[Blindmath] producing Nemeth math as a blind person

Tue Nov 18 20:03:57 UTC 2008

Please excuse me if this has already been covered.
6 Key entry refers to the six keys on the Perkins Brailler 
 See
http://support.perkins.org/site/PageServer?pagename=store_perkinsbrailler_hi
story&JServSessionIdr001=252bskuan3.app43a 

DBT Win, a braille translation software, and PerkyDuck, a free six key
computer program, both support six-key input.  

This uses regular keyboards that have "full key rollover."  Or in plain
English when you press up to six keys at the same time the keyboard sends
the signal for all of those six keys.  Normally the home row keys on a
QWERTY key board represent the six keys.  So F would be dot 1, D would be
dot 2, S would be dot 3, J would be dot 4, K would be dot 5, and L would be
dot 6.  An easy test is just to press all six keys in a word processor such
as MS WORD, if all six letters show up you are fine.

There are also several very nice simple USB six-key keyboards which were
designed for direct braille input.

The two most popular I am aware of are:
The Galatee http://www.techno-vision.co.uk/galatee.htm 
and the Power Chord Braille Keyboard  http://www.exceptionalteaching.com/ 

I hope this helps.

Sincerely,
Neal 
Email: Neal at duxsys.com

-----Original Message-----
From: blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Debbie Willis
Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2008 3:34 PM
To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] producing Nemeth math as a blind person

A braille cell is made up of six dots; these six dots are arranged in two
columns with three dots in each column.  The upper left dot is dot 1; left
middle is dot 2; left bottom is dot 3; upper right is dot 4; right middle is
dot 5; right bottom is dot 6.  These six dots correspond to a variety of
manual and electronic note takers and braille writers.  The keys on the note
takers and braille writers are generally arranged in two horizontal sets;
we'll call set 1 on the left, and set 2 on the right.  Starting with the
rightmost key in set 1, this key corresponds to dot 1.  The middle key in
set 1 on the left side corresponds to dot 2; and the leftmost key in set 1
corresponds to dot 3.  Starting with the leftmost key in set 2, this key
corresponds to dot 4.  The middle key in set 2 on the right corresponds to
dot 5; and the rightmost key in set 2 corresponds to dot 6.  By pressing one
or more of the six keys simultaneously, a person is able to produce readable
braille or to take notes in braille.  There are also some QWERTY keyboards
that have been programmed to accept 6-key entry, i.e. select letters or
numbers have been mapped in such a way to correspond with braille dots 1
through 6.
Debbie

-----Original Message-----
From: blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Rich Caloggero
Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2008 2:03 PM
To: navydarlene at yahoo.com; Blind Math list for those interested in
mathematics
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] producing Nemeth math as a blind person

I believe 6-key refers to the 6-key type keyboard found on Perkins Braillers
and many portable electronic notetakers. Instead of each key entering one
letter / number / symbol, you actually punch several keys to enter a given
symbol. The keys you press are the ones which form that symbol in braille,
so if the symbol is the  letter "d", you'd press keys 1, 4, and 5 on the
6-key keypad.

Hope that helps.
-- Rich

----- Original Message -----
From: "Darlene Dorr" <navydarlene at yahoo.com>
To: "Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics"
<blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2008 11:48 AM
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] producing Nemeth math as a blind person

Can someone please explain what 6 key entry is? My son uses duxbury, not for
math as of yet because he still uses a perkins brallewriter but am unclear
what 6 key is.

Thanks

Darlene

--- On Tue, 11/18/08, nlibre at gmail.com <nlibre at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: nlibre at gmail.com <nlibre at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Blindmath] producing Nemeth math as a blind person
> To: "'Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics'"
> <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
> Date: Tuesday, November 18, 2008, 9:23 AM
> I use 6-key entry with Duxbury for Nemeth and LaTeX and it
> works very
> nicely.  I also use Perky Duck a lot when I'm not on a
> computer with a full
> version of Duxbury.  That also works just fine.  In
> addition to the
> software, you have to make sure that the keyboard you are
> using supports
> 6-key entry.  There are keyboards that will not support it.
>  For example,
> two weeks ago, I was working with a university student on a
> project for his
> transcription class and he did not have access to a Perkins
> Braille writer
> on campus but assumed that he could use Duxbury because it
> was installed on
> the DSP lab computer with JAWS.  When he started having
> trouble entering the
> symbol for "t", I checked and realized that it
> was the keyboard.  Since it
> was a Sunday, of course there was no one with
> administrative rights to the
> computer to try and adjust settings or install Perky Duck
> to check if it
> might work with the keyboard.  Even the keyboards were
> locked to each
> computer so we could not swap keyboards and try to trouble
> shoot it that
> way.  Fortunately, I had my laptop with me and we just used
> Perky Duck on it
> and transferred the files for embossing.
>
> Nicolás
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org
> [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Lori
> Sent: Monday, November 17, 2008 11:29 AM
> To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
> Subject: [Blindmath] producing Nemeth math as a blind
> person
>
> Hello all:
>
> I used Nemeth math all through school so I'm familiar
> with hand brailling
> it, however, I'm wondering if there are electronic
> methods that a blind
> person can use. Is something like scientific Notebook
> accessible for someone
>
> who is totally blind? What equipment and technology is out
> there that is
> accessible to blind people. Also, if you are handed a print
> worksheet is
> there a program to use to scan and put into braille that is
> accessible to
> the blind?
>
> Thanks,
> Lori
>
>
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