Braille Editing Procedures

Braille Editing Procedures

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Introduction to Braille
Braille is a reading and writing system of tactile dots for people with vision limitations. Braille was developed by, and named after, Louis Braille. Braille is not a, "Universal Language" as some people assume, although many languages do use the same alphabet. There are many standard systems of Braille for different languages and different purposes, such as encoding math or music.
The basic unit of Braille is the cell. Many cells have multiple meanings, depending on the language or notation being used and other aspects of the surrounding text.
The Basics of Braille
Standard Braille characters (or "cells"), are composed of up to six dots arranged in two columns of three dot positions each. The dot positions are customarily numbered as follows:
1 • • 4
2 • • 5
3 • • 6
There are 64 possible combinations of raised dots within this pattern (counting the space, where no dots are raised).
A Braille code is a system of assignments of meaning to the various combinations, together with rules for usage. For example, in English Braille, the dots 1-5 combination (that is, only dots 1 and 5 raised, in the same cell) normally means the letter "e," but in some circumstances it can also mean the digit "5" and in others it can be a contraction standing for the word "every." The rules of usage are such that the meaning in any instance is clear.
Some Braille systems employ eight dots in a cell, typically for special uses other than general literary material.
Nemeth Codes:
Nemeth code incorporates Braille indicators.  These are analogous to the composition signs of literary Braille in that they are used to expand on and multiply the number of meanings any particular Braille cells can have. Without them it is impossible to convey, through Braille, the complex expressions that are possible with print.

Editing Procedures:

1. Open Duxbury (Start>Programs>Duxbury>DBT win)

2. Open in Duxbury the .doc or the .txt file to be translated. Check the file to see if any of the text is missing or crappy. If it was a .txt file, save it as .doc and check again. If it was a .doc file, save it as .txt file and check again. Choose the file with the least errors.

3. Save the file with a .dxp extension.

4. Edit the .dxp file as much as possible. Correct errors in the text and also insert the required spacing.

5. To translate the .dxp file to Braille, go to file> translate. Duxbury translates the file into Braille.

6. Save the Braille file with a .dxb extension.

7. When the cursor is held at the start of each line in the .dxb file, a text translation of the line is provided in a yellow highlighted region at the bottom of the window. A thorough line by line inspection of the .dxb file for errors should be done using the text translation as guidance. 

8. Care should be taken to find words or special characters such as -, :, ;  etc. that have not been translated properly. Make corrections by inserting them from the keyboard or creating the word in a new .dxp document, translating it and pasting it on to the Braille document where the change needs to be made.

9. Spacing between lines and paragraphs should be given appropriately. A two line space should be left at the end of each page.

10. Ensure that the text at the start of each page is one line below the automatically generated page numbers on top of each page.




Editing Mathematical Equations:

Note: Use Nemeth code only when working on Mathematical equations.

1.    Attention to details is important while working on mathematical equations.
2.    The first step is to select the “codes” option in the View menu.
3.    Type in the equation by following the codes given in the Nemeth Production Braille guide.


Example:
Original: She said “3 is correct.”

Duxbury: she said “[cz] #3 [tx] [g2] is correct.”

Braille:

ASCII: ,! Product ( #4@* 6 is ! answ] 4

Note: [cz] is inserted by typing Alt 0 (Zero), [tx] [g2] is inserted by Alt 2.

You can view an entire document in ASCII by selecting view|codes while looking at the Duxbury Braille translation.

Fractions:
Fractions written in Braille require special symbols to convey to the reader how the fractions are written in print. One of these symbols is the Open fraction indicator which indicates that the following is a fraction. This type of fraction should be must conclude with a Closing fraction indicator. The code has symbols to express diagonal slash and horizontal fraction bars.

Follow these examples to get an idea of how it works:

a) Horizontal-bar simple fraction

Syntax:  [cz]?numerator/denominator#[tx][g2]

  
This can be expressed as [cz]?1/2#[tx][g2]

b) Diagonal-slash simple fraction

Syntax:  [cz]#numerator_/denominator[tx][g2]

1/2 can be written as [cz]#1_/2[tx][g2]

c) Fractional part of a mixed fraction

3 1/4 can be written as [cz]#3_?1_/4_#[tx][g2]


Square roots:
Syntax: [cz]>number] [tx][g2]

Example: √6 can be written as [cz]>6[[tx][g2]

Level Indicators:

The level indicators are a set of Nemeth symbols that show the Braille readers the spatial orientation of superscripts ad subscripts.

