South Carolina s transition plan from EBAE (English Braille American Edition) to UEB (Unified English Braille) P R E V I O U S Date Action March, 2014 Vision Summit UEB introduced state-wide List serve UEB practice lessons July, 2014 Research to Practice - UEB October, 2014 Begin UEB certification at BPC USC Upstate teaching UEB braille class November, 2014 Creation of a UEB list serve SCAER UEB training Next Steps Jan - Feb 2015 Phase 1 for current K-12 brl readers, new brl readers start with UEB (it will be the same from the alphabet through the whole word signs) March May 2015 Phase 2 June-July 2015 Summer RTP and possible summer reading program August 2015 Phase 2 (continued) Sept-Oct 2015 Phase 3 Nov-Dec 2015 Phase 4 Jan-Feb. 2016 Phase 5 and any wrap-up (Braille Challenge 2016 will be UEB) March 2016 Phase 5 and wrap up Spring 2015 Fall 2015 4 Regional Trainings 4 Regional Trainings This is the State UEB Transition plan. 2016-2017 School Year all students start using UEB and Nemeth code math, including instructional materials and state-wide testing. Phase One: Explain why the changes and how some words will look differently. See attachment One. Phase Two: Start with the removal of the nine contractions and short forms and new punctuation. You might want to introduce a smaller number than all nine at one time. See attachment Two Phase Three: Add emphasized print and capitalization. See attachment Three. Phase Four: Add web and email addresses. See attachment Four. Phase Five: Numbers and symbols. See attachment Five.
Attachment One: Why change? http://www.brailleauthority.org/ueb/overview_changes_ebae_ueb.html A. The braille code has changed many times since its creation in the 19th century. Changes have been made to assist braille readers in better understanding the text being communicated and to allow the production of braille to become more efficient. In 1991, more than 20 years ago, Dr. Abraham Nemeth and Dr. Tim Cranmer presented a paper to BANA discussing the urgency of the need to unify the various braille codes used in North America. The development of the computer braille code in the late 80s had created yet another set of braille characters for common symbols such as the dollar sign, the period, and the comma. The desire to create a unified code was partially in response to the perceived complexity of having multiple symbols for the same meaning. Later that year, BANA initiated a project to act on the recommendations in the Nemeth/Cranmer memorandum; that project became international in 1993 when BANA invited participation by the International Council on English Braille (ICEB). This process led to the development of the Unified English Braille Code (UEBC), which became known as UEB (Unified English Braille). Q. Would changing the braille codes bring any real improvements? A. Making changes to the braille codes would help braille readers, braille transcribers and producers, and teachers of blind students in a number of ways. For example: More consistency, less ambiguity, and fewer exceptions to braille rules would make braille easier to produce and would remove some barriers to learning braille. The ability to show more symbols in braille would give the braille reader better access to the same information that is available to print readers. Computer translation and backtranslation could be produced more quickly and with less human intervention than currently required. More accurate computer translation from print to braille and from braille to print would:
Reduce the errors and ambiguity experienced by those reading contracted braille on refreshable braille displays, which are the equivalent of a screen on a computer or mobile device Improve the backtranslation of braille that is written using electronic devices, so that braille users can write in braille to communicate easily and accurately with non-braille users Increase the timeliness of many types of braille production by permitting braille transcribers to focus more on advanced aspects of braille production rather than spending time on routine matters Reduce the labor required in braille production, allowing teachers to spend more time working with the students instead of brailling materials for their students Mitigate, to some extent, the difficulties experienced by a reader who is required to read computer-produced braille that has been prepared by someone who has not been trained in braille transcription
Attachment Two: 9 contractions and short forms http://www.brailleauthority.org/ueb/overview_changes_ebae_ueb.html Nine Contractions Eliminated by into to ble com dd ation ally o'clock The overarching reasons for deletion of these contractions are the need for accurate automatic forward- and back-translation between print and braille, the need to allow for more symbols without creating conflicts in the code, and the principle of reducing exceptions to braille rules. Here are more specifics: ation and ally were eliminated because they created complications in rules having to do with capital letters in the middle of words. to, into, and by were eliminated to allow for greater consistency in usage of other symbols. Also, the special spacing rules closed off options for making new symbols. com was eliminated to make room for greater flexibility in the placement and usage of hyphens and dashes. In current literary braille, a great deal of attention must be paid to the spacing of dashes etc., slowing down the production of accurate braille. ble was eliminated to allow for unambiguous reading and writing of numbers wherever they occur in literary contexts. dd was eliminated to allow for a single way to show the period/dot/decimal point even when it occurs in the middle of words or numbers. o'clock was eliminated because of a problem with capitalization. The extent of a capitalized word indicator (double dot 6) includes only the actual letters immediately following the indicator. This means that the apostrophe terminates the effect of the double dot 6 (this rule reduces the frequency of the use of the capitals mode terminator). If the shortform word "o'clock" were fully capitalized under this rule, it would look like this:
O'CLOCK,,o',,c which is fairly awkward, and almost as long as the spelled out word. This is the only contraction with this problem and is relatively infrequently used. Rather than keep this unwieldy construction or make a special rule for the capitalization of "o'clock", the contraction itself was eliminated.
Attachment Three: emphasized print http://www.brailleauthority.org/ueb/overview_changes_ebae_ueb.html Italics, Bold, Underline These also have different indicators for covering a single symbol, a word, or a passage. The use of word and passage indicators is intended to cut down on the number of individual indicators to be used. It also allows for a clear method to show when one letter or part of a word is emphasized as is increasingly common in educational material. Just like in current braille, these attributes are only meant to be shown when necessary for emphasis or distinction, not for visual effect (i.e., not as often as they are used in print). For example, if the title of a document is centered and in bold, the bold is not shown in braille. Italics Underline single letter.2 _2 ^2 word.1 _1 ^1 passage (begin and end) Bold.7.' _7 _' ^7 ^' The symbols for the endings of passages are placed, unspaced, after the last word. capitalized letter, 8.3 capitalized passage,,, 8.5 capitalized word,, 8.4 capitals terminator,' 8.6 A passage always has to be terminated, even if it is the end of the document. A word is made up of two or more characters and if it truly is a word, then it does not have to be terminated. In the example UNavailable, you would start with the
capitalized word symbol then you would have to terminate the capital after the N so the reader knows the capital is terminated after the N.,,UN,'available
Attachment Four: http://www.brailleauthority.org/ueb/overview_changes_ebae_ueb.html Web and Email Addresses, File Names, Twitter Handles, etc. In UEB there is no need to switch into computer braille code to write these, and therefore no need for begin and end computer code symbols. All of the same symbols can be used, governed by the same rules, whether in an electronic address or not. MeForCongress@aol.net,me,=,congress@aaol4net WilliamShakespeare: @TwitterTheatre Can it be true that you have shortened my plays to 140 characters? #horrifying,william,%akespe>e3 @a,twitt],!atre,c x 2 true t y h %ort5$ my plays to #adj "*s8 _?horrify+ Contractions can be used in web and email addresses without causing ambiguity. Short-form words (like braille, across, and tomorrow) are generally not used in electronic addresses because of the overall rules governing when and when not to use them. braille@aol.net braille@aaol4net brl@aol.net brl@aaol4net
Attachment Five: http://www.brailleauthority.org/ueb/overview_changes_ebae_ueb.html Numbers The digits are represented the same as in current literary braille. As mentioned above, the decimal point is dots 256. 3,000 miles #c1jjj miles 2.5 kids and a picket fence #b4e kids & a picket f;e After a numeric indicator, no contractions are used until a space or hyphen is encountered. 1st floor #ast floor 5th wheel #eth :eel Need2read@omgmail.com,ne$#bread@aomgmail4com 16-year-old #af-ye>-old
In simple fractions, the fraction line is dots 34. For a mixed fraction, the number sign is repeated after the whole number. ½ #a/b 2¾ cups sugar #b#c/d cups sug> When numbers contain slashes but are not fractions, the two-cell slash is used just as it is when words contain slashes, and the numeric indicator is repeated after the slash. The camp counselors/mentors must be ready to respond at any time, 24/7.,! camp c\nselors_/m5tors m/ 2 r1dy to respond at any "t1 #bd_/#g4 If there is a colon, dash, or hyphen in the middle of a number, the numeric indicator is repeated after the symbol, because these symbols stop the effect of a numeric indicator. It's 2:30 P.M. time to get up.,x's #b3#cj,p4,m4,-"t to get up4 The vote was 61-38.,! vote 0 #fa-#ch4
