[NABS-L] College language classes, and Hindi braille

Wed May 18 04:01:57 UTC 2022

Hi all!
 I'm taking Spanish online, and have done it for almost two college school
years. Spanish uses almost the same alphabet that English uses, so it wasn't
very tricky for me to learn Spanish braille.
 I would look out for these problems:
 images because those usually aren't accessible. When I was starting out, I
had to use English translation alongside the Spanish translations to learn
the specific vocabulary that I was required to learn in Spanish. If there
was a need to us images, I had either my teacher or the disabilities
department at my school to write them. When you start out, they'll be in
English, but will move into your target language when you're more advanced
in it, though it depends on how long you're studying it for.
Not enough critical feedback on the online materials.
This one is the hardest one to get around apart from pure issues with
accessibility regarding online materials. I have had problems with mastering
verbforms in Spanish since day one and I'm still having these problems.
Since feedback is the driving force behind problems with grammar in your
target language, which is the one that's being learned, the best ways to fix
this problem are to work with tutors, apps that give one automatic feedback,
and if possible, settings on the course website. Unfortunately, with the
online course materials, there is almost no control over its settings.
Usually, the only ones with that power are the web developers on the side of
the company who puts together the website that's being used. There are apps
out there, which I would advice one to use, however, they vary in
accessibility and availability, especially when it comes to the language
that's being studied. If you do use apps, it's a must that you experiment
with many apps and ask around if you're not finding what you're looking for.
I have experimented with apps for around a year and found a number of them
that I like, but there are many more that I tried which I didn't like.
However, you'll need different apps for different skills in your target
language. I have had many rounds of app experimentation over the last year
or year and a half, and even to this day, I sometimes look for more of them,
depending on the particular skill I'm trying to improve. My latest one is
verb form which is much harder to improve the more advanced you get. This is
true for all kinds of grammar skills, so I advise that they get learned as
quickly and as early as possible. Tutors are hard to come by, especially
depending on the language, but that, or the apps could be your best bet at
solving the quick feedback problem. If one doesn't get quick enough feedback
on their particular tough area in the target language, then it's almost
impossible to avoid that specific area to avoid stopping before it's
properly learned. There is somewhat of a catch 22, especially for blind
learners here.
The website is inaccessible:
The only way to solve this problem is to work with your school's
accessibility department, but keep in mind that they also have to work with
the developers so fixing these problems are very slow at best. At worst,
they won't ever get solved in time. I hope the best happens in this case!
Beware that if you went to AIRA for help, they'll be limited in their
ability, especially with more advanced homework that's inaccessible because
they have most of their resources in English and behind it is Spanish, now
days. They have a few bilinguals that don't stick to English and Spanish,
but it's usually English and some other seemingly random language, but it
might not be Hindi, but Portuguese, Arabic, Japanese, or Spanish instead. I
have had a few problems with hunting down a Spanish speaker when I have run
into inaccessible online assignments; with two of them included hunts that
would last 4 hours. I didn't have any luck on my last round of these
experiences. I did finally get my school's disability department on board by
explaining the problem and all the reasons why it's problematic in getting
to the bottom of it which finally wound up breaking the ice and it lead to a
nice breakthrough. If this happens, go into your disabilities department in
person and show them the problem where possible.
There are not enough helpful resources:
Unfortunately, there isn't much that can be done here other than to stick
with the ones that are both available and accessible, even if they are not
as helpful as preferred.
There isn't a braille course for this language:
The only way around this one is to teach that braille code to yourself, or
to find someone who has used it in the past. If you're lucky, you'll be able
to find someone who already uses it, but Hindi is less popular than Spanish,
so it will be a harder hunt for this case. I was able to teach myself
Spanish braille with just my iPhone and my Polaris Braille Sense.
Helpful tips:
Explore screen reader options in your target language. They exist, but for
some languages, they're limited. I think most languages other than English,
the options are somewhat limited. For an iPhone, one can use the Hindi Voice
Over if it's available. Just make sure you quickly learn the vocabulary
needed to operate the phone in that language. From my experience, even when
I have turned my phone into Spanish, it doesn't mess with the stuff that's
written in English, but it does mess with the features to operate it such as
the controls, the names of some of the apps, the menus and features like the
clock. I have even had it send me documents in Spanish from apps like Google
with notifications and Voice Dream with app update information. Go ahead and
add the keyboard and braille table for Hindi because it will be very useful
for learning Hindi braille with, let alone, read items, texts or titles in
Hindi braille. For PC computers, I think your options are more limited
because JAWS doesn't have the same built in language features it did when
one could download it on to a computer with a CD. I don't know how NVDA
handles Hindi or if it's offered, but you could look it up. For all screen
readers, beware that the voice might not be the one you want and there isn't
always the same kinds of options that us lucky native English speakers get.
I do recommend the use of braille in your target language, whether or not
you use a screen reader because you'll get to see how it's written and be
able to read it. If you read your target language with your screen reader,
beware that if it's in English, it won't pronounce the text correctly in
your target language. I have had all of my screen readers miss pronounce
words in Spanish on many occasions. On the other hand, I have had similar
experiences with Spanish screen readers mispronouncing English words, though
with Voice Over, and NVDA, it does a better job with English than JAWS in
Spanish does, though it's still comparable considering that I have heard
most monolingual English speaking humans get outperformed by screen readers
in the good pronunciation department until they learn how to pronounce words
in the target language. In my case it was with Spanish, though it can also
happen with any other language too.
 Language learning comes with its own side effects, so if you discover that
you can't properly speak for moments at a time, or that your writing seems
to be getting stranger than normal, or that you feel like you can't speak
properly in any language for hours at a time, don't worry, these side
effects not only changes as time goes by, but they will come and go in
waves. You'll have a major culture shock in your first year, but it will
ease up before your second year. In my case, I had it in the first 6 months
of learning Spanish. When you reach year two, the learning process itself
gets easier overall, but if you have not managed to learn a specific skill
that's needed, that will stay hard to learn all throughout the process. If
you never manage to master it, that particular skill will eventually turn to
stone and won't be fixable without finding creative new ways to build actual
connections in the brain. This includes finding new connections in learning
spelling through yet a third language for example. I improved my English
spelling through learning Spanish, even though it eventually stopped in the
middle of the learning process when I originally learned how to spell in
English. I'm having the same problem with Spanish verbs and I'm still trying
to figure out how to grow these connections to get around it. I've tried
many apps, and even had folks correct me, but there isn't enough feedback
where it counts the most. I'm also not getting enough of it in my own online
materials. I'm having to use translation to get around this problem in
correcting homework that my teacher suggested me to correct. Consequently,
I'm not sure if I'll be able to avoid the problem of them halting in the
middle of learning. There is a name for this problem, it's called language
fossilization which only has one way to fix once it starts. That fix is to
create new connections including learning a new thing in linguistics.
Without this kind of extreme measure, it's impossible to get rid of once it
takes root. The best way to keep the problem at bay is to learn your hardest
skill as fast as possible. But make sure to learn it well and do it through
constant feedback because without this feedback, it's impossible to avoid
language fossilization because the real root of the problem is the actual
wiring in your brain. Language learning is one way of actually programing
your brain; consequently, you'll have these linguistical problems, but
you'll also have these side effects, and even benefits with language
learning alongside all of them. It's an adventure, but one that's worth
while.
Kendra
-----Original Message-----
From: NABS-L <nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Carly Mihalakis via
NABS-L
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2022 7:02 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Carly Mihalakis <carlymih at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [NABS-L] College language classes, and Hindi braille

Upon studying Japanese braille code while in high school I researchedon my
own  how nihongo tenji (Japannese braille) is expressed. So once you can
comfortably maneuver while writing in the language, everything ought to be
much simpler!
CarAt 01:29 PM 4/25/2022, you wrote:
>Hi everyone, I am taking Hindi next semester, and very much looking
>forward to it. But Iâ€™m terrified it will be inaccessible, especially
>since Iâ€™ll have to learn Hindi braille on my own. Does anyone have
>suggestions, or experience, with language classes? My disability office
>is suggesting having the textbook translated in to braille, and then
>having a person to translate all my work back and forth between me and
>the teacher. Are there faster alternatives? Will the class being online
>make it too difficult?? Any help would be really greatly appreciated.
>Thanks, Shawn _______________________________________________
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