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Hi! I have a math book that sometimes has text that follows paragraph headings start on the next print line. Is it permissable to move the text to be with the paragraph heading?
Example: for the first few lessons in the book, the print shows the paragraph heading “Convince Me!” on the line above the rest of the text in the sidebar, but the majority of the book has them together. I attached a word document with screenshots that show this.
Second, many print questions have what I would also consider paragraph headings at the beginning of them. Should I combine the text on the following line with the first line that has the paragraph heading, or keep them on separate braille lines? I also attached pictures of this to the word doc.
Yes, it is acceptable to bring the text up. When “Convince Me!” is treated as a paragraph heading, keeping all the related text together within the boundaries of the 3-1 paragraph format is appropriate.
However, <i>Guided Practice</i>, <i>Problem Solving</i>, and <i>Visual Learning</i> seem different to me. I view these as being at a higher organizational level than paragraph headings.
I say that for two reasons.
First, they appear to serve a different function. They are more prominent and are printed differently from the paragraph headings in the sidebar and the labels used with the itemized material shown in your screenshots.
Second, this appears to be an early elementary book (I’m not sure of the exact grade level). In early grades, we try to limit the use of font attributes. When you retain a paragraph heading, you also retain the font attributes, resulting in numerous blue font indicators (in your text). With the itemized material, those indicators are unavoidable, but with the headings, you have a choice. Choosing cell-5 or cell-7 headings eliminates the extra indicators, reducing unnecessary clutter without losing any meaningful information.
See Braille Formats 4.8.2 for more information.
Thank you for your help!
This is a first grade book, so I was just going to show the paragraph headings with bold, rather than with colored text, unless there is some reason I shouldn’t. If I did change the headings in the problems to cell-5 or cell-7 headings, would I pull only those colored words up, and then the problem numbers can stay with the problems below? I attached a few snippets with one of the problems from the screenshots worked the different ways, including how I had it previously (without emphasis, but the following text in the problem starts on the next line).
With first grade, you are allowed to use a limited number of fonts. The paragraph headings embedded within the numbered items are important enough to retain, so do not convert them to higher-level headings. Instead, leave them embedded within the numbered items. Since the additional font attributes, such as red and blue, do not add meaningful information for first-grade readers, using bold to distinguish the headings is the appropriate choice.
I have not been satisfied with the answer I previously gave you, so I have reconsidered the issue of the colored fonts used with the itemized material.
The current Early Learning Materials guidelines allow typeform indicators in first-grade books and state that they should be kept to a minimum. As written, the guidelines leave some room for interpretation.
The fonts used with the itemized material are significant enough to retain. The question then becomes how to retain them. According to Braille Formats, if you choose to retain a font, you should follow print. It is not actually permitted to substitute boldface for color. Because this is a first-grade book, I originally agreed to your using bold because it is simpler for beginning readers. However, that recommendation does not follow print.
THESE ARE THE OPTIONS I SEE:
Option 1. Use one indicator for color (recommended).
Create one transcriber-generated typeform called “color font” and use it for all of the blue and red paragraph headings. This stretches the current guidelines slightly but keeps the formatting simple while preserving the distinction from regular text.Option 2. Continue using bold instead of color.
This does not strictly follow the guidelines. If you decide this is the best approach, you should do two things:First, check the entire text to determine whether boldface is used anywhere else besides the paragraph headings.
Second, add a transcriber’s note explaining that bold has been substituted for color.
Although this approach falls outside the intended framework of the guidelines, the transcriber’s note makes the decision more understandable to the reader.
Option 3. Use transcriber-generated typeforms for each color.
This most closely follows the current guidelines. Create separate transcriber-generated typeforms for each color and follow print for all of the paragraph headings.CONCLUSION
The guidelines provide a framework for making formatting decisions; they are not absolute rules. As a result, you have some professional judgment in determining the best approach. However, transcriptions that closely follow the guidelines promote consistency across publications. That consistency allows students to focus on reading the content rather than adapting to different formatting from one book to another.
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