Re: On the Optacon buzz + some venting
- From: Sharlene Wills <tenagra@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2006 15:22:30 -0700 (PDT)
Hi, Fran,
All the answers you've received to your question
which, I agree, is not silly, are accurate. If you
have a chance and access, check out some print
greeting cards where the words are embossed. I think
you'll get a very good idea from those (or, for that
matter, from book titles, many of which are also
embossed) why trying to have whole books done in this
way would be not only very impractical, but also very
frustrating. There are so many styles of printing --
and then there is handwriting, too. Braille (even
though one has to learn what the dots stand for in any
given language) is standarized, uniform in size and
allows for complete literacy. Those folks who go
blind in later life can often, I am told, still write
print legibly, but for those of us who have never been
able to see, trying to "close" an "o" or get the cross
bar on the "t" in the correct position, is next to
impossible, even if we press down hard enough to feel
the impressions. Nobody can read the "S" in my name,
unless I take very, very special care with it. Then,
too, we rarely are able to make our letters
proportionally accurate. Thanks to the optacon, we at
least get a good mental picture of what print should
look like, but I never had such a picture before its
use, even though I could read tactile printed letters
if they were large enough with my fingers.
As for reading braille, it, like anything else,
requires practice and lots of it. Also, some folks
have more trouble sensitizing their fingers,
sometimes, because of diabetes. I don't know how you
were taught, but perhaps Win Downing or some of us
could give you private tips on a personal basis, off
list.
Good luck with the Portugese.
Sharlene.
P.S. I was wrong about the Braille Forum publishing
our announcement. Sorry, gang. It was done in the
Blind Californian. That's where I read it.
--- Francesca Diodati <mdiodat@xxxxxx> wrote:
> Hi all,
> I just enrolled in a Portuguese class and I'm
> beginning tomorrow night. I
> decided to have my textbook transcribed into braille
> because I think the
> optacon buzz is too loud for the other students. One
> mor reason to wish for
> the elimination of the buzz! :-)
>
> Please allow me some venting...Where else could I
> vent?? I had to make many
> phone calls to receive the book in advance so that I
> could take it and have
> it brailled. Now I have the first few chapters in
> braille, and I was going
> through the first pages because I'm a terrible
> braille reader and I don't
> want to sound like a fool if the teacher ever asks
> me to read in class
> tomorrow LOL. I just found out that the circumflex A
> always got transcribed
> exactly like an R! Now, I'm almost braille
> illiterate. And I even need to
> remember that when I read R, it may be the R or it
> may be the A!!
> Nobody's fault...Just braille's fault. I don't know
> the language, and it's
> hard for me to guess the letters. When the dots are
> not clearly raised, it's
> so easy to mistake one letter with another. With
> print, if it's printed
> properly, it is never an issue. It's noe 1 dot that
> makes a difference, but
> from the whole picture it's easy to know which
> letter we're seeing.
>
> Which brings me to a silly question, but for which I
> can find no answer. A
> friend recently asked me why blind people use
> braille, and why aren't there
> books with raised print whichwe can feel. Honestly I
> had thought of that
> myself many times. If the size of the letters is the
> issue, they could make
> many volumes like they do with braille, only, it
> would have so many
> advantages.
> I guess there is a reason; could anyone explain it
> to me?
>
> Thanks for letting me blabber...
>
> Fran
>
>
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