That is interesting Mike that you attribute the board design to the
manufacturers, now it would be great if someone from RNIB could comment on
this. Like I said also for the sighted player the pale blue squares were
white and she initially found that off putting but got used to it. I think
you have the one with the big half sphere on the bottom for rotating the
board. This one is amazing, for rotating the little ball is the size of a
tiny balbearing, about the size of a single Braille dot! and sufficiently
projecting down through an opening which then has the board raised
fractionally off the table to rotate. I can only describe the board itself
like the lid of a box turned up side down so why there is a need for it to
be raised 2 - 3 inches off the table I am not sure, obviously something to
do with the mechanics of rotating it.
Eleanor
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Ray" <mike@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, September 11, 2015 4:43 PM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Braille Scrabble
Sounds like the design has changed since I bought mine about seven years
ago. That had raised lines to form a grid but they were still
inadequate to stop tiles moving when I tried to read them.
Again I think this is more likely to be the fault of Spears Games or
whoever owns the brand, rather than the RNIB.
On 11/09/2015 16:40, Eleanor Martha Burke wrote:
Well said Mike, I paid £29.45p approx for this. My friend got it from
RNIB on Wednesday and I went to her place to play it yesterday. I think
it would be fair to see that I required sighted help and unfortunately I
required it more and more as we built up the words as it got more and
more unmanagable for me to look at the board independently and
meaningfully. I am ot really stupid but I might well have appeared so
yesterday or as one who required sighted assistance when I did not
really need it and all that is thanks to RNIB for selling a hidious
board. My friend had a scrabbled board but the tiles did not fit it and
her scrabble board had a type of plastic grid where the tiles can sit in
so that they do not move or become dislodged. If the Braille
instructions are on the RNIB website, I do not know if they are there as
a Word document, then Carol could read the description of the board,
other than that Carol I will get around to copying out what the Braille
instructions say about the board as at least they will describe better
than I can. I could just say that there is not a plastic grid for each
tile like there was in the old board but 4 pins at each corner of a
square to fit the tile in to. Therefore if you feel the board without
tiles on it, all you feel is a mass of pins 4 for each tile. There are
two dots in a square to denote a double letter and 3 dots to denote a
tripple word.
Eleanor
----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Ray" <mike@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, September 11, 2015 4:29 PM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Braille Scrabble
I agree with Eleanor that the design is ludicrously stupid. It's far
too easy to push or knock the tiles out of place while groping around to
read what's there.
But, it is unlikely to have been designed by the RNIB, I would think.
Since 'Scrabble' is no doubt a jealousy guarded trademark product it
would have been designed by whoever owns the mark.
Either way it clearly didn't bother asking a blind Braille reader to
test the prototype, or ask a blind person of average intelligence what
it needed to be like. In my experience it is virtually unplayable if
you can't see at all.
Your time might be better spent asking the RNIB why they are pruning
items from their product range faster than I can keep up with.
On 11/09/2015 15:35, Carol.Pearson29@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Redacted sender
carol.pearson29@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx for DMARC) wrote:
I haven't seen one in several years now as I still have the old one
so, if you can tell me more, I am interested.
Carol P
----- Original Message ----- From: Eleanor burke
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Friday, September 11, 2015 1:10 PM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Braille Scrabble
it is not a new one out Carol, it would be new to myself as I
haven't purchased one for years. I think this one is out three of
four years.
On 11 Sep 2015, at 13:02, Carol.Pearson29@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Redacted
sender "carol.pearson29@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx" for DMARC)
<dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Eleanor,
Oh, I didn't know RNIB had a new one out.
If it's worse than the last one then let's not bother, but please
tell me all about it.
Carol P
----- Original Message ----- From: Eleanor Martha Burke
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Friday, September 11, 2015 10:43 AM
Subject: [access-uk] Braille Scrabble
Hope it is OK discussing Braille Scrabble here. Purchased this
game on Wednesday and played it for the first time yesterday. The
board design is certainly changed since I first purchased it back in
the 1980s when the scrabble board was an American one and the tiles
fitted in so well. Then I had a new cheap and horrible board after
my nice American one got lost in the post. Finally today's board is
very ppoorly designed in my opinion. Wonder why the RNIB has chosen
this design rather than a design where the tiles can fit in
comfortably without moving about or lifting off the board. How do
current users of Scrabble get on with the board? Very disappointed
in it really for £29.45p when you consider a mainstream one is so
cheap. As the game builds up and there are more and more tiles on
the board it is quite difficult really to explore the board without
moving the tiles accidentally.
Eleanor
--
Michael A. Ray
Analyst/Programmer
Witley, Surrey, South-east UK
Eyes-free Linux:
http://eyesfreelinux.ninja/
Raspberry VI:
http://www.raspberryvi.org/
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Michael A. Ray
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Witley, Surrey, South-east UK
Eyes-free Linux:
http://eyesfreelinux.ninja/
Raspberry VI:
http://www.raspberryvi.org/
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