Interesting article. Thanks for posting it. I myself am pro braille. I think it should be taught and used to teach things like spelling, grammar, punctuation and so on. It also becomes another tool in a successful blind person's arsenal. IMHO, when giving a speech, I think braille notes are still far superior to any speech output device.
On the other hand though, I don't think comparing a blind person's use of speech output or technology to an oral culture or times before the Gutenberg press were invented is accurate either. Using speech output, I have access to the written text and the written text available to most people in society today. Using note takers and speech output, ideas are not ephemeral. I can write them down and recall them at will. I would agree that before the use of computers and speech output, a blind person who didn't know braille could be called illiterate and could be compared to someone living in an oral culture. I don't think that's the case now. I also don't think it's an either or choice between braille and speech. They're both important tools that a successful blind person needs. On 03/05/12 14:10, Cristobal wrote: > This is an article I read in the New York Times a couple of years ago about > this topic. I went back and found it as it appears to be relevant to this > whole theme. > http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/magazine/03Braille-t.html?_r=1&pagewanted= > print > This is a link to the printable version which is less cluttered than the > regular page. > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf > Of alex wallis > Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2012 12:03 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: re: great iphone article > > Hi Raul, > your message was quite interesting that you sent to the list, having said > that, I must disagree with you about speech and audio meaning that people > don't often capitalize sentences, or at least, I think maybe its a factor > that makes people less likely to do it, but I think its also down to quality > of education. > I am not sure if you know this, but in the UK braille system, there is no > official rule that says you must capitalize sentences and words using a dot > six, or at least there wasn't when I was growing up. > Having said that, I don't know if this is still correct as I believe when I > finished education the powers that be were considering introducing this from > the American braille code. > > Having said that, for most of my life up til the age of 12 I had little > contact at all with computers, towards the end of primary school I did get > the chance to use my first computer, a bbc micro and from then on my use of > computers steadily increased to the point where braille is pretty much > unused in my daily life. > I am pretty good at capitalizing sentences, and words, though I must admit > the spell check is very useful for this, and I do sometimes have to make a > conscious effort when correcting messages before sending them to think about > capitalizing certain words and sentences. > But I always go through and check any e mail before sending it. > What I think is a major factor in blind people being bad spellers is a > combination of things, firstly the use of grade 2 Braille, I think that my > learning this really impacted on my ability to spell correctly as I don't > think I thought as much after learning it about how words should be spelled, > and was thinking more about what contraction should be used where. > The second thing I think that has impacted on the ability of blind people to > spell is the use of spell check, as I don't know about anyone else, but > normally when I use a spell check I don't stop to listen to the correct > spelling always, though I do try to make an effort to do so when I have the > time. > Another area I am quite bad on is the use of punctuation and paragraphs, I > find it quite hard knowing when to place punctuation, so I probably use far > two much of it, and paragraphs I admit I hardly use unless I really think > about it or someone checks something I have written and reminds me about > them. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google > Group. > To search the VIPhone public archive, visit > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en. > -- Christopher (CJ) [email protected] -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google Group. To search the VIPhone public archive, visit http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en.
