[blindkid] On the Future of Braille: Thoughts by RadicalBraille Advocates (Bookshare)

[Ewell, Jessica V]

It is true that electronic Braille works perfectly well for text; however, for subjects such as math and music theory, there is currently no technology that I am aware of that allows the reader to access diagrams and other graphical material. We still need to look at the whole page to get this information. The opticon is the only technology I've seen that comes close, and one still has to construct the whole figure a little bit at a time. I look forward to the day when, as Richard says, there will be a Braille display of a whole page that can also show raised-line drawings of any digital image or PDF file. 

Dr. Jessica Ewell, Project Coordinator 
Department of Education 
Jernigan Institute 
National Federation of the Blind 
Tel: (410) 659-9314 ext. 2529 
E-mail: jvewell at nfb.org 
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-----Original Message-----
From: blindkid [mailto:blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Robert Jaquiss
Sent: Tuesday, July 16, 2013 3:02 PM
To: Stein, Deborah; 'Blind Kid Mailing List, (for parents of blind children)'
Subject: Re: [blindkid] On the Future of Braille: Thoughts by RadicalBraille Advocates (Bookshare)

Hello:

     I certainly like the idea of NLS providing braille displays to readers.
It actually makes sense. If readers have braille displays, there is no need to make paper braille books or magazines. A big issue facing braille producers is that the very old presses used to emboss from plates are wearing out. The presses are actually modified versions of commercial printing presses used years ago. This type of press is no longer in use.
Replacement parts have to be custom made and the cost of paper and plates makes producing a book expensive. Electronic files don't take shelf space, don't need to be inventoried, don't get lost in the mail or dammaged.

Regards,

Robert
 


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