[bksvol-discuss] Re: More fun with footnotes! (LONG)
- From: "Deborah Murray" <blinkeeblink@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2012 06:48:39 -0400
Hi Dornetta,
I hope you were truly just venting and that you don't seriously believe that
at BookShare it's just a bunch of
sighted folks telling us poor blind folks what's best for us. Because that
couldn't be further from the truth.
Most of the volunteers who contributed to this particular discussion are, in
fact, blind including myself. I asked specifically for input from people who
are much more proficient in braille than I am for a reason--I want to make
the formatting work for people who use braille in addition to all the other
ways we access text.
BookShare is not just for blind people--it's for people with all kinds of
print impairments, with blindness actually a minority.
What we are trying to achieve is a book that accommodates the needs of as
many users as possible *without* significantly changing the book or the
author's intent.
Is it perfect? No. We can't always make everyone happy but we sure try to
make as many people happy as possible in most situations.
It's unclear from your message, but it sounds like you use a screen reader
to read the books on your computer. Do you know how to use your screen
reader's pronunciation dictionary to silence characters (such as * * *) that
you don't want to hear?
Please don't think I'm picking on you--I'm really not. We volunteers work
very hard together and with the folks at BookShare to make sure we produce
the best product we can. The guidelines for scanning and proofing have
evolved over time and are definitely a work in process. But at some point
members who read BookShare books also have to take some responsibility for
using efficiently the particular technology they choose to use. For example,
I find the words [blank page] or [this page is blank] hugely annoying and
offensive. But I have those phrases silenced in JAWS and go on with my life.
I scan (and read for pleasure) lots of nonfiction with a bazillion
footnotes so I do understand what you're saying. I don't experience the
issues you do, which just goes to show you that we're all different and
serves to illustrate what a balancing act this whole thing can be!
Take care and happy reading...
Deborah
-----Original Message-----
From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Dornetta
Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2012 12:14 AM
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: More fun with footnotes! (LONG)
Hey guys,
Recently (this past spring semester) I had to download The Norton Anthology
of American Literature shorter 7th ed. by Nina Baym for my American
Literature English class in which the book had tons of footnotes and I do
mean tons. From a reader prospective, I found those square brackets
necessary. Now keep in mind that I most often read the book straight from
the computer opting not to use the stream or Packmate (which I don't use
often anyway) simply because it made navigation much easier as well as I
could "see" the form of the work...end of the line for poems and the like.
With that being said, those square brackets made knowing where actual text
ended and "the footnotes" begin. It is not that obvious when reading text. I
often find it more annoying when JAWS says star, star,star,star. Rather than
open brack text the close bracket.
Yes, the square brackets are more often used when a author has altered the
text during a direct quote, for example, "After the notes is generally the
end of the page and it seems fairly obvious [not so obvious] where the end
of the page is and a new one begins." --this may have not been an good
example but hopefully you get my point. This is not always an obvious
situation--where the page ends and another one begins as I have stated this
in an earlier email (page numbers, I think). Like I said, using those
brackets with the word-begin footnotes and end footnotes seems to be the
better choice then again, what do I know. When changes like these are made
it seems that the blind community is never asked or given the choice. Most
changes that are made for the "benefit of the blind" are usually made by
sighted people who know what's best for us. **venting**
Netta
"Just because you are blind does not mean you lack vision"-Stevie Wonder
To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to
bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of
available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.
To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to
bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of
available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.
Other related posts:
