Hi everyone and welcome back to at your fingertips Braille then and now. It's really great to be with you. If you're just relaxing, you might get a cup of tea or coffee and.
Sit down with me and just think about some things for how to improve your Braille reading, Braille study, enjoyment of Braille and Braille usage with things that are low tech and maybe just a tiny bit higher tech, but not too much. So welcome to this edition here in.
May, where things are starting to warm up and bloom.
Maybe you're struggling with allergies, maybe you.
Don'T want to take a book outside.
And read it, but that's okay. We can talk about some things that will help out a lot. So in working with adults, I find that they really do enjoy little games, fidgety things, little fidget toys, apparatus that.
Really can make a difference in making Braille fun. So I ran across a device that I really kind of enjoyed fiddling with.
I think it was even in a staff meeting.
I kind of took it out and was playing with it.
It's a Braille keychain. So if you're one of those sort of ADHD types that need to be fiddling with something all the time or.
Keeping your hands busy and you want.
To practice your braille letter configurations, you might explore getting a Braille keychain. I really do think they still make them. They're like the old fashioned Rubik's cubes.
If you kind know what those are. So if you think about it, the.
Braille cell has three levels. Dots 1 and 4 at the top, dots 2 and 5 in the middle, and dots 3 and 6 at the bottom. And so what happens with this nifty little keychain is that you can twist each level separately so you can twist the middle.
And what happens is there are dots.
On all three of these levels, so dots 1 and 4, 2 and 5, 3 and 6.
But when you twist each part of.
The keychain independently, you can create all kinds of combinations of letters. So it's kind of fun to just sit there and fiddle with this thing.
It's pretty quiet, so you're not going to disrupt anyone, but it's a fun little toy.
One of my colleagues found another really.
Cool thing that's helping one of the.
Adults that she teaches. And it's called a swing cell.
So just to kind of bring you back, about five years ago when we.
Were all dealing with the pandemic, I was teaching remotely, of course, and braille teaching still went on. I still found a Way to teach.
I would have one of my colleagues.
Who was working in our building send out Braille books to my students, and.
Then I would have a copy of.
The book and we would work remotely together.
Now imagine the fun I had when.
I tried to describe how to use a Perkins brailer remotely. Now, it was fun on many levels because you had to explain how to roll in the paper.
You know, you had to find that.
Little screw in the back. And then you have the little slot that you insert the paper and you.
Make sure to insert it so that.
It goes underneath the little carriage right up against the screw.
And oh, by the way, make sure.
The roller can roll freely.
And that is rolled all the, you.
Know, several things could go wrong with this. And so we had some fun times.
Explaining how to actually roll the paper into a Perkins and then how to.
Place your fingers on the keys. Because people who are new to braille and new to this Perkins Brailler machine aren't maybe going to expect that. If you think of them in order of left to right, the keys on The Perkins are 3, 2, 1, space, bar, 4, 5, 6.
And maybe people would wonder, well, why is that?
Why can't they just number them differently.
And, you know, have them in order? And so what I would do is.
I would have people put their hands together.
So maybe they're prayer hands, or maybe they're just, you know, with your index.
Fingers together, middle fingers together, and ring fingers together, and your hands are, you know, palms together.
And then that sort of creates the.
Idea of the Braille cell. So if you think about it, your left hand would be dots, 1, 2, 3, going downward, and your right hand would be dots, 4, 5, 6, going.
From top to bottom.
So then if you put your hands.
Palm down, palms down, you have the.
Perkins keyboard right there. And so your index finger is still.
Number one, middle finger is still number.
Two, and ring finger is still number three. But now you can place your hands on the keys.
You know, it sounds like maybe a.
No brainer to some of us who.
Have always grown up with Braille. Like, I'm a lifelong Braille reader. And so, you know, I had to think of a sort of a creative way. Now, had I thought about the Swing.
Cell, I might have maybe ordered a few of these if they were shipping at the time. But a swing cell is something that the American Printing House for the Blind sells.
And it's a really cool little gadget.
Because it can help adults or kids.
Remember how they think of the letters.
Like, say, h is dots 1, 2 and 5. And then what are those keys? And so what you have is a piece or two of wood, two pieces of wood that have a hinge in the middle. And each of the pieces of wood has three holes. One piece of wood has the holes for dots 1, 2 and 3. And the other piece of wood has 4, 5 and 6.
And so what you start out with.
Is, you start out with these two pieces of wood sitting side by side, dots 1, 2, 3 on the left and 4, 5, 6 on the right. And then there is a hinge at the top where these two are joined together.
And so a person can put little pegs in the holes and kind of.
Configure their Braille letters as they're learning.
Them and practice with them. And these two pieces of wood that.
Are joined with a hinge are the Braille cell right now.
But they're also held together with Velcro so they don't come apart.
