[Cabs-talk] Unified English Braille Code?

[Steve Jacobson]

There have already been a couple responses on this, so I would just add that in general, one  can read UEB without any instruction so it isn't completely 
different.  Some punctuation is different, but some of it makes sense to me.  For example, the "DD" sign is not used in UEB, which means that a normal 
period, Dots 2-5-6 can be used in the middle of words or in e-mail addresses and as a decimal point as it is in print.  This makes back-translation somewhat 
easier.  

The UEB math code is very different than Nemeth, and many people feel it takes far too many cells to emboss mathematical expressions.  Therefore, it 
was decided to keep Nemeth Code as our math code.  UEB has an indicator that will tell the reader when Nemeth is being used.  

Part of planning for the transition will include what to do about certification.  I would be surprised if one would have to start from scratch, though, but I 
should add that this is all still in the process of being figured out.

Best regards,

Steve Jacobson

On Sun, 10 Mar 2013 00:43:09 -0800, Aziza R wrote:

>Hi guys,
>I was talking to a friend of mine a few days ago from England, and
>somehow we got on the topic of tech vs. Braille... we finally agreed
>that both have thier merits and left it at that. However, it was
>mentioned that different countries have different Braille codes for
>the english language, and I asked for some examples as to how they
>differ. He told me that our punctuation is much different from the
>English braille code used in England, and that there is similarly a
>different code used for math.
>He also mentioned that the U.S. is attempting to adopt this, Unified
>English Braille code to use here. I'm curious what anyone knows about
>the possibility of that occurring, or about the progress of such a
>task if its already underway, as well as the potential problem this
>might pose for students or employees who rely on Braille heavily. How
>does this transition affect us, and what does it meen for students in
>school currently who may have codes switched on them, or even if your
>not in school. How do we go about learning this knew code.
>Not to mention the reproduction back ups I'm picturing this might
>cause. I'm taking the transcribers class offered by NFB and Library of
>Congress, but I'm fairly certain if this happens I'll have to not only
>learn to read this new code, but format it as well to keep the license
>I'm working to obtain.
>And... since I already despise math, the possibility of having it
>torment me in a code I don't know is absolutely horrifying.

>Thanks lots.
>Aziza

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