[blindkid] braille qwerty usb keyboard needed

[Sally Thomas]

I don't really think it will matter in the long run but it may take a little 
longer for her to become a confident typist.  Probably like the difference 
between true touch typists and those of us who do a combination of looking 
and touch typing.

My son finds typing on his iPhone a piece of cake because he knows where the 
letters are.  He just loves all technology so he was motivated to learn the 
keyboard.  There are lots of other areas where he's not motivated so we'll 
take what we can get!

Sally Thomas
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard Holloway" <rholloway at gopbc.org>
To: <empwrn at bellsouth.net>; "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of 
blind children)" <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, August 19, 2010 9:02 PM
Subject: Re: [blindkid] braille qwerty usb keyboard needed


> 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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