Subscript Indicator:

Syntax: xy expressed as [cz]x;i[tx][g2]

Superscript Indicator:

Syntax: xy can be written as [cz]x^y[tx][g2]

Symbols of Comparison:
Symbols of comparison are equivalent to the comparison signs of print and should not be confused with the signs of operation. They indicate the relation between two sides of an equation. The corresponding Braille symbols are given below:

Equals                =         .k
Less than            <         “k
Greater than            >        .l
Less than or equal to    ≤        “k:
Greater than or equal to    ≥        .l:
Approximately equal to    ≈        @:@:
Ratio                :        “l

Greek Letters:
One alphabetic indicator commonly used in the technical material is the Greek-letter indicator. A list of Greek letters and their corresponding Nemeth and ASCII representations are given for your response. The general syntax for inserting the Greek letters is:

Upper case: .,(the first letter of the alphabet)

Example:  Gamma Γ can be represented as .,g

Lower Case: .(the first letter of the alphabet)

Example: Gamma γ can be represented as .g


Printing on the Embosser:

Once you are confident that the DUX version is done (checking the codes), translate it and then emboss it.

1.    Before embossing, the following must be done:
a.    Turn the embosser off and leave it off for at least 10 seconds. (to reboot the system) Then turn it back on
b.    Make sure the embosser is “offline”. (Press OL to do this) Then press “2E” to set the embosser to the top of the page.
c.    Be sure the embosser has paper.
i.    If not, you can always add more by just lining up the holes in paper with the corresponding feed wheels in the embosser. Press “2E” to feed the paper in to the embosser.
ii.    Make sure that the paper is in properlyproperly means that the paper will fold by itself once the document has begun printing.
d.    Press “OL” again to make sure the embosser is ready to receive a document
e.    Now, check the embosser settings in Duxbury.
i.    Select “global”, “embosser set up”
ii.    Select the “Juliet pro” printer from the drop down list
iii.    Check if “treat as interpoint” is selected (this allows double sided printing). If you want a single side print, do not check the box.
iv.    Make sure the windows device selected is “Port1_braill_pro_Ne02” (Make sure that this is the correct device)
f.    It is a good idea to insert the page numbers into the embossed document. That way, when the document is done printing, it will be easy to put the pages in order.
g.    Another good idea is to set the default printer to the embosser. Do not forget to change it back when you want to print normal documents!
2.    Embossing
a.    Next, click emboss from the file menu and hit emboss all
b.    Now, the document should begin to emboss.
c.    Once it is done, press “FF” and the paper will begin to feed so that you can detach the embossed document.
d.    After detaching, press “2E” to reset the paper to the top of the embosser.

Aligning and Paper Settings:

Alignment is the most important factor that needs to be considered while embossing on a Braille printer. These alignment and the paper settings can be adjusted in the Duxbury software. Follow these instructions for the best results:

1. Click on Global on the Duxbury menu. Changes made under this menu will be global, in the sense that the settings applied here will be the default printer settings

Figure 1:

















2. Click on the Embosser set up




Figure 2:





















3. Click on the appropriate Braille Device from the list. If you do not have the required device in the list, click on New, and select a model (name of the Braille printer). Once the model is selected a Name for the printer should be mentioned in the “Setup Name option. Select “Wide width, 11 Inch long, Braille Paper” option form the Default form drop down list. Once these settings are made Click OK, to see the required Braille device in the Embosser Set up Window
























4. Generally, the characters per line is set to 40 and the lines per page is 25. Check the box for the Emboss in Interpoint if duplex embossing is required.


5. Now,click on document settings to make similar settings. Document embosser settings are different from Global Embosser set up in that the document embosser settings are limited to a particular document that is being printed, while global settings are the default settings.

6. Select Emboss from the file menu, and then select the required settings and click OK.