[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 16:05:31 +0100
Hi Jackie,
Yes Braille has still lots of life in it, and what about folk who are
Deaf/Bling who need a braille display to us a computer. David.
On 21 May 2014, at 14:16, "Jackie Brown" <thebrownsplace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 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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