Madeline,
I’ll paste the referenced
thread below. I am writing concerning your suggested handling
of chapter headings as they pertain to Braille. I am a
Library of Congress certified Braille proof reader and was
active for more than ten years. I specialized in textbook
braille but have some knowledge of literary braille
protocols. Here is my understanding of how chapter headings
are handled:
Line with end-of-text
blank line
Chapter IV centered
Chapter heading if any centered
blank line
continue text
The use of asterisks was never employed in
formatting chapter heading material. Hope this helps
From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Madeleine Linares
Sent: Thursday, October 04, 2012 4:43 PM
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: cindy rosenthal (cynthr@xxxxxxxxxxx)
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Three Asterisks: An
explanation from the staff
Hello everyone,
My sincere apologies for my delayed
response re. asterisks but here is what’s going on:
In Braille, neither bolding nor font size
changes show up, which means that it is really difficult to
tell when there is a new chapter or section. Therefore, three
asterisks are added after each chapter title or chapter name
to make it clear where the chapter title or name ends and
where the text begins. For example:
-----page break---
Chapter Three
***
[text]
----page break-----
It could also look like this:
-----page break-----
[text from ch. 4]
***
Chapter Five: Kristy Kills
***
[text for ch. 5]
--------page break---------
This is especially important if there is a
chapter name. For example, Chapter Three: The Woman in Red (or
whatever). Without the star, Braille readers would have no way
of knowing whether or not “The Woman in Red” was the first
line of text or a chapter title.
Three asterisks are NOT needed at the
beginning of a page before a new chapter (if the new chapter
starts at the very top of a page) but ARE needed if the
chapter starts in the middle of the page. Three asterisks are
also used to show other breaks in the text, whether it’s a
change in narration and the sighted reader sees a font change
or all italics, if there is a symbol in the page to indicate a
time change or something, and when there is a new section of
the book (such as Part One or Book One of several).
Many volunteers already do this, which is
wonderful. Since we want Bookshare books to be as accessible
to everyone as possible, we strongly encourage adding in three
asterisks after the chapter number or name. I know there has
been a lot of confusion about this. From my understanding it
is not a new idea, but it has never been enforced, which is
likely why some people do it and others don’t and have never
been aware that they should. We want to encourage it going
forward.
Please contact me directly with any
questions or concerns.
Thank you all so much for your hard work
and dedication!
Best,
Madeleine Linares
Volunteer Coordinator
Bookshare, a Benetech Initiative
650-644-3459
madeleinel@xxxxxxxxxxxx
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