I agree with you, I used the Optacon for years in my work, have the sore shoulder to prove I learned to use computers with the Optacon. There are lot of weird fonts, symbols and conventions to print and the only way I really understood that was after I got the Optacon in 1976. I could write printed capital letters fairly well at that time cause mom taught me and we had the shapes from a children's set to work with but lower case letters were way different. Proportional fonts are the hardest to read because each letter's size is dependent on the size of the letter. Italics are even more difficult for me to read because of the way they slant, which obviously braille does not do.
Odd thing is when I am typing sometimes it is the actual printed letters that pop up in my head and even though I use a braille display whenever I can that happens when I look at a report for example and read HISTORY OF CHIEF COMPLAINT: Read the braille make me picture this in all upper case printed letters. I only wish development had continued on the Optacon, some way not to have the retina connected and thus no cord to break, a small unit smaller than the II to make it really portable. Current models both of them do not really allow for one to sit in a restaurant buzzing through the menu, I did it only once to see if I could, but alas the letters were mostly too large. Sometimes when we get documents in small print I actually read them to my husband, or did, now we scan so he can enlarge on his screen. Sometimes I hated the way some people overused font changes, boxes, etc, sometimes I could certainly see the reason for it but reading tables with the Optacon is for me slow but tables are not my favorite read for any document. As I understand it the preference in many places is one space after a period now, but my employer still prefers two which is good because I have tried it with one and never succeed to finish anything that way. If you use the proofreading tool in Jaws it always stopped on those periods and I only wish there were a way to tell it that it is correct for what I am doing. -----Original Message----- From: viphone@googlegroups.com [mailto:viphone@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of David Chittenden Sent: Saturday, February 02, 2013 10:52 AM To: viphone@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: Another formatting question with Braille Touch Are new braille learners more likely to write braille electronically or on paper? The reason for the different Braille formatting rules is because, on paper, Braille is so much larger than print. As a congenitally blind learner who grew up on Braille formatting rules, it has been complicated for me to learn print formatting rules as an adult. With much of Braille being electronic nowadays, I submit that Braille be taught with print, rather than Braille, formatting rules. Further, I submit that congenitally blind learners be taught print tactually with tactile experience of differing sized letters and experience of different font types. Otherwise, the confusion amongst the blind around characters per line, character spacing, line spacing, and so forth, will continue. One of the reasons it is easy for me to get my head around such concepts is that my mother taught me print letters using plastic letter magnets before I went to school and started learning Braille. Because of that, I tactually read some print signage such as number plates on doors, when the signage is engraved or embossed rather than just painted on. Even when typewriters were used, there wasn't a standard number of spaces to use for indenting a print paragraph. The two main typing letter faces required 5 or 10 spaces for one of them, and seven or twelve spaces for the other one (depending on whether the indent was .5 or 1 inch. with computer fonts being more like hand printing such that many fonts no longer use block letter sizes, but instead allow different letters to be different widths, in my opinion, sticking to Braille's antiquated formatting rules will most likely serve to further isolate blind people. David Chittenden, MSc, MRCAA Email: dchitten...@gmail.com Mobile: +64 21 2288 288 Sent from my iPhone On 03/02/2013, at 5:59, Robert Fenton <robert.fen...@samobile.net> wrote: > The point David is that you want the app to be both as convenient and usable as possible. In my profession, two spaces after a period is still the accepted standard for submitting written work. Leaving it to people to insert extra spaces themselves could lead to confusion especially among those learning braille who are now having to learn a new set of formatting rules. By doing nothing, we are in a sense creating a set of conventions that if you write braille with braille touch, you have to format your braille as if you were preparing a print text. How does that assist braille teachers with teaching braille formatting rules? > > Just some more thoughts to consider. > > Bob Fenton > > Sent from my iPhone > > On 2013-02-02, at 9:47 AM, David Chittenden <dchitten...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> Actually, the two spaces after a period rule is changing. Nowadays, many documents are written with just one space after the period. >> >> My suggestion is that no formatting algorithm be created. Instead, like with most things, formatting should be the responsibility of the individual author. >> >> David Chittenden, MSc, MRCAA >> Email: dchitten...@gmail.com >> Mobile: +64 21 2288 288 >> Sent from my iPhone >> >> On 03/02/2013, at 3:54, Robert Fenton <robert.fen...@samobile.net> wrote: >> >>> Hello everybody: >>> >>> there is another difference in formatting between braille and print we need to account for. In print, two spaces follow a periojd, whereas in braille it is only one. can we add this into a formatting conversion algorythm as well? Thank you. >>> >>> >>> Typed with BrailleTouch >>> >>> >>> Bob Fenton >>> >>> Sent from my iPhone >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google Group. >>> To search the VIPhone public archive, visit http://www.mail-archive.com/viphone@googlegroups.com/. >>> To post to this group, send email to viphone@googlegroups.com. >>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to viphone+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >>> For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en. >>> --- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to viphone+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google Group. >> To search the VIPhone public archive, visit http://www.mail-archive.com/viphone@googlegroups.com/. >> To post to this group, send email to viphone@googlegroups.com. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to viphone+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >> For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en. >> --- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to viphone+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. >> >> >> > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google Group. > To search the VIPhone public archive, visit http://www.mail-archive.com/viphone@googlegroups.com/. > To post to this group, send email to viphone@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to viphone+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en. > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to viphone+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google Group. 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