Hi Diane, First off, I have a BrailleNote BT 32 (Braille keyboard and 32-cell Braille display). Well, the first notetaker I ever used, which is the only one I used before the BN, and the one I used right up until I got my BN, was a Braille 'n Speak. I realized that, as I advanced in my level of education (I'll be a sophomore in high school in September), it became more and more cumbersome to have just speech. For one, it sounded incredibly odd when I had to read a report aloud to a class. I would always have to pause at awkward moments because I had to listen to the speech, then memorize the wording, and finally recite those words aloud to the class. I didn't (and still don't) have an embosser at home, and my schedule was so busy that I had no time to connect the Braille 'n Speak to my school embosser to produce a hard Braille copy of what I had to read. Of course, a choice was to write it on a Perkins Brailler, but writing on a notetaker was just so much quieter and faster. Then, there was the added time of moving my cursor letter by letter when editing, having to listen to the whole document to make sure it was okay, and having to issue commands to have words I was uncertain about spelled, etc. Finally, it became increasingly difficult to concentrate on both the speech of my notetaker and the lectures of teachers as the lectures became more complex. Basically, I knew a Braille display would be helpful in every way, and there would be no disadvantage for me of getting a notetaker with a Braille display. I've already preferred Braille to speech, and I knew I would be most comfortable with the largest layout of refreshable Braille, so I didn't have to think too long about the number of cells I preferred (32 as opposed to 18). With the Braille display, my editing could go faster, I could read lectures and refer to notes without having to make a hard Braille copy, and I could concentrate fully on lectures as I took notes. As far as the keyboard goes, although I type fast and am very familiar with the Computer-Style keyboard, I had been used to a Braille interface on a notetaker having used a Braille 'n Speak, so I figured I'd be more comfortable with the BT model. Also, and no offense to QT users, since the BN's keyboard is more compact than a desktop/laptop keyboard and has such a different layout than that of a desktop/laptop keyboard, I felt it would require a higher learning curve than the BT. Also, I wanted to have another method of writing Braille than using a Perkins, and the BT model let me do this. Finally, I just wanted to say that although I use the Braille display a lot more than speech, it's nice to have the speech option for listening to a long book or to make sure a word sounds right using speech when I'm editing a document I'm going to print (because what is being spoken is what is translated into text, and not how it appears on the Braille display, if there are discrepancies between the two). Thanks.
Maria > ----- Original Message ----- >From: Diane Kelker <[EMAIL PROTECTED] >To: BND <[email protected] >Date: Mon, 28 Jun 2004 09:52:23 +1200 >Subject: [Braillenote] NOTETAKER PRIORITIES >Good morning, >In addition to purchasing price, what were your major priorities when choosing >either the VN or the BN? I'm really curious to know if yours were the same as >mine, and I'm particuarly posing this question now because it may help you >make a relevant criteria list if you're planning to shop at either convention. > I'll share my deciding factors after I've seen yours! >Diane Kelker, Actress, Coach, Former Child >___ >To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to >[EMAIL PROTECTED] >To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit >http://list.pulsedata.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote
