[Trainer-Talk] Translating brail to text

Wed Sep 15 16:56:12 UTC 2021

Hello,

If I may throw another thought into this thread, using a program to
translate either one way or the other may be considered cheating in a
braille class.  When I took braille, we got assignments in text that needed
to be transcribed into braille (either hard copy or using Perky Duck).  We
also had braille files that needed to be translated into text.  By using a
translation program, it does the work for you but you learn less.  If your
student is not well versed in braille, I would certainly discourage her from
using a program for this.  

Jan

-----Original Message-----
From: Trainer-Talk <trainer-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Zhi Huang
via Trainer-Talk
Sent: Monday, September 13, 2021 7:41 PM
To: 'List for teachers and trainers of adaptive technology'
<trainer-talk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Zhi Huang <zhi.huang72 at gmail.com>; tress2005 at gmail.com
Subject: Re: [Trainer-Talk] Translating brail to text

Hi all:

Check out the following:

Tek Talk welcomes Adi Kushnir and Ron Miller to discuss new developments in
the ElBraille world 06/28/2021
<https://accessibleworld.org/podcast/tek-talk-welcomes-adi-kushnir-and-ron-m
iller-to-discuss-new-developments-in-the-elbraille-world-06-28-2021/> -
Accessible World

This mentions  ElEdit, a new, feature rich, easy to use braille editor for
composing, editing, and reading braille files.

This lets you open a .brf and have JAWS actually read it.  In addition,
control+t will translate from Braille to text and vice versa.  It will 
control+be
free for ElBraille users, but since it will be a Windows app, it was
mentioned that it will be available for sale for nonElBraille users.  The
approx. price is $200.  It does not do as much as Duxbury, but at that price
point, it may be worth it.

-----Original Message-----
From: Trainer-Talk <trainer-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org
<mailto:trainer-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> > On Behalf Of Don Barrett via
Trainer-Talk
Sent: Monday, September 13, 2021 5:12 PM
To: 'List for teachers and trainers of adaptive technology'
<trainer-talk at nfbnet.org <mailto:trainer-talk at nfbnet.org> >
Cc: Don Barrett <donbarrett1234 at gmail.com <mailto:donbarrett1234 at gmail.com>
>; tress2005 at gmail.com <mailto:tress2005 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Trainer-Talk] Translating brail to text

David is sure right about Duxbury being the gold standard, and they know it
and charge accordingly.

One other software package that might help is a free program from the
American Printing House for the Blind, which allows one to change a .brl
file into a .txt file.

When you set it up, it puts an option in the context menu for sending the
highlighted file to braille.

When you open the menu you can go from text to braille, or back from
braille.

Go to

http://tech.aph.org/lt/

to read about it and download it if desired.

-----Original Message-----

From: Trainer-Talk <trainer-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org
<mailto:trainer-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> > On Behalf Of David Goldfield via
Trainer-Talk

Sent: Monday, September 13, 2021 7:31 PM

To: List for teachers and trainers of adaptive technology
<trainer-talk at nfbnet.org <mailto:trainer-talk at nfbnet.org> >

Cc: David Goldfield <david.goldfield at outlook.com
<mailto:david.goldfield at outlook.com> >; tress2005 at gmail.com
<mailto:tress2005 at gmail.com> 

Subject: Re: [Trainer-Talk] Translating brail to text

Hello. First, as a long-time subscriber to this list as well as someone who
has been working in the assistive technology field for quite some time I'd
like to encourage you, tress2005, to join this list directly. This will give
you access to the other interesting conversations that happen on this list
as well as giving you a forum to ask other trainers and savvy tech users
your own questions. You can get subscription info
here<https://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/trainer-talk_nfbnet.org> along
with the group archives.

Duxbury<https://duxburysystems.com/> has always been the gold standard when
it comes to Braille translation. They've been in the Braille translation
business since the 1970s so they do know their business. The cost for their
software is $695.00.

Braille Blaster<https://www.brailleblaster.org/> is a free translation
program from the American Printing House for the Blind but I don't believe
it offers back translation from Braille to text.

A free program that I've occasionally and successfully used was WinBT.

However, it's now very difficult to locate online and has not been developed
in years and does not offer UEB support. I've never tested its back
translation with UEB files. It was a wonderful program. It was initially
called NFBTrans and I think it was originally a DOS application. Wintrans
was a Windows version of that program and WinBT was designed for more modern
operating systems. If you do a lot of Internet searching you may well find
it. I do wish that the NFB would keep an archive of the software available
even though it lacks support for UEB. I've stumbled across a few other
translators but they seem to either only go from print to Braille and in the
case of Braille2000, the page seems not to have been updated since 2012 and
so I wouldn't consider it. Sadly, since Raised Dot Computing is no longer
around we no longer have their wonderful translation packages such as Hot
Dots or Megadots. It's possible that some of today's Braille computers,
sadly referred to as notetakers, might be able to convert a Braille file
into text. As I don't use devices such as the BrailleNote or BrailleSense I
can't speak authoritatively about those products but I'm sure many others on
this list can fill in those gaps.

If you have a Victor Reader product you can at least listen to a contracted
Braille file and navigate it as though it was a standard text file but this
isn't quite the same as converting the file into text.

Hope this helps.

David Goldfield,

Blindness Assistive Technology Specialist

JAWS Certified, 2019

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-----Original Message-----

From: Trainer-Talk

<trainer-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org
<mailto:trainer-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org%3cmailto:trainer-talk-bounces at nfbnet
.org> <mailto:trainer-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org>> On Behalf Of JASON ALAMILLO
via Trainer-Talk

Sent: Monday, September 13, 2021 6:46 PM

To: trainer-talk at nfbnet.org
<mailto:trainer-talk at nfbnet.org%3cmailto:trainer-talk at nfbnet.org>
<mailto:trainer-talk at nfbnet.org>

Cc: JASON ALAMILLO

<leadershipjba at gmail.com
<mailto:leadershipjba at gmail.com%3cmailto:leadershipjba at gmail.com>
<mailto:leadershipjba at gmail.com>>;

tress2005 at gmail.com
<mailto:tress2005 at gmail.com%3cmailto:tress2005 at gmail.com>
<mailto:tress2005 at gmail.com>

Subject: [Trainer-Talk] Translating brail to text

Hello all. I have a friend copied on this email so she can see all of your
replies. She is now a new assistive technology instructor at one of our
centers here in Nevada and she will be working with a variety of clients.

Side note, she is also one of my clients, and we worked a lot together
especially in 2020. She is currently enrolled in a masters AT program in a
university, online of course, and she is in an intro to braille class. She
wanted to know if there is a software where she can translate braille to
regular text. So for example, BRF files to text, word, things like that. If
there is, which would you recommend? If there is a cost to any of them, how
much would it be and do they have any deals? And if there are any free
software products that translate braille to text, that would be helpful as
well. Thank you so much.

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