WEBVTT 00:00.280 --> 00:09.086 Hey all, Marty here. I wanted to invite you to our live call every Tuesday, 01:00 p.m. east 10:00 a.m. west in the ACB community. 00:09.238 --> 00:28.890 If you want to listen live, you can tune in on ACB Media five or bring your questions live. Check us out in Clubhouse or visit acb.com munity to get more information about how you can join the Zoom calls. The replays are also shared on your favorite podcast platform. Search for unmute present. 00:38.230 --> 00:43.014 Hi everyone. Welcome back to at your fingertips Braille, then and now. 00:43.182 --> 00:47.326 Glad to have you along here with me today I'm going to be finishing. 00:47.358 --> 00:51.758 Up my review of the book the War of the Dots, and I also. 00:51.814 --> 01:05.380 Want to discuss a really important topic of braille screen input, the differences between iOS and Android, and the value it can provide anyone who is reviewing or learning braille. 01:05.880 --> 01:09.504 So in our July episode, I focused. 01:09.552 --> 01:12.408 On the independence that Braille gives us. 01:12.584 --> 01:15.856 And really wanted to tell you about. 01:15.888 --> 01:17.512 This account of the war of the. 01:17.536 --> 01:22.180 Dots and the excellent historical information that it gives us. 01:22.970 --> 01:29.930 So I wanted to finish my review by reading a few quotes that really encapsulizes sort of the end of this. 01:29.970 --> 01:36.986 Account, and it's hopefully been resolved by the Braille Authority of North America in. 01:37.018 --> 01:39.986 All its wonderfully hard work in establishing. 01:40.098 --> 01:43.162 A unified english braille code for the. 01:43.226 --> 01:47.242 English speaking world, which in 1932, as. 01:47.266 --> 01:51.914 Of this first quote, I'm going to read you. That could not have been imagined. 01:52.082 --> 02:39.946 So in 1932, this is a quote here, public opinion had shifted to such an extent that a committee of three was appointed, commissioned both by the American association of Instructors of the Blind and the American association of Workers for the Blind to go to England with plenary powers to agree upon a unified braille code. On July 19, 1932, the agreement, sometimes referred to as the Treaty of London, was signed by the representatives of the blind of Great Britain and of the United States. A key to the slightly modified code was drawn up in London before the committee adjourned. The burden of the job was borne principally by Louis W. Rodenberg of the American Committee and Miss da Payne on. 02:39.978 --> 02:43.770 Behalf of the British, and they talked about changes. 02:43.930 --> 02:45.562 There were not many as far as. 02:45.586 --> 02:47.666 The british braille was concerned. 02:47.818 --> 02:50.724 The religious signs were dropped, except for. 02:50.842 --> 03:09.840 In usage was permitted in religious books. And they were talking about not breaking syllables by divisions with contractions, which, as we know some of us may know, the Braille authority of North America has. 03:09.880 --> 03:14.736 Kind of adopted contractions that do cross lines and do break syllables, which is. 03:14.768 --> 03:18.776 Still odd to me. The fact that professor can be, uh. 03:18.928 --> 03:20.688 Written with an of sign is kind. 03:20.704 --> 03:32.096 Of weird, but that's okay. Be that as it may, it's hard to believe that it wouldn't be, say, until 1950, that there was more agreement. 03:32.288 --> 03:34.992 And it wouldn't be until 2014. 03:35.176 --> 03:57.320 I believe it was when the UEB was adopted. So that was what happened in 1932. So if we move along, we have more information here. There's been more debate about whether contractions make bad spellers. 03:57.480 --> 03:59.064 And I remember when I was growing. 03:59.112 --> 04:07.296 Up, I had trouble remembering how to spell the word, which, for instance, it was a wh sign, but was it. 04:07.328 --> 04:10.682 Wh I c h or w I c h? 04:10.786 --> 04:23.482 I didn't remember. So I remember needing to review that. And we can make sure our kids are good spellers by ensuring that they have the contraction as it is, and. 04:23.506 --> 04:26.138 The spelling, which even my adult students. 04:26.194 --> 04:27.750 I always make sure they have that. 04:28.250 --> 04:48.030 So here's another little quote here. It says, upon the unsubstantiated dictum that the use of contraction makes bad spellers, and upon the contention that grade two contains so many contractions and abbreviations that is too difficult for the primary pupil to learn. The authorities of the american printing house were very slow to publish lower grade. 