These messages are valuable if only for confirming that others resort to
tricks I've just discovered, I.E. trying to move past the T.O.C. by
searching for certain elusive text strings. Why not develop and integrate
HBML, even if it has to wait till HTML 6?
--
Just how interesting do we want our times to be? Pax, Max!
Mary Ward
Thanks for the info about the Braillists forum. Personally, I would really
love to be able to use headings in Braille documents. You know, actually
use the table of contents. Thatâs why I wrote this.
Seems we got electronic brf files and could do Web Braille here in the
United States with the National Library Service. Translators got more
sophisticated. But then, progress on digital documents just stopped.
From: varioultra-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:varioultra-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Dave Williams
Sent: Sunday, July 23, 2017 6:04 PM
To: varioultra@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [varioultra] Re: Off Topic: Fantasy: BrailleTopia
Mary
You may like to share this with the Braillists forum. www.braillists.org
<http://www.braillists.org> .
That may be a good place to explore whether a hyper braille markup
language is really required.
Dave
Sent from my iPhone
On 23 Jul 2017, at 23:11, Mary Ward <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> > wrote:
Iâm not sure where to say this, so Iâll say it here.
Iâm reporting live, I wish, from Blind Utopia, where we have brought
Braille all the way into the 1990s with the creation of HBML, hyper
Braille Markup Language. With Braille fast becoming a primarily, though
not exclusively, digital medium, all the Braille authorities came together
to create the World Braille 2.0 Authority to create an enhanced, more
dynamic Braille code. In the first version of this new code, users of
Braille are able to input Braille into Braille-aware devices, such as cell
phones, and are able to submit messages and other texts with almost no
errors in translation. But the more life-changing advances for end users
have actually occurred in the area of reading. Because of the new markup
language, which is fully integrated into the latest HTML version for
sighted users, and which is now fully implemented in all known paid and
free Braille translators, Braille users can now perform many simple tasks
in Braille files that were formerly restricted only to non-native Braille
documents used by other word processors and off-the-shelf applications.
Not only can Braille users easily leave the title page, table of contents,
and other preliminary materials and go straight to the book they are
reading without having to search for specific text, but they can also move
by HBML elements or skip elements, depending on need. Braille readers can
now navigate by headings, tables, lists, list items, links, and nonlinked
text. Braille readers can even navigate by graphics in documents that have
been converted from other formats into HBML by Braille translator
software. Gone are the days of struggling to get past the table of
contents and title page in library books translated into the old brf
format. Do you remember having to search for text in order to get to a
chapter or section? Do you remember putting the text into the search box
only to learn that you used the wrong code, such as Grade 2? Gone are the
days of searching for a chapter by its page number only to discover that
the page number you are seeking is the unavailable print page rather than
the Braille one or vice versa. With HBML, Braille readers have moved from
third or four class into the very highest level of second class
readership.