They just stick there until you want to pull them apart.
And when you pull the two pieces of wood apart, they're still connected by.
The hinge, but now they're straight out from left to right. And you have your Perkins style keyboard configuration.
So that's one way that it helps.
Adults to make sense of and kids.
To make sense of how.
How is the Braille cell configured and.
How do we relate that to our.
Placement of the keys on the Perkins.
So that's been a really helpful tool.
Especially as adults learn to input the.
Braille on a Braille device.
And we'll talk about a couple of.
Input options pretty soon, and we'll get to that after we talk about a couple other things.
So my adults really started enjoying the.
Legos when they came out, I believe.
It was last summer. And that was really exciting. And we got those. And they have some of the contractions, the number sign, numbers, letters.
You can configure all kinds of things on the LEGO board. But what they're really excited about now.
Is the Braille doodle.
And I've talked about that before and.
We found that really successful because we.
Can write the Braille, erase it, you know, talk about why it is the way it is.
I can write letters, students can copy.
What I'm writing, We can do in the practice area, we can write a letter and then the same letter right next to it. And so these are really great little.
Games, toys, fidget items, apparatus that can.
Really help people learn in a fun.
Engaging, and really sort of a manipulative.
Way so that you can handle and physically create things that are helpful in the learning process.
So what I also wanted to mention are the input devices that I really enjoy using and that some of my.
Students are finding really helpful.
I know here in the US we're very, very fortunate to have the NLSE readers and the one that is built upon the humanware brilliant bi20x product is especially my favorite. It's the one that I'm used to using and I do have some Brailleliant devices. The reason why this is really great.
Is because a lot of folks are learning Braille. They need practice in various ways of.
Inputting Braille, reading the Braille in a portable manner. I also think it's really valuable for adults who may be experiencing some lack of finger sensitivity or may have say, a tremor that prevents them from reading straight across a line on a paper braille book. Also, they may just really need practice with a lot of inputting of Braille.
And it's such a portable way to do it.
Now the only disadvantage is that if.
You are in a state that may not offer the humanware based Braille option.
I am not sure how the Zoomax product compares to this. However, I would say that the really.
Stellar advantage of the the humanware based product is that it also can connect.
To your iPhone or your computer. Unfortunately, it doesn't work with Android yet. I think that the E Reader needs to be updated so that it can work with Android.
But using the E Reader to input.
Notes to navigate your phone with the Braille display type commands, which are pretty standard for us old schoolers say dot four with the space bar moves forward.
One item, dot one with the spacebar moves backward one item space with the letter H goes home and so forth.
You can navigate your phone with this E Reader device and you can also of course type Notes into the Notes.
App or type an email into your email app unfortunately. And you know, due to really making sure that it's a dedicated book reader.
It doesn't have any onboard note taker.
But you can use it to input.
Your own notes into your phone. Also, I really love using my Orbit.
Writer and I found that this device.
Is especially helpful for those who may have some dexterity issues, a tremor let's say, or an issue where they just.
Find that doing those gestures on the iPhone is or the Android is particularly difficult and so they might struggle with that a bit.
And so getting them an Orbit Writer.
Is a really great way to navigate your phone or to be able to type into it. And of course you know there's no.
Braille display available to us here.
It's an input device.
And so with the Orbit Writer, which.
Can connect to several devices, I think.
Also it can include Kindle too. You've got the support on Android of.
Version 15 and that is because Android is only supporting HID devices on version 15 of Android.
So if you did want to use the Orbit Writer, it's my understanding that you do have to have Android 15.
But I would completely recommend. It's an inexpensive product as things go. It has a Perkins style keyboard.
There's a spacebar at the bottom and dot seven on the left for backspace, dot eight on the right for enter.
There's also a four direction navigation arrow.
Keys and a little OK button in the middle above that.
And then to the left and right of that little multi Navigational arrow and.
OK button are the Perkins style keys. So 1, 2, 3 is on the.
Left and 456 on the right.
It does have a micro USB port, which is a bit of a disadvantage. I found that they're so fragile and they're kind of easy to.
If a student puts the cord in.
The wrong way or tries to force.
It a little bit.
I haven't had anybody who's visibly forced.
It, but I have had a couple people have damaged ports, then we have to send them back for repairs.
So what I'm recommending people do with these micro USB ports, if you have.
Any devices like that, check out the.
Cables that are magnetic that also have magnetic tips.
So MagnaLink is a great company that I just love and I have all.
Kinds of their cables. So the MagnaLink cables come with various.
Tips including micro USB lightning and regular.
USB C. And what happens is you put one of these tips into the.
Port, the port that you are needing to connect a cable.
And after the tip goes into the port, what's sticking out is the little round end and the concave end of the cable snaps magnetically onto the little tiny bit that's sticking out of the port. And so then you never have to.
