Dumb post to the Stargardts Facebook group

[Haden Pike]

Figured I'd toss my two cents in here.

Yes I learned braille when I was younger, but I don't see that as 
effecting how I write.  I rely on speech, not because I want to, but 
because I have to.  I have very little feeling left in my finger tips.  
On a side note, people have told me that they are terrible at reading 
code without a braille display, which, as a computer science 
undergraduate is something I find extremely interesting.  I take the 
time to proof-read everything I write--even if it's on Twitter where 
grammatical errors proliferate as you attempt to make your thought fit 
into 140 characters.  If the screen reader miss-pronounces something, 
it's generally a good indicator that it's spelled wrong.  For instance, 
I put two (f)'s in proliferate.
Haden

On 4/10/2013 4:33 AM, Tony Baechler wrote:
> Actually, you bring up an interesting point.  I don't have the problem 
> with typing the dollar and number signs like you described, but I've 
> seen a problem with some devices not reverse translating Braille as 
> they should.  A particular instance of this comes to mind. Back in 
> school, I had a test with true or false questions.  I answered either 
> "t" or "f" as one would expect.  For some reason, when it was printed 
> out, it got turned into "that" and "from." The teacher didn't know 
> why, but of course I recognized the problem.  That's why there is 
> either grade I or computer Braille which is what I should've used, but 
> I didn't know it would do that.  Similarly, a blind person was asking 
> me a question and the sentence ended with "en?" which was supposed to 
> be "enough."  I'm not sure why the notetakers have difficulty in back 
> translation, but it seems to be common.  NFBTrans didn't seem to have 
> that problem.
>
> Also like you, I'm not a regular Braille reader nowadays and I usually 
> don't have the screen reader read out punctuation. However, what I 
> think you aren't realizing is that since you know Braille, you don't 
> need to know where the punctuation is.  In other words, I know that a 
> period goes at the end of a sentence which is a statement and a 
> question mark goes at the end of a question.  I don't hear passages of 
> text as one continuous stream of words with a short pause separating 
> them sometimes, if that makes sense.  If I never knew Braille, I 
> wouldn't know that.  I can tell by how you write that you at least 
> learned some Braille and know enough to form a proper sentence.  I've 
> seen several blind people who use no punctuation at all and sound 
> uneducated in their writing style.  I'm not saying that everything 
> needs to be 100% perfect, especially nowadays with email and text 
> messages, but it's downright confusing when there is no separation 
> between sentences and thoughts.
>
> As a final note, I'm terrible at reading aloud and avoid it when 
> possible. While I do know Braille, I'm not the fastest or best Braille 
> reader by any means.  I'm afraid I've got out of practice because I 
> rely so much more on speech and DAISY books nowadays.
>
> On 4/9/2013 1:34 PM, Hart Larry wrote:
>> Well, I know in advance my comments are an alternative. First, when this
>> thread began, I figured it was off-topic and Kirk would probably put 
>> an end
>> to it. On another hand, as American English spelling is not a consistant
>> science, it would seem unlikely to just memerize thousands of spellings.
>> Sure when I was younger, Braille was nearly an only way to read, but 
>> in the
>> late50s I was quite interested in Baseball and the Space Program, but 
>> mostly
>> it were text books which were available. I was never a good or 
>> comfortable
>> Braille reader. About a only time I read outloud is at our anual Pass 
>> Over
>> Seder.
>> I know there are both sighted-and-blind folks who are phonatical about
>> spelling-and-punctuation. I look at especially spelling-and-moreover 
>> typing
>> as a way to convey ideas-and-concepts. I know it drives some crazy if 
>> I use
>> a number in the middle of a word.
>> Growing up with Braille also teaches bad habbits in typing. For example,
>> when I would type an amount of money, I would type symbols of "dollar
>> sign""number sign" followed by an amount.
>> As an unconventional, I really like having dashes separating some 
>> words, I
>> guess because I don't really like dead-air and so a dash would 
>> symbolicly
>> keep sound alive.
>> In conclusion, since many of us are not always writing executive 
>> business
>> letters, we're symply conveying opinions-and-information. Sure getting a
>> wrong letter in an url, well, thats important. As a strictly speech
>> listener, I try when I can to hear as little punctuation as I can. I 
>> think
>> when I've tried spelling checkers in Pine, they were harder to navigate.
>> Thanks for listening.
>> Hart
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