[Blindmath] what math braille code is easier and most used?

[Birkir R. Gunnarsson]

Hi

Here is a good web page with a quick overview of the math braille
codes of the world
http://chezdom.net/blog/?page_id=51
I think the blind community has, over-all, failed to make math the
universal notation system it could be. There are too many competing
system with very small following each, and there seems to be little
willingness to make anything resembling a universal math braille code,
which makes reproduction of math in braille a costly and inefficient
process (there's often very little information exchange in braille
between countries). When you couple this with other difficulties and
the cost of production, it's no wonder we don't have more blind people
in the sciences (end of rant). ;)
All that being said, Nemeth will be the code recommended on this list,
since it is primarily American (not entirely at all, but I'd say
majority ofusers). It's got advantages such as being supported by
Duxbury and ViewPlus embossing, so you can turn scanned computer
braille (in LaTeX source code or MathML) into embossed Nemeth braille
fairly accurately.
I believe Duxbury also supports the French braille code and UEB math.
The Danish have decided to go their own way, use 8-dot embossed
braille and teach everyone LaTeX source code, and that is their
current math braille. It's wordy, it can get cumbersomely long, it is
not an ultimate standard .. but it's also something you can use to
consistently read and write math, you can emboss it with any software,
write it in any text editor and then you can compile it to make nice
looking print versions of your math work for your sighted colleagues.
It's not the worst approach one can take.
I don't think the Marburg code is supported in the major brailling
software, although I am curious what other brailling software supports
what math codes.
So, sadly, there's no easy and automatically recommended solution, but
I hope at least this info can give you an idea of what's out there to
start with.
-B

On 7/27/11, Iqbal Hosen <iqbalrtbd at gmail.com> wrote:
> dear all,
> my best wishes and regards to all. this is my first message to this group.
> i am a resource teacher, work in an integrated education program for the
> visually impaired. we have to face various difficulties.  especially in the
> field of mathematics. visually impaired people of our country are so
> backward in mathematics that they like to discard this subject. as a
> resource teacher i am very afraid. i hope to share our problem with the
> group and get some suggestion.
> now, if anyone could please suggest me what braille math code we should
> follow.
> regards.
> iqbal.
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