04:48.070 --> 04:52.830 Books in any code more contracted than grade one and a half. 04:52.950 --> 04:54.414 So grade one and a half didn't. 04:54.462 --> 05:00.438 Have quite all of the contractions. Gradually, however, many grade two was extended. 05:00.494 --> 05:07.022 Downward until, since 1950, few books except for children of the first grade are. 05:07.046 --> 05:09.158 Published in grade one and a half. 05:09.294 --> 05:26.154 This slow adoption of standard english braille grade two has probably resulted resulted in a generation of poor braille readers, because the method of teaching reading has forced children to familiarize themselves with three successive groups of word forms. First, the word form presented to the. 05:26.202 --> 05:31.850 Finger by grade one, full spelling used in the lower primate grades. 05:32.010 --> 05:43.522 Second, the word form of grade one and a half used in books below junior high school. And third, the word forms of grade two, in which books were to be used by most adults. 05:43.706 --> 05:51.106 And so that is a little paragraph about different ways of presenting the same word. 05:51.298 --> 05:53.554 I don't know that it would be that confusing. 05:53.602 --> 05:56.834 It seems like there's a lot of hoopla made there. 05:57.002 --> 05:58.754 If we know how it's spelled, however. 05:58.842 --> 06:15.638 We write it, it's still reinforcing the word itself. But I agree completely that the young people should absolutely learn to spell and that contractions should be used, but making. 06:15.694 --> 06:19.690 Sure that there's plenty of foundation that reinforces the spelling. 06:20.110 --> 06:25.766 I don't teach young kids, but if I did, I would definitely make sure. 06:25.798 --> 06:27.270 They know how to spell. 06:27.390 --> 06:33.742 And if I go off on a tangent here, I know that dictating to all of our devices has resulted in. 06:33.766 --> 06:35.678 Some poor spellers I've observed in the. 06:35.694 --> 06:39.090 Young people I've seen. When we think about the fact that. 06:39.550 --> 06:42.134 Since we got Siri and people started. 06:42.222 --> 06:50.822 Dictating, it's a problem because people just don't. Don't spell anymore properly. So lest I go down a big. 06:50.926 --> 06:53.182 Rabbit hole there, I'll stop with that. 06:53.326 --> 06:55.262 But the more ways we can present. 06:55.326 --> 06:57.850 The actual word and its spelling is really important. 06:59.400 --> 07:14.860 So, that being said, the printing house finally adopted a standard that we're going to use grade two or contracted braille. 07:15.160 --> 07:18.680 One thing that I do with some of the books that I create for. 07:18.720 --> 07:32.248 My adults is if it's a short little print braille book and there's enough room on the page, I will put a sticky label with the uncontracted version. 07:32.384 --> 07:34.112 On one page or top of the. 07:34.136 --> 07:36.992 Page, and the contracted version of the. 07:37.016 --> 07:39.304 Braille on the bottom of the page. 07:39.392 --> 07:41.632 So that no matter how the person. 07:41.696 --> 07:47.632 Finds themselves, whether they're familiarizing themselves and reviewing the Alphabet, or whether they're reading. 07:47.736 --> 08:02.350 Contracted braille, they can read the book. And this is important because then I can use the books for each student. So the book really kind of finishes. 08:02.850 --> 08:04.514 Here, back to the war of the dots. 08:04.562 --> 08:06.658 The book kind of finishes with a. 08:06.674 --> 08:14.242 Bit of history on the monetary sort of struggles between wanting to keep money in this country and wanting to trade. 08:14.306 --> 08:29.904 Books, but not wanting to contribute to Britain. And I won't go there because I have some very favorite british people that are, in particular, podcasters and others. And so I will not dive into that whole history. 08:29.952 --> 08:31.824 But there was some contention about money. 08:31.872 --> 08:35.480 Spending and appropriations and different things, and. 08:35.640 --> 08:37.576 Wanting to share books between the countries. 08:37.648 --> 08:38.792 And now, of course, we have the. 08:38.816 --> 08:41.712 Marrakesh Treaty, which allows us to share books. 08:41.736 --> 09:05.716 So we've had a huge, long history of development in this whole sharing of braille, sharing of our codes, making a unified code. So this last quote here kind of addresses this whole looking forward to the code being unified. 09:05.788 --> 09:28.900 And this last quote says, perhaps this will not take place until someone puts behind this idea something of the drive which brought about the adoption of the uniform type for the british speaking world. Doubtless sooner or later, someone will take this matter up aggressively and put an end to the duplication of books published in Braille in the United States and Great Britain. 