[Blindmath] Inequalities in the Nemeth

[Susan Jolly]

Amanda asked about the less than or equals to sign and similar ones.

This explanation is based on the official Nemeth rule book.

In print there are many symbols that appear to be several symbols arranged 
in what Dr. Nemeth called compounded vertically. (In print these are 
actually treated as a single unique symbol just as they are in braille.) 
That is they resemble two (or sometimes more) separate symbols one on top of 
the other or one underneath the other.  The Nemeth manual states the 
following.  "A vertical arrangement of simple comparison signs" is 
represented "as an unspaced horizontal succession of the corresponding 
simple comparison symbols."  The first one in braille is the upper or top 
one in print and so on down. Sometimes in print the equals sign is above the 
less than or greater than sign and sometimes it is below so if the 
transcription is closely following print the braille equals sign can appear 
either to the left or right of the breaille less than or greater than sign. 
Print more commonly uses a horizontal bar rather than an actual equals sign 
to represent the equals sign in these symbols.  In these cases Nemeth uses 
its horizontal bar indicator which is the dots 1,5,6 cell.

So once again the Nemeth math symbols have been carefully designed according 
to a plan intended to make them easier to remember and also to enhance 
communication between print readers and braille readers.

SusanJ