I am a fulltime braille user. I spell extremely well. I do make typos in writing rapid emails. I think the reason I spell well is I had to spell out a lot of words each week in first through fourth grades and write them out in braille and later type them on a typewriter before computer keyboards.
E. At 10:44 PM 3/24/2008, you wrote:
Even my full time braille users are horrible spellers, and it isn't for a want of me trying for them to improve either! Shelley L. Rhodes M.A., VRT, CTVI and Guinevere, Golden lady Guide juddysbuddy@xxxxxxxxxxxx Guide Dogs For the Blind Inc. Graduate Alumni Association Board www.guidedogs.com More than Any other time, When i hold a beloved book in my hand, my limitations fall from me, my spirit is free. - Helen Keller ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mayrie ReNae" <mrenae@xxxxxxxxxxx> To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Monday, March 24, 2008 9:53 PM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Question for Braille Readers Hi Cindy, Poor spelling is certainly not limited to blind people. Blind people just have to work harder to spell well in these days of speech. I wish I could say that I'm a stellar speller. I'm not, but I do want not to be a poor one, so make the effort to attend to my spelling better. Peace, Mayrie At 06:37 PM 3/24/2008, you wrote: >OOOOOOO, Mary, good job! I hadn't even thought of that aspect of it. >Lots of people learn to write braille by how they read it; that is an >important point in itself. They cement their braille knowledge and >spelling, too, by what they see whether with fingers, I think, or with >eyes. I think in this day of speech, which is lovely, we endanger them >of having compromised spelling and braille reading ability. Although >while we are on the topic, I am seeing a lot of sighted folk saying >that they would like to write personnels rather than personals, and >that you should definately do this or that. > >Cindy Lou the Cranky > >Cindy Lou Ray. Each day is a new adventure. >----- Original Message ----- >From: "Mayrie ReNae" <mrenae@xxxxxxxxxxx> >To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> >Sent: Monday, March 24, 2008 8:23 PM >Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Question for Braille Readers > > >Hi Cindy, > > Well, we're both old and cranky then. I don't know why >people are willing to compromise proper punctuation when making it >come out correctly in both print and braille takes only a couple of >seconds when validating a file. Contrary to what people seem to >think, it is not incorrect in print to represent the em dashes as >double hyphens. We are just lucky enough these days to have them be >a punctuation mark that our word processing software can insert. And >yes, Darrell may know what the hyphen is supposed to mean in the >place of an em dash, but does everyone, especially every young >reader? Do you want young kids to read NLS web braille books >punctuated correctly and then bookshare books punctuated incorrectly, >and wonder which punctuation mark she is supposed to use in her own >writing, when you as validators could clear that up easily? > >And, if we're talking about things like that, do you know how many >times I see in books now and on e-mail lists the word "then" used >where the word "than" should have been used? An example of what I >see in this case would be: "I like milk better then water." How many >people misspell there their and they're? That happens in the blind >community because too many people didn't read enough braille to know >the differences. Now, we want to give them inaccurate braille too, >when making it accurate takes less than thirty seconds to accomplish >while validating a book? > >This is a subject that I hope gets resolved. Otherwise, you all are >going to hear me rant about sloppiness and laziness and compromising >the educations of blind children for years to come. And you'll want >to tell me to put a sock in it. And I won't. I believe in educating >our children properly. It's difficult enough to find blind people >who can spell. And now you want to make them think that an em dash >is a hyphen too? > >Okay, I'll shut up now, for this round. > >Peace, >Mayrie > > At 03:47 PM 3/24/2008, you wrote: > >Excuse me, but why is that compromising the book. In the rules of > >NLS, > >they say that when the book was being transcribed it wasn't always > >easy to tell which it was, but if it would fit that -- requirement it > >should be used. That's more or less a paraphrase, and I can't tell > >you > >exactly where. It doesn't compromise the print book in any way. > >Personally, I cringe when I see it any other way, but then again I'm > >old and cranky. LOL. > > > >Cindy Lou > > > >Cindy Lou Ray. Each day is a new adventure. > >----- Original Message ----- > >From: "Darrell Shandrow" <darrell.shandrow@xxxxxxxxx> > >To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> > >Sent: Monday, March 24, 2008 5:39 PM > >Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Question for Braille Readers > > > > > >Hi Allison, > > > >My take on this may be a bit different than most Braille readers. I > >do not > >feel it is a good idea to compromise the formatting of the print book > >for > >the sake of Braille translation, especially when it is not absolutely > >necessary to do so. We Braille readers know what is intended even > >when only > >a single dash