kdejute
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A little discussion with a teacher brings up how *very* difficult it is to align a slate and stylus or a braille writer with specific blank space, even on a consumable worksheet.
So, we would likely use a visible space for all blanks to be filled in and write a tn explaining the situation, probably including a suggestion to write answers on a separate piece of paper.One possible solution is to use small drawn squares on page 69 and large drawn squares (with the same line texture) on page 63.
A rough rule of thumb for how big to make the squares that an answer is to be written in might be two cells wider than the correct answer will be and one cell taller than a braille cell (i.e., draw the top box line half a braille cell above where the answer will be written, and draw the bottom box line half a braille cell below where the answer will be written).
Let me see if I can get some input from a "boots on the ground" teacher about this, too.
–Kyle
Tiffanie,
Thank you for your question!
You are quite right that a good place to start is "Guideline 10: Expendable (Consumable) Material" of the BANA Guidelines for the Transcription of Early Educational Materials from Print to Braille.
As you know, 10.1.1.h of those guidelines says,
Omit lines, dashes, circles, boxes, etc., indicating a required answer, before or after questions. (Braille Formats 2016, Section 10.5.1)
Notably, 10.1.1.f says,
Leave enough blank space, or lines, for the insertion of the answer with braille writer or slate and stylus. It takes skill to line up a braille writer to insert an answer. Extra blank space is needed.
I suspect that in the examples you shared, the student will not be expected to write in any answers on page 69 but *will* be expected to write in answers on page 63 (which includes larger text and boxes indicating missing material and also says, "Find the number that makes each equation true.").
Hmmm.
One more place to look for guidance is the Math Examples at the end of the BANA Guidelines for the Transcription of Early Educational Materials from Print to Braille. On print page 52 of those guidelines, the commentary to the UEB Math/Science Math Example 3 says,
The visible space symbol (+) representing a space to be filled in is used in textbooks. (UEB Guidelines for Technical Material, 2014, 3.6) However, for worksheets or homework sheets intended for a specific student it may be beneficial to draw squares to identify the missing number as shown on the following page.
Thank you for posting this question!
Most of us on the committee would go with your Example 2 (brailling each line continuously using a runover position when necessary.)
None of use would go with your Example 1, because it requires some pretty complex navigation on the part of the reader.
(One additional suggestion was to consider tweaking Example 2 by forcing a line break after each comma so that every expression from "column 2" starts its own braille line. This may help the reader to navigate the material, especially when trying to revisit parts of it.)
–Kyle
Third and last, even when dealing with chemical notation that requires grade one indication past the 3rd cell in an expression, a transcriber should use a grade one word indicator instead of a grade one symbol indicator.
That's what it says in #5 in BANA's "Provisional Guidance for Transcribing Mathematics in UEB."
Unless a math expression can be correctly represented with only a grade 1 symbol indicator in the first three cells or before a single letter standing alone anywhere in the expression, begin the expression with a grade 1 word indicator (or a passage indicator if the expression includes spaces).
[Will the final (i.e., not provisional) version of BANA guidance say the same thing? I believe it will say something different. But, for now, we should follow what is published.]
Second, I very much sympathize with your question about, "How should we format formal proofs (and other labeled statements) in UEB Math/Science transcriptions?"
In short, Braille Formats is our formatting guide for anything not covered in RUEB, GTM, or BANA's "Provisional Guidance for Transcribing Mathematics in UEB."
One covered issue that is related to formal proofs comes from the "Provisional Guidance for Transcribing Mathematics in UEB." The first paragraph in #3 of that document says the following.
For technical materials, use margins 3-1; do not use blocked paragraphs. If the entire textbook is in blocked paragraphs, note the change to indented paragraphs in a TN.
So, in a UEB Math/Science transcription, we would probably format the print of "Example 26-73: Theorem with Auxiliary Captions" of The Nemeth Code as follows.
