Braille: The world@your fingertips

Braille: The world@your fingertips

By Lim Tri Santosa

BANDUNG (JP): When one thinks of the suffering of the
sightless in all countries, one does not wonder that it is said
in the Bible that in the beginning the "word" was with God, and
His word separated light from darkness. Without words, visible or
tangible, there can be no enlightenment in this world.

Words represent our language, hence reflecting our emotional
and logical communications. Language, in the forms we are
accustomed to using it, writing and printing, is addressed to
sight, but it can also be addressed to touch through points, and
any one can learn to read these points as easily as they can read
the printed page.

I believe that the family and friends of the blind should
learn Braille. If you are the parent of a blind child, you should
definitely learn Braille, just as the parents of a deaf child
should learn sign language.

It was obvious from the beginning that if the blind were to be
educated, a method had to be devised by which they would read and
study like the sighted.

Louis Braille invented the embossed system which has ever
since borne his name and which enables the blind to read and
write easily with their fingers. His magic wand was a group of
six dots in which the vertical line consists of three dots, and
the horizontal of two. The combinations of these dots produce
characters, each of which has a particular meaning.

It is easy for sighted people to write Braille because we can
cheat. We can look at the translation table in printed books to
see how to make the dots for the letters and words. We don't have
to memorize things in order to write in Braille. To see what
Braille looks like, you can check at www.braille.com.

Braille's invention was as marvelous as any fairy tale. Only
six dots! Yet he made them vibrate with harmonies that charmed.
With them he captured words that sing and dance with the joy of
life, words that sigh and moan, words burning with emotions,
words that weave bonds of companionship between those who cannot
see and those who can.

In the past, the conversion of printed text to Braille was a
slow, painstaking process. Trained translators, using a Braille
Writer, manually translated each character or group of characters
into the appropriate Braille symbol. Using this method, the
transcription of textbooks could take hundreds of hours and cost
an exorbitant amount.

Software experts are seeking to reduce the time and cost
associated with the production of Braille by using personal
computers, optical scanners and specialized software to expedite
the translation process. Using a computer to convert text to
Braille is, in principle, a relatively simple process. The
procedure requires either a Macintosh or PC compatible; an
optical scanner; OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software and
Braille translation software.

The selected course of action to convert printed text to
Braille is very important. It should be selected with the task of
scanning and translating as its primary objective. Access to a
printer, a Braille embosser is also required. WinBraille version
2.00 for Windows 9x, 2000, NT (www.indexbraille.com) is one of
the best free text-to-Braille translation software.

It works with all modern Index embossers and all Windows
platforms, with Braille in literary or contracted format.
WinBraille is developed by Index to make Braille production easy
and effective at little cost. You can use it with a normal text
editor such as Word, Word Perfect, Outlook or other Windows
compatible programs. Printing or embossing is just a click away
with a normal print command.

Converting ASCII text to Braille is as easy as printing with a
normal printer. Even when you find an interesting page on the
Internet you can emboss it directly without leaving your normal
browser. Simply click on the print icon and the information will
be embossed (of course, you should have embosser). Pictures and
other information which cannot be produced in Braille will be
excluded.

WinBraille has a WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get)
command that will allow the editor to see the file as it will
appear in Braille. The Braille wbr.file should be reviewed to
ensure that the proper overall formatting has been preserved.

A final step is crucial to the success of Braille translation:
a review of the Braille document by a blind individual with
knowledge of Braille. It is essential that the work be reviewed
by individuals who were not involved in the production of the
Braille and are critical of its quality. It gives an individual
with a disability the chance to work and be paid for it. Yes, the
blind can work, they can study, they can sing, they can add their
share to the good and happiness in the world. (abbaml@yahoo.com)