09:29.200 --> 09:38.016 I don't know that we've taken care of that, but certainly we can share the books that we have and we. 09:38.048 --> 09:48.640 Can also appreciate the different sets of literature that each country has. And so I am hopeful that we will continue sharing our resources. 09:49.380 --> 09:51.700 So, in all, I really enjoyed the book. 09:51.860 --> 09:52.620 It was great. 09:52.700 --> 09:58.980 It was unfortunate to read about all the contention, but I am very happy to know that we've made huge strides. 09:59.100 --> 10:01.196 Took many, many, many years, but we've. 10:01.228 --> 10:04.220 Made huge strides in developing the unified. 10:04.300 --> 10:06.828 English braille code, which means more than. 10:07.004 --> 10:09.596 A few annoyances with punctuation and type. 10:09.628 --> 10:15.262 Form indicators and all that that my students run into. It's really a more global, global appreciation. 10:15.326 --> 10:20.850 Of developing a code for the whole english speaking world that anyone can read. 10:21.670 --> 10:29.342 So, moving on to our next topic, which is braille. Now, I was thinking about how to. 10:29.366 --> 10:36.174 Learn braille in different ways and for the learner that wants to use their. 10:36.222 --> 10:45.518 Idevice or the Android device. I was thinking about the apps out there, and it's a little unfortunate that a lot of the apps are not. 10:45.574 --> 10:59.586 Very user friendly by blind people. You'd kind of think that maybe that would be the case, but they're really not. So I thought, well, there might be a few out there, but what is a good way to learn Braille? 10:59.618 --> 11:03.346 And of course, I mentioned the Hadley Hadley helps. 11:03.378 --> 11:13.394 Now, it has been the Hadley Institute for the Blind and hadleyhelps.org, and they have excellent braille courses. 11:13.562 --> 11:23.010 But if you wanted to practice your braille and you don't have access to a perk Braille writer, what you could do is turn on braille screen input. 11:23.430 --> 11:26.070 And what that does is you can. 11:26.110 --> 11:30.350 Use your phone either what they call in tabletop mode where it's laying flat. 11:30.390 --> 11:40.050 On the table in, I believe it's landscape mode for that point, and your fingers are on the screen like a Perkins brailler. 11:40.350 --> 11:42.422 Or you can hold your phone with. 11:42.446 --> 11:48.520 The screen away from you and support the phone with your palms and write. 11:48.560 --> 11:50.540 The braille on the screen that way. 11:50.880 --> 11:53.448 And so I thought I would review. 11:53.624 --> 11:57.040 The differences between iOS and Android. 11:57.200 --> 12:03.360 So I'd like to start with my review of Braille screen input by going. 12:03.400 --> 12:25.520 To my Android device. Now, Android has gotten a bad rap lately about its support talkback, of its support of braille displays and the HID braille displays in particular. But it has a very robust set of gestures and support for braille screen input. And I'm running the latest version of Talkback 14. 12:25.940 --> 12:31.960 So here is how I'm going to get to the talkback settings. 12:32.340 --> 12:35.276 Talkback menu actions in list okay, so. 12:35.308 --> 12:38.082 Here we have actions talkback settings, and. 12:38.106 --> 12:41.578 Here are the talkback settings Talkback settings. 12:41.674 --> 12:44.122 Navigate up button out of list and. 12:44.186 --> 12:46.682 In here there is braille customize menus. 12:46.746 --> 13:02.810 Nine automatic descriptions for I braille heading eleven and 17 automatic descriptions for braille. Braille keyboard twelve or 17 that's what we want. Braille keyboard talkback navigate up button out of list Preferred Braille Grade we have. 13:02.850 --> 13:04.586 Our preferred braille grade which you can. 13:04.618 --> 13:06.776 Set layout, adapt to how you hold the device. 13:06.848 --> 13:26.144 Six of eight and there is the layout, whether it's tabletop or screen away mode. But within these settings, you also are going to have a little part at. 13:26.152 --> 13:27.488 The top is how to use the. 13:27.504 --> 13:32.990 Braille keyboard and you can review all the gestures, the language. 13:33.030 --> 13:36.610 You can set the language and of course I have mine set to UEB. 13:36.910 --> 13:46.650 And preferred typing language. Preferred braille is contracted. The layout I have is the screen away mode. 13:47.470 --> 13:51.770 There's also a setting called include all pressed dots. 13:52.110 --> 13:54.150 And the challenge with that is if. 13:54.190 --> 13:56.750 You accidentally touch the screen with a. 13:56.790 --> 14:10.294 Finger and you didn't mean to, then that dot is added to the next screen press. You can also reverse the dots and so forth. 