[blindkid] compose and edit without electronics

Steve Jacobson steve.jacobson at visi.com
Mon Mar 22 20:44:55 UTC 2010


Joy,

One probably has to think out of the box a little on this as most correction systems are fairly visual in nature, underling, using post-its, and such.  What I usually did, 
many, many years ago, was to write my initial draft in braille.  Next, I would read my draft onto a cassette tape at that time making revisions as I read so my recorded 
copy contained the next draft.  The recorded copy could then be copy with the aid of a foot peddle into print using a typewriter.  In theory, though, I could have 
copied my revised work back into braill and performed several itterations of this process.  The advantage of reading into a recording is that it allowed me to type 
while keeping my hands on the keys.  Copying directly from braille is a pain because of constantly moving one's hands between braille and keyboard.  Since I found 
recording to be helpful in the eventual copying process, I took advantage of the recording step to make additional revisions.

One could do this now with a small digital recorder.  If one uses the recording capabilities of a VR Stream or a BookSense, one can play back the recording at a 
slower rate which can allow one to type without the use of a start/stop foot peddle.

The process of making corrections will probably change once the full editing capability of the PacMate is mastered.  It probably doesn't make sense to make this too 
complicated since it is a short term solution.  Still, Marking a braille line to indicate that a correction is needed with a stylus can work but any way of tactile marking 
will do the job including tearing out a little piece on the margin since this isn't a final copy.  If there are a lot of corrections and they are complicated, marking the line 
and then writing notes about corrections on a separate sheet of paper indicating page and line numbers would work.  As one gains experience with writing, though, 
one can learn to combine steps.

I hope that something here is of help.

Best regards,

Steve Jacdobson


On Mon, 22 Mar 2010 09:40:49 -0500, Joy Orton wrote:

>Hi friends,
>I would like to hear how some of you or your children compose and edit
>essays, stories, letters, and so on, without high-tech gadgets. I am old
>enough to remember typing, cutting and pasting (literally), and re-typing my
>papers. Has anyone out there done this in braille?
>Related question: How do you mark corrections on the draft to change in the
>final copy? We are trying to produce an outline and speech for a school
>project, and an essay for a contest. Ahbee has written great first drafts of
>them. Now how do we mark our corrections, change around sentences, add
>ideas, etc.?
>We have not learned to do this on the PacMate, and it is at school. So I
>really want a low-tech method. I'm sure there was a way to edit with a slate
>and stylus--at least we have a Perkins braillewriter. (smile)

>Joy Orton
>_______________________________________________
>blindkid mailing list
>blindkid at nfbnet.org
>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindkid_nfbnet.org
>To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for blindkid:
>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindkid_nfbnet.org/steve.jacobson%40visi.com








More information about the BlindKid mailing list