Hi, On the subject of contractions, how many of you are aware that DBT supports three formal braille learning courses? Two from the United States, and one from the United Kingdom. Within DBT, these take the form of graduated tables equating to the various stages of the respective braille learning course. Therefore you can take any text you like, and translate it in DBT to the level of braille a person is at on the relevant course. This potentially means an easier introduction for new braille readers since they can be provided with all their braille reading material at any given level for as long as required. The three courses are as follows, but you should contact the relative organisations for the actual training material. 1) The "Instruction Manual for Braille Transcribers," which is a publication of the Library of Congress, National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS). 2) The "Clusters" series developed by the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (TSBVI). 3) The "Fingerprint" braille learning course, designed by the late Nigel Berry, now supplied by the Royal National Institute for the Blind in the United Kingdom. George Bell. This Message has been scanned for viruses by McAfee Groupshield. * * * * This message is via list duxuser at freelists.org. * To unsubscribe, send a blank message with * unsubscribe * as the subject to <duxuser-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>. You may also * subscribe, unsubscribe, and set vacation mode and other subscription * options by visiting //www.freelists.org. The list archive * is also located there. * Duxbury Systems' web site is http://www.duxburysystems.com * * *