14:10.422 --> 14:16.014 So those are some of the settings. So what happens here is we're going. 14:16.022 --> 14:18.110 To go up here to prefer typing. 14:18.150 --> 14:20.662 Language languages unit review all gestures two. 14:20.686 --> 14:22.630 Of eight can review all gestures. 14:22.710 --> 14:32.136 Braille keyboard gestures navigate up button out Braille keyboard gestures basic controls add spaces delete hide the keyboard and more. One of five enlist five items. 14:32.248 --> 14:36.696 So there's a few items in this list that are big broad categories. 14:36.888 --> 14:48.152 Cursor movement, move by character, word or line two or five text selection and editing select copy, cut paste three or five spell check find misspelled words, check suggestions and confirm changes. 14:48.216 --> 14:52.558 Four or five okay, so there's actually. 14:52.704 --> 14:59.426 No fifth item, which is kind of weird. We just get a little thunk there. So I would like to kind of. 14:59.498 --> 15:09.066 Go over some of these gestures. It's very robust. As you can see, there's cut copy paste. I don't believe the iOS has that. I could be standing corrected here. 15:09.098 --> 15:12.386 But if you're using the braille keyboard. 15:12.418 --> 15:15.910 And you want to dismiss it, it's a swipe up with three fingers. 15:16.930 --> 15:21.262 And then if you want to add. 15:21.286 --> 15:27.010 A space, it's swipe right. Delete is swipe left. Those two gestures are the same. 15:27.430 --> 15:30.926 If you are multi platform user, it. 15:30.958 --> 15:40.170 Might be a tall order to learn both of these at the same time because the gestures are somewhat different. If you want to create a new line, you're going to swipe right with two fingers. 15:40.910 --> 15:56.250 And if we want to delete a word we're going to swipe left with two fingers and move the cursor up. It's going to be swiping up. Move cursor down is swipe down. 15:56.670 --> 15:59.838 Hide the keyboard is a swipe down with two fingers. 15:59.934 --> 16:05.210 That's a good one. If you want to go back to the regular on screen QWERTY style keyboard. 16:05.590 --> 16:06.662 If you want to switch to the. 16:06.686 --> 16:13.822 Next keyboard, swiping down with three fingers will allow you to choose a keyboard. If you want to swipe up with. 16:13.846 --> 16:19.102 Two fingers, you'll be submitting text. There are other options too, and that. 16:19.126 --> 16:21.450 Would be a swipe up with. 16:22.230 --> 16:26.210 That would be three fingers. You can also switch granularities. 16:26.590 --> 16:30.406 You can move by character, word, etcetera. 16:30.598 --> 16:35.410 So to enter this mode, you would swipe left or right with three fingers. 16:35.790 --> 16:42.980 And then if you wanted to move to the next or previous item, you could swipe up or down. 16:43.600 --> 16:45.460 And here's where it gets tricky. 16:45.840 --> 16:49.192 If you want to move to the. 16:49.296 --> 16:51.512 Previous or next character, you're going to. 16:51.536 --> 16:56.112 Hold six and then swipe up or down anywhere. 16:56.296 --> 17:03.540 If you're going to move to the previous word, you're going to hold down dot five and swipe up or down. 17:03.920 --> 17:05.608 And if you want to move to. 17:05.664 --> 17:23.720 The previous or next line, you're going to hold down four and swipe up or down. There's a way to move to the beginning or to the end of the text. There's also text selection and editing. So I don't note that we have this on iOS, so I wanted to go over this. 17:24.020 --> 17:27.572 So you would use the above movement. 17:27.636 --> 17:29.924 Commands where you were moving by character. 17:29.972 --> 17:32.988 Word or line and, but you would. 17:33.044 --> 17:37.524 Swipe up or down with two fingers instead. So there's a bit of memorization going. 17:37.572 --> 17:44.508 On here, but for a dedicated braille screen input user, this would be second. 17:44.564 --> 17:48.092 Nature if you used it a lot. You can also select all the text. 17:48.156 --> 17:52.840 By holding dot four and swiping left with three fingers. 17:53.180 --> 17:59.148 Copy is hold four and swipe down with three fingers. And cut is hold down four on. 17:59.164 --> 18:02.600 The screen and swipe up with three fingers. 18:03.060 --> 18:05.996 Paste is hold four and swipe right with three fingers. 18:06.028 --> 18:15.370 So just a bit of memorization here. And there's also a way to find the misspelled words and hear those options. 