Re: Screen readers and how to develop them: A historical perspective
- From: Alex Midence <alex.midence@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2010 10:07:17 -0600
Hello, Quentin,
My comment on illiteracy was mostly aimed at people who grow up blind
and do not learn to read and write braille as children in school.
They reach adulthood with poor written communication skills but are
very good with technology and very good with spech. Your situation is
much like Ken's. bot of you learned to read and write as children.
You know what it is to directly interact with text without an
intermediary. The fact that you use braille for labels and things is
very positive. It is different from thinking that you do not wish to
learn any of it and that it is of no value. This thinking is very
common these days and it is what I was refering to.
As for getting frustrated, this is normal and understandable. It is a
new skill which uses parts of your brain in ways that are new to you.
It has to learn to get information from your hands the same way it did
from your eyes. This takes time and effort. I strongly encourage you
to continue trying to learn it well. Start out with small things like
poetry, leisure reading, short instructions, brief notes and that sort
of thing. Gradually work your way up to more and more complex and
lengthy documents. It is a useful skill to have. It is much like
learning a programming language. There are 36 possible symbols which
take on different meanings depending on the context and the language
you read. But, if you are able to teach your mind that
#include <iostream>
Means "find the iostream.h file and place its contents in this file at
compile time." You can understand how the symbols translate
themselves into ideas. Just as you can write your code quickly and
probably without thinking, you will be able to read and write the
braille the same way. And, again, just as it is a challenge and can
seem pointless to some to write out a hello world program in c++ in
about 10 lines because it's much easier and faster to use Python and
just write:
print "hello, world"
Getting to a point where you can work your way through documents of
any length on paper or refreshable braille text is worth learning.
It's a lower level way of obtaining information, to put it in computer
science terms.
Alex M
On 12/22/10, QuentinC <quentinc@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hello,
> I'm entering in your braille discussion.
>
> I'm 22 years old, and I lose my sight in 2002-2003.
> I know braille sufficiently for reading small things, i.e. labels on bottles
> and medications, train docks, etc. but when it comes to read longer things
> like braille display or complete braille books, I can't, because I'm far too
> slow. I'm frustrated, losing patience, because I think faster than I can
> read.
>
> I would say, don't confuse with being illitterate, that's really not the
> same thing. Being illetterate mean that you haven't any idea of
> letters/symbols, how to associate them to make understandable words and
> sentances. An illeterate guy is unable to write on this list.
>
> I learned to read and write in paper form when I was at primary school, and
> I still know what is a letter and how to write words, so I'm not illiterate.
> Even if my braille knowledge is only sufficient to read small things.
>
> Braille is only another way to write, it is another alphabet, nothing else.
> Just like russian people are using another alphabet.
> Are you saying that somebody is illiterate only because he don't know
> russian alphabet ? of course no.
>
> And all that hasn't any link with math. An illiterate person could be good
> at math even if he is unable to read. Math and reading use different brain
> regions.
>
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