[Blindmath] User perspective for Nemeth Braille Code

[Susan Jolly]

I have some comments as a sighted person who taught myself the entire Nemeth
code which I think is wonderful.

First, remember that Dr. Nemeth was a mathematician.  I've attended two
workshops on Nemeth for sighted persons, one for TVIs and one for
transcribers.  It was my impression at both of these that the main reason
some persons were having trouble with Nemeth braille was a lack of comfort
with mathematics.  Remember that if you are going to teach the Nemeth code
you don't want to project any math anxiety to your students.

With the exception of simple arithmetic I wouldn't try to teach Nemeth until
students are comfortable reading contracted braille.  Braille is an example
of a markup language.  That is, there is often a prefix that gives meaning
to the following symbol.  For example, in English braille the dot six cell
prefix indicates that the next letter is a capital letter, not a small
letter.  It is my impression that most braille learners don't have any
trouble with this concept since the same capital indicator is used before
all the letters.  Another example is the use of the dot five cell prefix to
indicate that the next letter is one of the "dot 5" initial letter
contractions that has to be memorized.

The Nemeth code uses this same prefix strategy as contracted braille does.
So it seems to me that if students are comfortable reading multi-cell
symbols in contracted braille, they should be comfortable with Nemeth.  For
example, in Nemeth the dots four, six cell prefix before a small letter
indicates that it is a Greek letter.

Math entry systems for sighted people sometimes spell out the name of
symbols and sometimes use prefixes.  For example, it is common to enter the
Alt-G prefix to indicate to the computer that the next letter is intended as
a Greek letter.

The main difference between Nemeth and systems, such as LaTeX and MathML,
which are intended for entering math into computers, is that Nemeth was
designed to be as compact as possible since the same system is used for both
reading and writing. I usually find Nemeth braille easier to read than
LaTeX source when both are printed out using a standard print font.

Sincerely,
Susan Jolly