18:15.710 --> 18:18.610 And also confirm your spelling suggestion. 18:18.990 --> 18:22.318 You can undo the spelling suggestion and so forth. 18:22.494 --> 18:25.414 And so those are some of the. 18:25.542 --> 18:28.050 Android commands with. 18:31.510 --> 18:32.878 All the various swipes. 18:32.974 --> 18:43.496 And gestures and things. And again, the way you get to that is by the talkback settings and then the braille keyboard and then within. 18:43.568 --> 18:46.020 That there are the various categories. 18:46.480 --> 18:51.824 So we'll get out of the talkback settings here. 18:51.912 --> 18:53.152 Text selection and editing. 18:53.296 --> 18:56.144 We'll get back here five navigate up. 18:56.192 --> 19:01.640 Button talk back review all gestures, two of eight enlist eight items and then. 19:01.680 --> 19:17.550 If you back out of that you'll be back home. So to talk about the iOS, there are various commands, as I said, that are the same. So swiping right with one finger is going to insert a space. 19:17.630 --> 19:33.456 Swiping left with one finger is going to delete a character, move to a new line. You're going to swipe right with two fingers, cycle through spelling suggestions. Is a swipe up or down with one finger, enter a new line or send a message as a swipe up with three fingers. 19:33.648 --> 19:35.088 And if you want to switch between. 19:35.184 --> 19:37.960 Six dot which you or contracted, so. 19:38.000 --> 19:45.800 Six being no contractions, you would swipe right with three fingers. So if you have a word like. 19:45.920 --> 19:50.576 Have, you type an h on the screen and you want to immediately translate that. 19:50.728 --> 19:52.808 That means you want to make it. 19:52.824 --> 19:56.774 The word have without inserting a space. So translate immediately. 19:56.822 --> 19:59.678 That's what that is. So typing a letter that is a. 19:59.694 --> 20:01.462 Contraction or a sign that is a. 20:01.486 --> 20:09.238 Contraction, not wanting to insert a space, you, if you have contractions enabled, you. 20:09.254 --> 20:12.582 Would swipe down with two fingers. If you want to switch to a. 20:12.606 --> 20:14.422 New keyboard, it's a swipe up with. 20:14.446 --> 20:28.196 Two fingers, which is different than the Android. And if you want to exit braille screen input, you're going to do a two finger scrub or you're going to adjust the rotor, that little twisty, turny motion that you make with your fingers, you want to adjust that to another. 20:28.268 --> 20:32.396 Setting and that dumps you out of the braille screen input. 20:32.588 --> 20:37.068 Also you can recalibrate the dots. So if you're using an iPhone, if. 20:37.084 --> 20:38.204 You want to place your fingers on. 20:38.212 --> 20:40.444 The screen and show the screen what. 20:40.492 --> 20:45.180 Your, your finger placement is so that it can recalibrate. 20:45.340 --> 20:50.920 On the iPhone, you're going to place the right hand dots first and then. 20:51.900 --> 20:53.920 You'Re going to place the left hand dots. 20:54.340 --> 20:56.404 So four, five, six and the lift. 20:56.452 --> 20:58.588 And then one, two, three is my. 20:58.604 --> 21:03.160 Understanding with the iPad you're going to press all of them at the same time. 21:04.020 --> 21:06.396 And of course there's a way to. 21:06.428 --> 21:19.126 Change all the settings. In braille screen input. You're going to go to settings, accessibility, voiceover braille braille screen input so you can choose six dot or contracted braille. 21:19.158 --> 21:34.422 As the default or you can reverse the dot positions. I've never done that. I'm not sure quite why folks feel more comfortable with that. And you can put it in eight. 21:34.486 --> 22:07.190 Braille so you can find all this information for iOS at support apple.com. and I just did a search for Braille. So braille screen input is a great way to practice your braille. It will verbalize the letters as you type them. Of course you don't get the tactile information and reinforcement, but you do get the input practice, which I think is really very important as well, so that when you get to a Perkins brailler or a little note taker or ereader, you're able to input your braille, which. 22:07.320 --> 22:09.626 Is something that I need to work. 22:09.658 --> 22:10.730 On with my students. 22:10.850 --> 22:14.954 I am much better at teaching them to read and need to remember to. 22:15.002 --> 22:27.150 Always give them lots of transcribing or writing opportunities. Hope you've enjoyed this little presentation on braille screen input from an Android or iOS perspective. 22:27.490 --> 22:31.970 Have a really great rest of your week and we'll catch you next.