[blindkid] braille qwerty usb keyboard needed
Richard Holloway
rholloway at gopbc.org
Fri Aug 20 02:02:45 UTC 2010
Sounds to me like you are doing just what you hope. (I'd leave the
braille where it is.) I can't imagine there is a downside to your
efforts at all. I also think there's a reason why key caps are printed
for sighted folks and while it may indeed be that experienced blind
typists can type far faster without the distraction of braille key
caps (just as sighted typists generally become faster when they no
longer look at the keys), I think there is a place for the markings
too, especially with learning children.
Again, coming from a sighted perspective at least, I sometimes find it
inconvenient to have to put both hands on the keyboard to enter a few
characters and I tend to look down and enter a quick word or number
and hit it with only a couple of fingers on one hand, especially if
the other hand is unavailable. (For example, I'm pushing a 4-year-old
away from my computer even as I type this.) Does this need never arise
for blind typists or do they somehow master the entire keyboard's
layout for use with either hand with no tactile cues beyond home row
markings? I'm not saying that's not possible, but that's a pretty big
reach to memorize tactually and especially to be able to swap from
hand to hand.
I would also suggest that factory made braille key caps would be far
less distracting than oozing, crooked adhesive labels or pre-picked
dymo tape markings as well. I'm not bashing anyone's braille labeled
keyboards, but over time, even the best efforts are going to have
problems on keys that get pressed on by warm fingers thousands of
times, over and again....
That's part of why I wanted to find the keyboard I mentioned to begin
with. In fact it strikes me that even a (tactile) braille reader might
quickly learn to ignore the braille caps once they were TOUCH typing
because at that point, they'd be tapping on top of the braille, not
scanning across the keyboard with their finger tips. It seems like
only when you stopped to hunt-- like maybe if you were out of position
and ran your fingers across the keys or were typing a few strokes with
your hand(s) just getting settled on the keys) would the braille
suddenly jump back into play.
That's pure speculation on my part, but I'd love to see a test by fast
typists who are also tactile braille readers to find out. I hardly
read braille and what I read, I read visually. I do know that once
typing, I am entirely unaware of home row markings unless I pause my
typing and scan for them and if I place my (admittedly untrained)
fingertips directly on top of braille, I certainly feel far less
difference from character to character than if I'm scanning across the
same letters conventionally.
Some tactile braille readers may want to jump in and offer opinions on
this topic. That's fine with me, but I suspect they'll be telling us
what they think it would be like or what it is like on a keyboard with
stickers stuck on it as there seem to be very few pre-formed braille
key caps out there in the marketplace for anyone to have tried out.
In any case, for my situation, I expect (based on her speed with a
perkins-style keyboard) that my daughter will end up being a very fast
qwerty typist as well. She just needs a jump-start. If braille key
caps will help her gain confidence and a desire to use a qwerty
keyboard, I can't see the harm in trying them. It's not like there is
a major effort in switching back to a standard keyboard at a later
time for whatever reason. If Kendra gets through with such a keyboard,
I could put it on a machine for myself and it would be there to
reinforce my own inept efforts so simply learn plain old grade 1
braille...
> This is an interesting discussion. We have labeled every keyboard
> (letters only) Jack uses at home and school with braille labeling
> tape. He's 5 and just learning to recognize that those dots mean
> something. In the back of my mind I was hoping that I was not only
> helping him learn braille but also placement of keys on a qwerty
> keyboard.
>
> Marie (mother of Jack born May 2005)
> See glimpses of life with my determined son who is developing in his
> own way at his own time at http://allaccesspasstojack.blogspot.com
> Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
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