[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 15:15:23 +0100
It just gets my goat that people make assumptions about those of us who use
Braille, then turn it into really crap journalism in the process with these
empty articles.
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 14:31
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,
See my comments on the Deaf community's defence of and insistence on
promotion of British Sign Language, in contrast to the constant devaluation
of Braille. I suspect that it's more about going for the cheapest option
than about making it easier for sighted people. We must not let sighted
people perpetuate the myth that Braille is past its use by date.
I read a book of Q I facts recently (on Kindle I'm afraid). One of the facts
was:
Less than 2% of blind people read Braille. Taken out of context, that will
lead penny-pinchers to say: well it's hardly worth the paper it's written on
then. The statistic says nothing about the importance of Braille to those
for whom it is the main source of written communication. Should the slogan
be: Hands off our Braille!
?
Best,
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
carol.pearson29@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: 21 May 2014 14:21
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Does the digital age spell the end of Braille? -
News - Gadgets and Tech - The Independent
Well said, Jackie!
Long live Braille!
Carol P
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jackie Brown" <thebrownsplace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, May 21, 2014 2:16 PM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Does the digital age spell the end of Braille? -
News - Gadgets and Tech - The Independent
>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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