[access-uk] Re: Does the digital age spell the end of Braille? - News - Gadgets and Tech - The Independent
- From: Shaun O'Connor <capricorn8159@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 21 May 2014 15:27:21 +0100
Oh just imagine a journalist going to a really hot interview, bereft of
the knowledge of teeline only to discover his/her recording equipment
failed during the interview...they, of all people should understand the
situation well for without that knowledge. a reporter can lose a good
story. so for a journalist to be so dismissive of braile is very short
sighted thinking indeed.
On 21/05/2014 15:15, Jackie Brown wrote:
> 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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