Grade 3 braille was designed for academic use and braille shorthand was
designed for stenographers. I think as of last year Hadley still offered
the grade 3 braille course, but they have discontinued the braille shorthand
course years ago.
I'm also wondering why personal notes would have to be printed anyway.
As for music braille, it could be implemented, but HumanWare would need to
work with Dancing Dots. And, as far as I know, you cannot translate a
braille music file into print.
Terri Amateur Radio call sign KF6CA.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian Lingard" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "BrailleNote List" <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, August 09, 2007 10:43 PM
Subject: RE: [Braillenote] Grade 3 Braille on BrailleNote
Ottawa Canada
Dear Ethan and list:
I can tell you haven't studied Grade Three Braille thoroughly
from your comparison of it to Grade Two Braille.
Yes, you can take your notes on the Mpower in Grade Three Braille
or Music Braille for that matter using the BT keyboard or the
home row of the QT keyboard like a BT keyboard.
However you should turn the speech off, because it won't be able
to speak what you are writing as anything intelligible.
Grade Three Braille has about 500 contractions.
It does have additional short form words, and a whole lot more
two-celled signs, including a full set of two cell signs
beginning with:
Dot 4,
Dots 4 and 5,
Dots 4, 5 and 6
And two-cell signs you never dreamed of.
It also has additional initial letter signs,
Final letter signs
Two-vowel signs
Lower signs
And vowel omission rules.
Then there is word outlining for rapidly writing words for which
there is no initial letter, short form word, two-cell sign or
lower sign.
Then you omit spaces between words according to certain rules!
There are signs to represent the numbers zero through 49 as a
single cell character.
The capital sign is not used at all.
Oh you can string syllables written as lower signs together under
certain circumstances.
E. g. 49fctnt is how disinfectant is written in grade three.
While the additional two-cell signs and short form words could be
put into the tables of the BrailleNote, you would have serious
difficulty with the multiple meanings of some lower signs and the
omitted spaces between words, not to mention the omitted vowels,
two-vowel signs which can have multiple meanings depending upon
context, omitted vowels and outlined words.
So writing a back translator from grade three to grade two or
plain text would be nigh impossible because so many signs have
multiple meanings depending upon context.
I don't know Music Braille, but suffice it to say, neither does
the BrailleNote and I don't know if it could learn it.
I suppose you could create a partial implementation of grade
three, maybe grade 2 and a half or two and three-quarters, and
successfully back translate it, but it wouldn't be proper grade
three Braille.
There actually is a Braille Shorthand. It is written on a
one-inch wide paper tape like what a court reporter uses in their
Steno machine, except it is in Braille not print.
The Braille Shorthand machine, model "J" made in England
distinguishes between words and sentences by the width of the
blank space between cells.
While its embossed characters all occupy one cell each, it uses
variable spacing between groups of characters to distinguish
between a word and a sentence.
And in speaking with someone who knows and has used it, Braille
Shorthand makes Grade Three Braille look bulky!
So an awful lot of work would have to go into a text to grade
three Braille translator for the Mpower or PC and even more work
would have to go into writing a back translator to convert grade
three Braille into print text.
While grade three is a wonderful code for making notes during
college lectures or for personal reference material, it is not
widely used so is seldom used for correspondence being sent to
another Braille reader.
I've studied grade three Braille a bit and once you get to know
it, it is a true joy to read and write.
But it certainly does have a lot of contractions!
The Hadley School For the Blind, Winnetka, Illinois used to offer
a course in grade three Braille but I'm not sure if it is still
offered.
You could call them at (800) 323-4238 and ask for Student
Services and see if its still offered.
Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but someone has to tell you
about the intricacies of grade three Braille.
Brian
Brian K. Lingard
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