The day when most Braille material will exist in digital form may not be far
off, Terri. Personally, while I know Braille and have no regrets of
learning it at a young age, I realized early on that very few books, with
perhaps the exception of Math material, would be available to me in Braille,
nor would I find it convenient if they were because of Braille's typical
bulk. Of course, I still use it for label identification, but much less so
for pleasure reading. Thus, I learned to comprehend speech synthesis at a
rapid rate and read books in Braille less and less, as more titles were
available on tape, and now in ebook format, than have ever been available in
Braille.
Perhaps this will be a controvercial statement, but I've long believed that,
for Braille to continue to be a viable medium in the 21st century, it would
have to be updated with the times in the form of an affordable Braille
display. While many purists will never let go of hardbound Braille books,
there's no comparison when a 1gb compact flash card can hold more than one
thousand Braille books, including such large titles as War and Peace and
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, both around 1.5 megabytes in size
and God knows how many Braille volumes. To be fair, though, when evaluating
the BrailleNote in February of this year, it was refreshing to see a crisp
Braille display and to have the option of reading either with speech or
Braille. Finally, with the order and hopefully short arrival of a 32-cell
BrailleNote QT, I'll hopefully have the best of both worlds.
Regards,
Chad
----- Original Message -----
From: "Terri Pannett" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Braillenote List" <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, October 01, 2004 4:56 PM
Subject: Re: [Braillenote] braillenote pk
Dear Susie,
I use my BN at rehearsals and then emboss the music and use a music stand
during the church service.
But if my embosser broke down, I would have to use my BN one way or another.
The BN PK cannot emboss and that was my original point. If a person never
needs to emboss anything on paper, then the BN PK would suit their needs.
But if they want to emboss something, and they don't have a PC, they're
stuck.
I would like to see the day when 90/5 of braille material is digital and no
paper is used. As it is, the BN has changed my life because I emboss very
little.
Terri Pannett, Amateur Radio call sign KF6CA. Army MARS call sign AAT9PX,
California
Terri Pannett, Amateur Radio call sign KF6CA. Army MARS call sign AAT9PX,
California
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