At the risk of opening a huge can of worms, I'll say this. I read many messages from many mailing lists pertaining to blindness products. One thing that astounds me is the unbelievable spelling that one sees on these lists. Some write with no punctuation, some simply grossly misspell words. I am not singling out any particular list, or any particular individuals. I would be willing to bet, however, that the folks who are having the most difficult time spelling are people who read everything on tape or with speech and never learned Braille. Note, I do not include those for whom English is a second language.
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Chad Fenton Sent: Friday, October 01, 2004 4:24 PM To: Braillenote List Subject: Re: [Braillenote] braillenote pk The day when most Braille material will exist in digital form may not be far off, Terri. Personally, while I know Braille and have no regrets of learning it at a young age, I realized early on that very few books, with perhaps the exception of Math material, would be available to me in Braille, nor would I find it convenient if they were because of Braille's typical bulk. Of course, I still use it for label identification, but much less so for pleasure reading. Thus, I learned to comprehend speech synthesis at a rapid rate and read books in Braille less and less, as more titles were available on tape, and now in ebook format, than have ever been available in Braille. Perhaps this will be a controvercial statement, but I've long believed that, for Braille to continue to be a viable medium in the 21st century, it would have to be updated with the times in the form of an affordable Braille display. While many purists will never let go of hardbound Braille books, there's no comparison when a 1gb compact flash card can hold more than one thousand Braille books, including such large titles as War and Peace and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, both around 1.5 megabytes in size and God knows how many Braille volumes. To be fair, though, when evaluating the BrailleNote in February of this year, it was refreshing to see a crisp Braille display and to have the option of reading either with speech or Braille. Finally, with the order and hopefully short arrival of a 32-cell BrailleNote QT, I'll hopefully have the best of both worlds. Regards, Chad ----- Original Message ----- From: "Terri Pannett" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Braillenote List" <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, October 01, 2004 4:56 PM Subject: Re: [Braillenote] braillenote pk Dear Susie, I use my BN at rehearsals and then emboss the music and use a music stand during the church service. But if my embosser broke down, I would have to use my BN one way or another. The BN PK cannot emboss and that was my original point. If a person never needs to emboss anything on paper, then the BN PK would suit their needs. But if they want to emboss something, and they don't have a PC, they're stuck. I would like to see the day when 90/5 of braille material is digital and no paper is used. As it is, the BN has changed my life because I emboss very little. Terri Pannett, Amateur Radio call sign KF6CA. Army MARS call sign AAT9PX, California Terri Pannett, Amateur Radio call sign KF6CA. Army MARS call sign AAT9PX, California ___ To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit http://list.pulsedata.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote ___ To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit http://list.pulsedata.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote
