[Blindmath] FYI: BBC website article on Braille (and DavidBlunketton Braille)

[Amanda Lacy]

I can't even imagine what my thought life would be like had I not been given 
the ability to picture something as written in Braille. Why is it even 
necessary to explain Braille's benefits? They are as obvious as those of 
print to a sighted person.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Whapples" <mwhapples at aim.com>
To: "Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics" 
<blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2012 11:21 AM
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] FYI: BBC website article on Braille (and 
DavidBlunketton Braille)


>I think the comment by Blunkett about just having the information in front 
>of you is probably one of the greatest strengths of Braille. With maths, if 
>you find yourself either scanning through equations to get the general 
>form, jumping to particular elements, refering back up the page to previous 
>steps in working, basically anything where you are not reading it in full 
>detail in sequence then Braille provides that type of access. Imagine some 
>of those non-sequential things you do when using written mathematical 
>information and trying to instruct a machine or a person to give just the 
>information you need.
>
> Viewing it from a technical subject angle, the lack of teaching of 
> Braille, not sure fully what the reasons might be, some might be because 
> more VI people are older people loosing sight and so being less 
> willing/able to learn new things but some I think might be 
> financial/funding as Braille teaching is certainly a specialist skill.
>
> An interesting thing I will just toss in, is Braille hard to learn, 
> possibly not. I remember back in 2010 at the international conference on 
> computers helping people with special needs (ICCHP) there was a talk on a 
> GPS system being developed by a hungarian group which used Braille for 
> input (admittedly only what is needed for GPS input so letters and 
> numbers, not sure about punctuation) and I asked them why they chose 
> Braille when it seems to be taught less and less now. Their reply was that 
> they found Braille the quickest and most convenient method of getting 
> accurate input and that they had found people who previously knew no 
> Braille could pick up enough in two or three days to be able to use the 
> device (I think older people were included). I think the open university 
> library system has access to the ICCHP papers from 2010 if you want to 
> look it up. Admittedly what is needed for a GPS input and learning to feel 
> for the dots when reading, contracted Braille and the maths code may take 
> longer, but my basic point is that understanding the basics can be picked 
> up pretty quickly and may be some just percieve Braille as being difficult 
> to learn. In my view its certainly well worth the effort particularly if 
> you want to study anything technical.
>
> Michael Whapples
>
> -----Original Message----- 
> From: J.Fine
> Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2012 11:21 AM
> To: 'Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics'
> Subject: [Blindmath] FYI: BBC website article on Braille (and David 
> Blunketton Braille)
>
> Hi
>
> There's an article "Braille is spreading but who's using it?" on the BBC 
> News website.
>  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16984742
>
> Linked from it is a 2009 article "Why Braille is brilliant" written by 
> David Blunkett (former British home secretary, and blind since birth) to 
> mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Loius Braille.
>
> Blunkett wrote that Braille was valuable to him because "when chairing a 
> meeting it is vital that I have an agenda on my own that I can refer to 
> without reference to someone else."  This gives me, as a sighted person, 
> some insight into the difficulties blind people have when doing 
> mathematics and how they can be overcome.
>
> --
> Jonathan
>
> -- 
> The Open University is incorporated by Royal Charter (RC 000391), an 
> exempt charity in England & Wales and a charity registered in Scotland (SC 
> 038302).
>
>
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