Figured I'd toss my two cents in here. Yes I learned braille when I was younger, but I don't see that as effecting how I write. I rely on speech, not because I want to, but because I have to. I have very little feeling left in my finger tips. On a side note, people have told me that they are terrible at reading code without a braille display, which, as a computer science undergraduate is something I find extremely interesting. I take the time to proof-read everything I write--even if it's on Twitter where grammatical errors proliferate as you attempt to make your thought fit into 140 characters. If the screen reader miss-pronounces something, it's generally a good indicator that it's spelled wrong. For instance, I put two (f)'s in proliferate. Haden On 4/10/2013 4:33 AM, Tony Baechler wrote: > Actually, you bring up an interesting point. I don't have the problem > with typing the dollar and number signs like you described, but I've > seen a problem with some devices not reverse translating Braille as > they should. A particular instance of this comes to mind. Back in > school, I had a test with true or false questions. I answered either > "t" or "f" as one would expect. For some reason, when it was printed > out, it got turned into "that" and "from." The teacher didn't know > why, but of course I recognized the problem. That's why there is > either grade I or computer Braille which is what I should've used, but > I didn't know it would do that. Similarly, a blind person was asking > me a question and the sentence ended with "en?" which was supposed to > be "enough." I'm not sure why the notetakers have difficulty in back > translation, but it seems to be common. NFBTrans didn't seem to have > that problem. > > Also like you, I'm not a regular Braille reader nowadays and I usually > don't have the screen reader read out punctuation. However, what I > think you aren't realizing is that since you know Braille, you don't > need to know where the punctuation is. In other words, I know that a > period goes at the end of a sentence which is a statement and a > question mark goes at the end of a question. I don't hear passages of > text as one continuous stream of words with a short pause separating > them sometimes, if that makes sense. If I never knew Braille, I > wouldn't know that. I can tell by how you write that you at least > learned some Braille and know enough to form a proper sentence. I've > seen several blind people who use no punctuation at all and sound > uneducated in their writing style. I'm not saying that everything > needs to be 100% perfect, especially nowadays with email and text > messages, but it's downright confusing when there is no separation > between sentences and thoughts. > > As a final note, I'm terrible at reading aloud and avoid it when > possible. While I do know Braille, I'm not the fastest or best Braille > reader by any means. I'm afraid I've got out of practice because I > rely so much more on speech and DAISY books nowadays. > > On 4/9/2013 1:34 PM, Hart Larry wrote: >> Well, I know in advance my comments are an alternative. First, when this >> thread began, I figured it was off-topic and Kirk would probably put >> an end >> to it. On another hand, as American English spelling is not a consistant >> science, it would seem unlikely to just memerize thousands of spellings. >> Sure when I was younger, Braille was nearly an only way to read, but >> in the >> late50s I was quite interested in Baseball and the Space Program, but >> mostly >> it were text books which were available. I was never a good or >> comfortable >> Braille reader. About a only time I read outloud is at our anual Pass >> Over >> Seder. >> I know there are both sighted-and-blind folks who are phonatical about >> spelling-and-punctuation. I look at especially spelling-and-moreover >> typing >> as a way to convey ideas-and-concepts. I know it drives some crazy if >> I use >> a number in the middle of a word. >> Growing up with Braille also teaches bad habbits in typing. For example, >> when I would type an amount of money, I would type symbols of "dollar >> sign""number sign" followed by an amount. >> As an unconventional, I really like having dashes separating some >> words, I >> guess because I don't really like dead-air and so a dash would >> symbolicly >> keep sound alive. >> In conclusion, since many of us are not always writing executive >> business >> letters, we're symply conveying opinions-and-information. Sure getting a >> wrong letter in an url, well, thats important. As a strictly speech >> listener, I try when I can to hear as little punctuation as I can. I >> think >> when I've tried spelling checkers in Pine, they were harder to navigate. >> Thanks for listening. >> Hart > _______________________________________________ > Speakup mailing list > Speakup at linux-speakup.org > http://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup
