I know Duxbury is popular with all the folks who should know and
publish on something like a commercial scale, but you might have a look
at BrailleMaker 2. This has the huge advantage that it can be used by a
blind user without assistance: it will emboss straight from Word with a
couple of enter pushes. Blind students can produce exam answers in
Word, Braille them out and proof their own work from the hard copy. It
is simple to use right out of the box, but the settings are pretty
sophisticated if you want to get into that sort of thing.
I've heard lots of folks talk about how proof reading is essential for
all these programs. I do read a bit of Braille, although it wouldn't
be my first choice for the beach, and I have never seen any mistakes.
Students who use the systems haven't reported any either; problems have
invariably been traced to original text, especially when that has been
produced by scanning and auto-OCR. The only other source of problems I
can imagine is when the text contains symbols that are part of the
system code, like *; this seemed to happen to everything a few years
ago when all the software was DOS-based and Windows rather a bolt-on,
but I haven't noticed it recently. At one time we looked at package
after package, but once we installed something that everyone could use
and was trouble-free, we stopped our search.
Regards, Bernard
On Tue, 25 Jun 2002 15:55:03 +0100 BRYAN JONES <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> The software we use is Duxbury Braille Translation. Available from
> Sight and Sound. You can check that the Braille was translated
> properly on the computer monitor. I.e it shows you the Braille
> symbols it intends to send to the embosser along with the English
> text. Helpful if you can't read Braille, which most of us can't.
>
>
> On 25 Jun 02, at 13:51, martia Bevan wrote:
>
> > Dear all
> >
> > I would like to ask if anyone could give advice or info on braille
> > embossers and relevant software you may have at your institutions.
> > We at Roehampton are purchasing one soon and would welcome
> > any suggestions
> >
> > many thanks
> >
> > Martia
> >
> > Martia Bevan
> > Disabilities Service Adviser
> > Roehampton University of Surrey
> > [log in to unmask]
>
>
> Bryan Jones
> Disability Support Services Manager
> Tel: 020 8411 5367
----------------------
Bernard Doherty
Student Adviser
ACCESS Centre
Anglia Polytechnic University
Tel: 01223 363271 x2534
Fax: 01223 417730
Minicom: 01223 576155
[log in to unmask]
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