[BlindMath] Questions about Nemeth and UEB

[Kendra Schaber]

Hi all!
I just finished my last math class that I need in order to graduate my
local community college and I'm very happy about that! I have always used
Nemeth Code during every single math class I have ever taken throughout
college. I also took 2 years of Spanish and when I learned braille, I
learned it on the older system of braille that used to be used everywhere
in the United States and is still preferred by many Americans today. It's
called English Braille American Edition which used to be used alongside
Nemeth. I later chose to learn UEB in preparation for college. Because of
all this, I can read and write English Braille American Edition(EBAE), or
just US Braille, and UEB fluently. I can read and write Nemeth fluently
through Algebra, though I'm not very good with the actual math itself. I
can read Spanish braille more fluently than I can write it, and I can also
work my way around UEB Math with relative ease. I can also read contracted
and uncontracted braille fluently. Since there are a lot of matereals
already transcribed in Nemeth Code, I would start there, though I'm not
against anyone who chooses to give UEB math a try. I also disagree that
Nemeth is on its death bed. Nemeth is not on its death bed because if it
were, there would be a lot fewer people who would know it or use it than
there currently are, especially here in the US. From my experiences with
languages, math, Braille and  any forms they appear are all codes, not
languages because they can co-exist with any language, work with, or more
like, be molded to fit, other languages seamlessly. Braille is made up of
6 or 8 dots and has been molded to fit many languages and alfebets. Math
has its own system of rules but they are universal across all languages
and the only bit that needs to be molded to fit each language is where
ever it is written in a language such as English or Spanish is located
within the usage of the math code. Never-the-less, any of them can be
learned by anyone who is capable of learning codes and/or math. Also, if
you are doing it for college, you'll need to have an idea of what system
your school will support or which one it has access to in braille. If you
are in the K through 12 educational system, you'll need to figure out what
code your state prefers and which one everyone on your IEP team will also
support because that could dictate which one you'll be allowed to use. If
you are doing it as a hobby, you can experiment all you want with any
resource you want as well. I found a good tutorial for Nemeth online and I
have also found another similar one for UEB Math. Go ahead and google both
Nemeth Code, and Unified English Braille and have fun exploring! I
wouldn't recommend you to just type in Nemeth in a search without also
using the word "Code" because that will include people who have Nemeth as
their last name instead of the braille code. I hope this helps!
Kendra

-----Original Message-----
From: BlindMath <blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of dana mohsen
via BlindMath
Sent: Wednesday, April 5, 2023 5:17 PM
To: blindmath at nfbnet.org
Cc: dana mohsen <dana.mohsen.azim at gmail.com>
Subject: [BlindMath] Questions about Nemeth and UEB

Hello everyone, I hope everyone is doing well.
I had a question about Braille math.
I work with math audibly, using a screen reader, but I have been
interested in learning braille math recently. I can read both contracted,
and I'm contracted braille.. my question is: should I learn Nemeth or UEB
math? I definitely love to learn both, but I'd like to learn one of them
fully before doing the other. Which one is the better one? Which one is
more efficient, and which one is more common in the United States.?
Thank you.
Best regards,
Dana Ibrahim
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