Ann, I know exactly what you mean. Though I have been blind all my life, I mentally visualize words in Braille for spelling purposes.
As a computer programmer I often had to visualize where things went on a computer screen, and had no problems with this either.
However, I am terrible visualizing directions, maps and the like. Go figure. But, as soon as I read your message I said "hey, that's me." Thanks. Bob----- Original Message ----- From: "Ann Parsons" <akp@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Wednesday, January 09, 2008 3:11 PM Subject: [bookshare-discuss] Re: spelling
Hi all,E. there are, as you say, some folks who are blind who spell well. I believe, after a life's experience, that these folks are visual learners. No, don't laugh,. I mean this. They visualize the braille as a pattern a whole pattern in their heads and because of this they spell well. For many who are blind, however, spelling is a matter of matching the braille or printed letters to audio sounds. We do not see the words or think of them as a totality but rather the combination of letters that make the sounds. We are auditory learners. Many, many blind people spell phonetically. We hear the word and encode it by putting the pieces together that represent the sounds that we hear.I know that my spelling has improved ten thousand percent since I got a computer and since I have been using the online dictionary I have. Also, the spell checker is a great help. The problem is that a spell checker will not catch homonyms. That's why you'll see there, their and they're in the wrong places.Not much can be done except to erge people to run their spell checkers and to ask about the spelling of brand names.As an asside, spelling of brand names is difficult if you haven't seen them. I found out only two years ago that Cingular, my phone company, currently AT&T, is spelled with a C not an S. I had to ask somebody the other day how to spell Dunkin Donuts. You won't know unless you ask. I've seen Pack Mate, Packmate and PacMate. I've seen BrailleNote braillenote and braille note and Braille Note. Some names like Benetech are easy to remember because they mean something Benetech = Good Tech or Good Technology.Ann P. the -- Ann K. Parsons Portal Tutoring EMAIL: akp@xxxxxxxxxxxx http://www.portaltutoring.info "All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost."Email services provided by the System Access Mobile Network. Visit www.serotek.com to learn more about accessibility anywhere. To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank Email to bookshare-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.-- No virus found in this incoming message.Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.17.13/1214 - Release Date: 1/8/2008 1:38 PM
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