should go away, but I'd hardly call something an
advantage which can only be read by a relatively small club.

 

-- 

Jonnie Apple Seed

With his:

Hands-On Technolog(eye)s





 

On Jan 8, 2006, at 5:18 PM, Blackburn, Alan wrote:





Guys (and girls)

Most of you seem to be forgetting the other major advantage of braille.
It can be read but it also can be WRITTEN by any braille user. How else
are you to make shopping lists, write down phone numbers, send a note to
your best friend etc? In today's society, whether you are working or
not, it is a definite advantage to be literate i.e. able to both read
and WRITE.

 

Alan

 

PS and BTW, would it be possible to keep discussions to one thread, as
it makes it hard to keep a discussion going when it splits into 3 or 4
separate threads i.e. unless you are replying privately off line use
"reply".

 

________________________________

From: accessibleimage-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:accessibleimage-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of David
Poehlman
Sent: Sunday, 8 January 2006 11:20 PM
To: accessibleimage@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:accessibleimage@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Subject: [accessibleimage] Re: Future of braille?

 

Hi Chris and all,

 

I share your joy of braille.  Unfortunately, as I get older, my fingers
get numer.  I also am gaining a deficite in short term memory so by the
time I get finished reading a braille sentance, I don't remember its
beginning some of the time.

 

If purely verbal interaction is what is going in a person's life, I
agree with you that a lot is missed.  Today, though with the advent of
technologys such as JAWS and the like, we can interact with text on much
more than just a verbal level and therefore if propperly taught, gain
and maintain a mastery of the language including, spelling, grammer,
enunciation and punctuation as well as formatting and much more.  One
thing for instance that does not make sense for me in braille is the
web.  I grew up being able to read braille in pages.  On a computer, I
am reduced to reading bbraille one line at a time which kills the
experience of all that wonderful formatting and such if I rely on
braille alone.

 

Thanks!

 

-- 

Jonnie Apple Seed

With his:

Hands-On Technolog(eye)s






 

On Jan 8, 2006, at 6:37 AM, Chris Hofstader wrote:






Hi,

 

I spend a day fishing and suddenly this list explodes with a very
interesting topic.

 

As I stated during Barry's thread, I'm not much of a Braille reader but,
rather, an unspeller.   I am currently enrolled in Braille classes at
our local Lighthouse and am taking it very seriously.  Learning a new
writing system and different modality of reading at 45 is one of the
more difficult things I have ever attempted.  My definition of
"unspelling" is taking one letter at a time, putting them together in my
head and forming a word. 

 

So why am I, an advocate of and expert in audio interfaces trying so
hard to learn Braille?  The reasons are tremendous.  They range from the
difficulty I have doing presentations with audio notes which require me
to pause, listen to JAWS through my ear bud and then speak.  This is
sorely sub-optimal and makes presentations very jumpy.  This is also the
reason that I will often start a presentation by telling the audience
that they can read the details in my paper so I will speak
extemporaneously and take questions.

 

The other huge reason I want to learn Braille is so I can read in my own
voice again.  I enjoy audio books but, often, find that a character is
verbalized in a very different way than I would expect.  I have an essay
that received an "honorable mention" in a blink writing competition
about six years ago called "Actors Inside."  This describes my previous
attempt to learn Braille and how terrific I felt when I regained the
"voices" in my own head.  Hearing an RFB&D volunteer read my favorite
poets is far from hearing my internal voices read them.  Hearing them
butcher Toni Morrison, Faulkner and my other heroes drove me to once
again take the plunge into learning Braille.

 

Moving away from personal experience, though, I can point to ideas I've
learned from people at the Braille institute and elsewhere about the
value of learning Braille for children and adults.  We've heard the
number 10% of American blinks read Braille, this is actually closer to
12% but why quibble?  The employment number is now a bit less than 90%
of blinks with jobs are also Braille readers but it isn't much more than
85%.

 

Those of us who grew up reading by sight (including me), according to
the Braille institute, along with those who grew up reading Braille have
tremendous advantages over those who grew up with audio books.  Before I
learned this from people at the BI, I assumed that audio was probably as
good as Braille as the information presented is the same.  This,
however, is not the case.  People who learn from childhood how to read
(visually or with Braille) learn much more about the language, syntax,
grammar, semantic relevance and other very important aspects of literacy
that most of take for granted.

 

The Braille Institute demonstrates that sighted people who grow up
without literacy and, therefore, through auditory ways of learning are
not just unable to read but, in many cases, can never learn to read
effectively.  This causes long term difficulty in symbolic processing of
any kind of semantic information and, therefore, tremendous difficulty
learning many other things.

 

This is clearly not my area of expertise but these are the things I've
learned from others about this topic.  I recommend checking out the
Braille Institute and other sources for a more definitive opinion on
this matter.

 

Enjoy,

cdh

________________________________

From: accessibleimage-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:accessibleimage-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:accessibleimage-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> ] On Behalf Of Lisa Hall
Sent: Saturday, January 07, 2006 11:24 PM
To: <mailto:accessibleimage@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> accessibleimage@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [accessibleimage] Re: Future of braille?




Hi David,

 

I know that 10 percent of the total population of blindness read
braille. 90 percent of that population that reads braille have jobs.

That means the other 80 percent do not know braille or unable to learn
braille because of diabetic retinopathy, and other learning disability
that the person may have.

When learning braille, it requires the ability to memorize dot patterns,
sensitivity to fingers, and good patience.

I have experienced working with people who had problems recognizing
letters, recalling the dot patterns, and some others who did not have
good verbal communications skills.

We have an unemployment rate of 70 percent and 30 percent are actually
working.

The biggest problem is the attitude of blindness.

 

 

Lisa Hall,

Former Consultant for Adaptive Technology for Northwest Vista College, a
college of the Alamo Community College District.

Web page: http://home.satx.rr.com/lisahall
<http://home.satx.rr.com/lisahall> 

Phone: (210) 829-4571

E-mail and MSN I.D.: lhall10@xxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:lhall10@xxxxxxxxxxx> 

 

 

 

 

 

________________________________

From: accessibleimage-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:accessibleimage-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:accessibleimage-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> ] On Behalf Of David
Poehlman
Sent: Saturday, January 07, 2006 7:04 PM
To: accessibleimage@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:accessibleimage@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Subject: [accessibleimage] Re: Future of braille?

 

so that means that less than 10 percent of blind people are employed and
I've never seen a figure like that. I know many blind people who work
but do not read braille.

 

--

Jonnie Apple Seed

With his:

Hands-On Technolog(eye)s







 

On Jan 7, 2006, at 6:22 PM, LindaHorto@xxxxxx <mailto:LindaHorto@xxxxxx>
wrote:


The faster we can produce it, the more will be used. My understanding is
that, at least in the US, only 10% of blind people used braille, but 90%
of all employed blind people read braille. That's quite a testamonial.



Linda M. Horton
9322 E. Cedar Waxwing Drive
Sun Lakes, AZ 85248
480-883-6369

 






 

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