appears. > > > > > >----- Original Message ----- > >From: "Allison Hilliker" <bookshare_girl@xxxxxxx> > >To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> > >Sent: Monday, March 24, 2008 3:25 PM > >Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Question for Braille Readers > > > > > >Sue, Thanks for the info. It's good to know how NLS does their > >dashes. So, > >then my next question is, what does everyone prefer? Should I create > >double > >dashes as NLS does, or simply leave things as is? > > > >Either is fine with me as replacing em dashes won't take too much > >time. > > > >Best, > >Allison > > > > > >----- Original Message ----- > >From: "siss52" <siss52@xxxxxxxxxxx> > >To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> > >Sent: Monday, March 24, 2008 2:22 PM > >Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Question for Braille Readers > > > > > > > > > > Hi Allison, > > > > > > What the National Library Service does in their Braille books is > > > to > > > use > > > two > > > hyphens or dashes where the em dash would be. For example, in > > > this > > > word--word. But people have been leaving them as they appear in > > > the > > > book, > > > and you are right, they translate to a single hyphen or dash. So > > > when we > > > do > > > that, the hyphen or single dash and the em dash look the same. > > > > > > In Word, when I have a file with em dashes in it, they look like a > > > capitalized dash or hyphen on my Braille display. It has dots 7 > > > and > > > 8, so > > > it looks like dots 3, 6, and 8. > > > > > > HTH, > > > > > > Sue S. > > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > > From: "Allison Hilliker" <bookshare_girl@xxxxxxx> > > > To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> > > > Sent: Monday, March 24, 2008 3:39 PM > > > Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Question for Braille Readers > > > > > > > > > Hi everyone, > > > > > > Quick question for Braille-readers. I do read Braille myself, but > > > I've > > > never paid attention to this issue before. I'm validating a book > > > with a > > > lot > > > of em dashes. They look like this. - They usually connect two > > > words > > > like > > > this. word1-word2. They do not usually have spaces around them. > > > In > > > the > > > past I have left them as is in the books I validate. > > > > > > My question is, should I be doing anything special with the em > > > dashes in > > > order to make them easily read in Braille? I've never known there > > > to be a > > > special Braille character for the em dash, but there may be one. > > > Does it > > > just look > > > like a regular dash, or something else? Do they appear with > > > spaces > > > around > > > them or not? Would most of you prefer me to add spaces, change > > > the > > > em > > > dashes to regular dashes, leave them alone, or something else? > > > > > > Thanks for any feedback you can give. > > > > > > Best, > > > > > > Allison > > > > > > To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to > > > bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > > > put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get > > > a > > > list > > > of > > > available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject > > > line. > > > > > > > > > To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to > > > bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > > > put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get > > > a > > > list > > > of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the > > > subject > > > line. > > > > > > > > > > To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to > >bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > >put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a > >list of > >available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject > >line. > > > > To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to > >bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > >put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a > >list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the > >subject line. > > > > > > To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to > >bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > >put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a > >list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the > >subject line. > > To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to >bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx >put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a >list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the >subject line. > > > To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to >bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx >put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a >list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject >line. To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line. -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG. Version: 7.5.519 / Virus Database: 269.22.0/1341 - Release Date: 3/24/2008 3:03 PM To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxput the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.__________ NOD32 2970 (20080325) Information __________ This message was checked by NOD32 antivirus system. http://www.eset.com
To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.