There will now be a specific way to show that numbers or other symbols are in a superscript or subscript position. This can apply to footnote references, common chemical formulae, and the like. Her adagio2 received glowing reviews.3,h] adagio;9#b rcvd gl[+ reviews4;9#c I explained that h2o stands for water.,i expla9$ t h;5#bo /&s = wat]4 Punctuation and Symbols acute e.g. é ^/ 4.2 ampersand & @& 3.1 angle bracket, opening < @< 7 angle bracket, closing > @> 7 apostrophe ' ' 7 asterisk * "9 3.3 at sign @ @a 3.7 backslash \ _* 7 brace (curly bracket), opening { _< 7 brace (curly bracket), closing } _> 7 bracket, angle, opening < @< 7 bracket, angle, closing > @> 7 bracket, curly, opening { _< 7 bracket, curly, closing } _> 7
bracket, round, opening ( "< 7 bracket, round, closing ) "> 7 bracket, square, opening [.< 7 bracket, square, closing ].> 7 British pound @l 3.10 bullet _4 3.5 cedilla e.g. ç ^& 4.2 cent @c 3.10 circle above e.g. å ^$ 4.2 circumflex e.g. î ^% 4.2 colon : 3 7 comma, 1 7 commercial at @ @a 3.7 copyright ^c 3.8 crosshatch # _? 3.18 curly bracket, opening { _< 7 curly bracket, closing } _> 7 dagger @,? 3.3 dagger, double @,] 3.3 dash,- 7.2 dash, long ",- 7.2.4 dash, swung ~ @9 3.24 decimal point. 4 6 degree ^j 3.11 diaeresis e.g. ë ^3 4.2 ditto "1 3.12
division "/ 3.17 dollar $ @s 3.10 dot. 4 7 double dagger @,] 3.3 double prime 77 3.11, 3.15 double quotation mark, opening e.g. ^8 7.6 double quotation mark, closing e.g. ^0 7.6
ellipsis e.g.... 444 7.3 equals = "7 3.17 euro @e 3.10 exclamation mark! 6 7 exclamation mark, inverted ^;6 13.5 feet ' ' 3.15 feet (prime) 7 3.15 female ^x 3.16 forward slash / _/ 7.4 fraction line, simple numeric e.g. ½ / 6 franc @f 3.10 full stop. 4 7 grave e.g. ò ^* 4.2 greater than > @> 3.17 hash # _? 3.18 horizontal line segment 3 16.2 hyphen - - 7.2 inches ",7 3.15 inches (double prime) 77 3.15 inverted exclamation mark ^;6 13.5 inverted question mark ^;8 13.5 less than < @< 3.17 line segment, horizontal 3 16.2 line, vertical _\ 15.1 long dash ",- 7.2.4
low line _.- 7.2 male ^y 3.16 Mars ^y 3.16 minus "- 3.17 minutes ' ' 3.11 minutes (prime) 7 3.11 multiplication "8 3.17 naira @n 3.10 nonspecific quotation mark, opening e.g. 8 7.6 nonspecific quotation mark, closing e.g. 0 7.6 number # _? 3.18 numeric fraction line, simple e.g. ½ / 6 numeric space e.g. 10 000 " 6.6 oblique / _/ 7.4 one-cell quotation mark, opening e.g. 8 7.6 one-cell quotation mark, closing e.g. 0 7.6 paragraph ^p 3.19 parenthesis, opening ( "< 7 parenthesis, closing ) "> 7 percent %.0 3.20 period. 4 7 plus + "6 3.17 pound # _? 3.18 pound, British @l 3.10 prime 7 3.11, 3.15
prime, double 77 3.11, 3.15 question mark? 8 7.5 question mark, inverted ^;8 13.5 quotation mark, double, opening e.g. ^8 7.6 quotation mark, double, closing e.g. ^0 7.6 quotation mark, nonspecific, opening e.g. 8 7.6 quotation mark, nonspecific, closing e.g. 0 7.6 quotation mark, single, opening e.g.,8 7.6 quotation mark, single, closing e.g.,0 7.6 registered trademark ^r 3.8 reverse solidus \ _* 7 round bracket, opening ( "< 7 round bracket, closing ) "> 7 seconds ",7 3.11 seconds (double prime) 77 3.11 section ^s 3.19 semicolon ; 2 7 simple numeric fraction line e.g. ½ / 6 single quotation mark, opening e.g.,8 7.6 single quotation mark, closing e.g.,0 7.6 slash / _/ 7.4 solidus / _/ 7.4 solidus, reverse \ _* 7 space 3.22 space, numeric e.g. 10 000 " 6.6
square bracket, opening [.< 7 square bracket, closing ].> 7 star * "9 3.3 swung dash ~ @9 3.24 tilde ~ @9 3.24 tilde above e.g. ñ ^] 4.2 times "8 3.17 trademark ^t 3.8 trademark, registered ^r 3.8 umlaut e.g. ü ^3 4.2 underscore _.- 7.2 Venus ^x 3.16 vertical line _\ 15.1 yen @y 3.10 yuan @y 3.10