[access-uk] Re: Does the digital age spell the end of Braille? - News - Gadgets and Tech - The Independent
- From: David Weston <david@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 21 May 2014 16:01:21 +0100
Hi Carol,
these people who say that Braille is coming to and end, Do not know what it is
to be Deaf/Blind, and the only way to access a computer is through braille.
David.
On 21 May 2014, at 14:21, <carol.pearson29@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 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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