Go rustling around for a cable because.
You leave that little tip in the port of the device. And so this is especially nice with.
Your micro USB that are hard to remember which way does the tip go.
You know, in the port or which way do the prongs go up or down? And so it's just kind of a.
Hassle and the ports are more fragile. So I really highly recommend getting those magnetic cables.
Whichever company you decide to go with, they all have options for the various.
Kinds of ports and tips that go in those Ports. Another product that I really like using.
Myself is the Hable one. And the Hable one is a completely different concept.
It allows you to enter via the dots on the Braille keyboard, but it.
Is a different setup. So imagine that you're holding your phone.
And you're doing Braille screen input and you've got your phone facing away from you. That's the way the Hable is in your hands.
So the Hable is held so that the keys are away and you've got the keys vertically arranged, this time with dots 1, 2, 3 on the left and 4, 5, 6 on the right. And then to the left of the 1, 2, 3 is the dot 7 and to the right of the 4, 5, 6 is the dot 8 key. And so from this point you are able to enter the Braille or the.
Screen commands, as in pressing various keys.
To move forward on the screen, backwards.
On the screen, going home, doing the.
Equivalent of the double tap if you're.
On the iPhone or Android. And so it's a really great input.
Device, I would say for the people who are dyed in the wool, Perkins.
Style keyboard users, it may not be as intuitive because you're expecting that you're.
Going to enter the same commands, but.
They just, they're not the same.
So for instance, on the Hable, if I want to move forward one item, I hold dot seven down and I tap with my right hand on the dot 8 key.
And then if I want to move.
Backward one item, I'm going to hold the dot 8 key and tap with my left hand.
One list member, when I was on.
The Hable list said the hand that's.
Tapping is the direction that you're moving, which is great. So I find it, it's a really great device.
It in fact does not care about.
Your version of Android because it's not.
An HID device, it's a Braille keyboard, it's considered a keyboard.
So it doesn't mind that I'm running.
Android 14 for instance.
And so, you know, it's, it's really handy because it doesn't depend on having that necessary version of Android.
So the Hable one is just a really nice option. It is a bit more expensive.
I think they're using some different tools, different hardware in there and maybe we might have some import, you know, fees or, you know, something that makes it a bit more expensive. It's about $300 ish here in the US and the Hable is about half.
Of that or less. And so they're two totally different devices.
I love both of them and I.
Find an absolutely wonderful use case for either one. I would say for my beginner students, probably the Orbit writer is the best.
Because it's most like the Perkins brailer.
That they're familiar with and the E Reader and such.
And so the Hable one is a bit more for the higher tech individual. And so that's kind of the way I think about those two devices.
And lastly, I just wanted to bring.
To you a little bit of feedback.
That I really appreciated from listeners. I love hearing from the listeners in other countries.
I believe we had someone write me from Lithuania and Russia. And I just really appreciate hearing from folks in other countries because it's possible.
To be pretty US centric.
And I'm sorry about that. I really try and think about, you know, people in other countries are still.
Finding the slate and stylus very useful. I think it's great. I ran across my slates and what is it?
Styli.
Huh? Styluses. Not sure of the plural of that in my drawer today. And I'm thinking, you know, there's certainly a place for those and we really appreciate them. They supported those slates and styluses supported.
Braille for, you know, over a hundred years. And so we just. It's just an amazing, amazing thing that they were a part of our history. But one person brought to me a.
Thought that I had forgotten to mention is that you can read braille with other fingers. And this person mentioned reading braille with.
Perhaps two or three other fingers. And I find it fascinating that people.
Have finger sensitivity, say in their middle.
Finger as much as they might perhaps their ring finger. Also. Another use for reading with multiple fingers.
Is to get a sense of the layout of the page or the layout.
Of the line or do we have a blank line underneath?
If you have more fingers in the action, then perhaps you are gauging the.
Layout of the page. And so what I would say is the use of other fingers, as long.
As it doesn't slow you down and.
It helps you, absolutely.
Whatever is helpful to you in your.
Braille reading journey is just great.
So in closing here, I really want to thank you for coming along today and listening, thinking about simple gadgets. If you want to fidget or learn or really cement your knowledge of braille and braille practice. There's a lot of those devices out there like the swing cell and Legos.
And Braille keychains and the Braille doodle.
And then of course we have input devices like the NLS E reader or an E Reader.
Perhaps you might have option in your country, the Orbit Writer and the Havel one and then of course ways of reading Braille.
And if you have any feedback whatsoever, something you want me to discuss, some comments that you have, questions.
Would love to hear from you.
And so if you send an email to feedbackmute show, they will forward it onto me.
And I love hearing from you and I really appreciate listener feedback. Have a great day and we'll visit.
With you next time.
Thanks so much for listening.