[bksvol-discuss] Three Asterisks: An explanation from the staff

  • From: Madeleine Linares <Madeleinel@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2012 21:43:21 +0000

Hello everyone,

My sincere apologies for my delayed response re. asterisks but here is what's 
going on:

In Braille, neither bolding nor font size changes show up, which means that it 
is really difficult to tell when there is a new chapter or section. Therefore, 
three asterisks are added after each chapter title or chapter name to make it 
clear where the chapter title or name ends and where the text begins. For 
example:

-----page break---
Chapter Three
***
[text]
----page break-----

It could also look like this:

-----page break-----
[text from ch. 4]
***
Chapter Five: Kristy Kills
***
[text for ch. 5]
--------page break---------


This is especially important if there is a chapter name. For example, Chapter 
Three: The Woman in Red (or whatever). Without the star, Braille readers would 
have no way of knowing whether or not "The Woman in Red" was the first line of 
text or a chapter title.

Three asterisks are NOT needed at the beginning of a page before a new chapter 
(if the new chapter starts at the very top of a page) but ARE needed if the 
chapter starts in the middle of the page. Three asterisks are also used to show 
other breaks in the text, whether it's a change in narration and the sighted 
reader sees a font change or all italics, if there is a symbol in the page to 
indicate a time change or something, and when there is a new section of the 
book (such as Part One or Book One of several).

Many volunteers already do this, which is wonderful. Since we want Bookshare 
books to be as accessible to everyone as possible, we strongly encourage adding 
in three asterisks after the chapter number or name. I know there has been a 
lot of confusion about this. From my understanding it is not a new idea, but it 
has never been enforced, which is likely why some people do it and others don't 
and have never been aware that they should. We want to encourage it going 
forward.

Please contact me directly with any questions or concerns.

Thank you all so much for your hard work and dedication!

Best,

Madeleine Linares
Volunteer Coordinator
Bookshare, a Benetech Initiative
650-644-3459
madeleinel@xxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:madeleinel@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

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