[access-uk] Re: Does the digital age spell the end of Braille? - News - Gadgets and Tech - The Independent
- From: "Jackie Brown" <thebrownsplace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 21 May 2014 14:16:13 +0100
I think you can tell that piece was written by a sighted person and,
therefore, someone who has no idea about Braille, total blindness and how
those of us who use it daily will never cease to do so. Crap journalism,!
Kind regards,
Jackie Brown
Twitter: @thebrownsplace
Skype: Thejackmate
-----Original Message-----
From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Clive.Lever@xxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: 21 May 2014 11:19
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Does the digital age spell the end of Braille? -
News - Gadgets and Tech - The Independent
Hello all,
I believe that if you were born with no useful reading vision, or have had
no useful reading vision since early childhood, it is dangerous to assume
that Braille can ever be properly replaced by other media. Screen
enlargement is of no early use to someone with no sight at all; audiobooks
and computer speech technology allow a blind person to be read to by a
machine. They don't allow a blind person to read, so the point about the
importance of acquiring literacy skills is well made. You can read all the
audio books you like on daisy players, Kindles and the like, without
learning how to write, spell, punctuate, capitalise and so on. You can do
some of this with computer technology, but the process is rather like
travelling from Land's End to John o' Groats at the speed of a snail - it's
logically possible to do it but life's too short to make the attempt
worthwhile. There are other dangers inherent in expecting blind people do be
educated entirely through computer speech outp
ut. I've heard reports that some young blind people are beginning to sound
like their synthesisers, because they are the voices they hear more than any
other.
Best regards,
Clive
Clive Lever
Diversity and Equality Officer
Kent County Council
Office: 01622 221163
Email: clive.lever@xxxxxxxxxxx
Kent County Council
Room G37
Sessions House
Maidstone, Kent.
ME14 1XQ
-----Original Message-----
From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Gordon Keen
Sent: 21 May 2014 10:52
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [access-uk] Does the digital age spell the end of Braille? - News -
Gadgets and Tech - The Independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/does-the-digit
al-age-spell-the-end-of-braille-9405836.html
Does the digital age spell the end of Braille?
It took more than a century for Braille to be established as the English
reading system for the blind after an acrimonious and lengthy dispute dubbed
the "War of the Dots".
Now it faces another battle as the rise of digital technology means its
importance to blind people is diminishing. It might even fall into disuse
altogether, according to the curator of a new exhibition.
"Braille is embattled. The biggest threat is computer technology, which
makes it much easier not to have to learn it," said Matthew Rubery, from
Queen University of London.
"A lot of people fear Braille won't survive because it will be read by so
few people. The use has declined and there are concerns about funding to
keep it going."
Dr Rubery, with Birkbeck University's Heather Tilley, is curating the
exhibition How We Read: A Sensory History of Books for Blind People. The
exhibition, which opens in November in London, will introduce the
development of alternative ways of reading over the past two centuries.
These include the development of Braille and its embossed-print rivals,
talking-book records, speech-synthesisers and systems that magnify text on
computer screens.
Many of the devices have never been displayed. Dr Rubery said it was an
opportunity "to explore this significant but largely neglected aspect of the
nation's literacy heritage".
A series of competing systems emerged in the 19th century to help blind
people read. Braille was a system published in 1829 by the Frenchman Louis
Braille. Among its rivals were the embossed pages published by William Moon.
About 30,000 people use braille in some form today. About 6,000 of these are
heavy users, according to the Royal National Institute of Blind People
(RNIB).
But it faces threats from advances in low-vision technology, the greater
availability of recorded materials and reading machines. The RNIB revealed
fewer people are using its Braille library. Steve Tyler, head of planning at
the RNIB, said the body was worried about the decline of Braille, but that
it was putting more resources into teaching products and electronic
Braille.
He said: "We do see threats to the system but it is still at the heart of
what we do because of its literacy and educational value."
The exhibition will also chart the development of talking books for the
blind, first provided for veterans blinded in the First World War.
Dr Rubery said: "Ever since Edison invented the phonograph in 1878, people
have been listening to spoken- word recordings. But the first full-length
recordings were made for blind people in the 1930s. Before, the records only
allowed a few minutes."
Among the exhibits is what is believed to be the oldest surviving
talking-book record, from 1935 - the BBC announcer Anthony McDonald reading
Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell.
"Blind people started listening to long-playing records 15 years before
anyone else," Dr Rubery said. The first spoken-word records released were
the Bible and excerpts from Shakespeare.
The first popular novels were The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
and Joseph Conrad's Typhoon.
Three blind types: Rival systems
Braille
Louis Braille invented his system at the age of 15, taken from a code
invented to send military messages at night. He published it in 1829; it was
established as the English system of choice in 1932.
Boston Line Type
Devised by Samuel Gridley Howe, founder of the New England School for the
Blind, it was an embossed, simplified Roman alphabet. The first book using
the system was published in 1834.
Moon
After losing much of his sight from scarlet fever as a child, William Moon
developed a system of raised-print letters, which he published in 1845. It
is still available in the UK and can be generated with computer software.
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