Ottawa Canada
Dear Stephanie and list:
Probably the best way to learn Grade three Braille is through the
course offered by The Hadley School For The Blind, Winnetka,
Illinois.
Web site: http://www.hadley-school.edu
Address:
The Hadley School for the Blind,
700 Elm Street,
Winnetka, IL 60093 USA
Telephone: (800) 323-4238
Student Services (800) 526-9909
Not sure if their Grade Three course is still offered or not.
Ask student services.
Prerequisite: You should be a rock-solid grade two reader and
writer before attempting to learn grade three! Otherwise you'll
be writing letters in Braille to friends in a curious blend of
grades two and three. Depending upon how much of grade three you
use, they may be able to figure out what you wrote through
context and a lot of imagination, say you wrote:
"I read the bk." They'd probably figure you read the book and be
correct.
But if they're not having a vivid imagination when they read your
letter, they may send it back to you asking what on Earth you
were trying to say.
You could also buy one or more of the following titles from The
American Printing House For The Blind, Louisville, Kentucky:
Key To Grade Three Braille or
Grade Three Braille Codebook.
The number for APH is:
(800) 223-1839.
There is a charge for the APH publications. They accept VISA and
Master Card. The books are available in either ink print or
Braille.
Taking the course through Hadley is much preferable to trying to
learn the code from the APH books. The Hadley course divides the
material up into 35 lessons, each lesson of manageable size and
the material is presented in an organized fashion, starting with
fairly simple signs first and goes on to more complex matters
progressively. It also has review lessons and you get feedback
from your instructor, an experienced grade three Braille user.
I personally think there should be a lot more use of grade three
Braille, as once you get the hang of it you'll truly love it.
However getting just which dot is what can dramatically change
the word you are reading, much more so than in grade two.
Brian
Brian K. Lingard
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Skype: ve3yiab2ji15
tel: +1 (613) 247-0665
New York NY Tel +1 (646) 797-2862
FAX +1 (613) 247-9998
-----Original Message-----
From: stephanie` [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Saturday, August 11, 2007 1:22 AM
To: Brian Lingard
Subject: RE: [Braillenote] Grade 3 Braille on BrailleNote
is there a way to learn this code? It sounds great. Any web
resources, or .brf files that explains the code?
Thanks,
Steph At 03:43 PM 10/08/2007, you wrote:
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
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Skype: ve3yiab2ji15
tel: +1 (613) 247-0665
New York NY Tel +1 (646) 797-2862
FAX +1 (613) 247-9998
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