⠀⠀⠘⠂⠠⠮⠕⠗⠑⠍⠀⠘⠂⠼⠙⠲⠀⠠⠊⠋⠀⠞⠺⠕⠀⠇⠔⠑⠎⠀⠜⠑⠀⠉⠥⠞⠀⠃⠽
⠁⠀⠞⠗⠁⠝⠎⠧⠻⠎⠁⠇⠀⠯⠀⠁⠀⠏⠁⠊⠗⠀⠷⠀⠁⠇⠞⠻⠝⠁⠞⠑⠀⠔⠞⠻⠊⠕⠗
⠁⠝⠛⠇⠑⠎⠀⠜⠑⠀⠑⠟⠥⠁⠇⠂⠀⠮⠀⠞⠺⠕⠀⠇⠔⠑⠎⠀⠜⠑⠀⠏⠜⠁⠇⠇⠑⠇⠲
⠀⠀⠨⠂⠠⠛⠊⠧⠢⠒⠀⠠⠇⠔⠑⠎⠀⠰⠠⠠⠁⠃⠀⠯⠀⠰⠠⠠⠉⠙⠀⠉⠥⠞⠀⠃⠽
⠞⠗⠁⠝⠎⠧⠻⠎⠁⠇⠀⠠⠠⠗⠎⠀⠁⠞⠀⠏⠕⠔⠞⠎⠀⠰⠠⠑⠀⠯⠀⠰⠠⠋
⠗⠑⠎⠏⠑⠉⠞⠊⠧⠑⠇⠽⠆⠀⠸⠪⠭⠀⠐⠶⠀⠸⠪⠽⠲
⠀⠀⠨⠂⠠⠞⠕⠀⠨⠂⠠⠏⠗⠕⠧⠑⠒⠀⠰⠰⠰⠠⠠⠁⠃⠀⠼⠇⠀⠠⠠⠉⠙⠲⠰⠄
First, let's tackle the Dot Locator for "Use" (RUEB2024 §3.14)
I agree, the fourth paragraph in GTM 4.1 Spatial calculations (quoted below) gives us guidance regarding blank lines in relation to the numeric passage indicator or terminator that we simply do not have regarding blank lines in relation to grade 1 indicators, capitalized passage indicators, or their respective terminators.
The line above and below spatial calculations should either be blank, or should only contain the numeric passage indicator or terminator.
I would advocate for your #2 example, where you have replaced the blank lines around displayed material with a line that contains only the grade 1 passage indicator and a line that contains only the grade 1 terminator. For our convenience, I have attempted to recreate that example below.
⠼⠊⠲⠀⠠⠔⠙⠊⠉⠁⠞⠑⠀⠞⠗⠥⠑⠀⠕⠗⠀⠋⠁⠇⠎⠑⠒
⠐⠐⠿⠰⠰⠰
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠠⠎⠐⠖⠠⠕⠢⠼⠃⠀⠳⠕⠀⠠⠎⠠⠕⠢⠼⠃⠀⠳⠬
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠠⠓⠠⠉⠇⠀⠳⠕⠻⠘⠳⠪⠀⠠⠓⠔⠐⠖⠐⠖⠠⠉⠇⠔⠐⠤
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠠⠅⠠⠊⠐⠖⠠⠊⠢⠼⠃⠀⠳⠬⠳⠩⠀⠠⠅⠠⠊⠢⠼⠉
⠐⠐⠿⠰⠄
⠀⠀⠠⠁⠲⠀⠠⠞⠗⠥⠑
⠀⠀⠰⠠⠃⠲⠀⠠⠋⠁⠇⠎⠑
Thank you for your question, Fred.
Though I do not doubt our braille-using friends, students, and neighbors would make sense of contracted comments within a numeric passage, I cannot recommend it.
A numeric passage indicator sets grade 1 mode until the numeric terminator ends that grade 1 mode (RUEB2024 §6.9.1). If we use contracted braille within a numeric passage, then we use symbols that have a grade 1 meaning in an environment that says their grade 1 meaning is what's important.
In responses to your questions:
Q: Yes, everything within a numeric passage is in grade 1.
1) A math comment like 300×32, would be brailled without the numeric indicators within a numeric passage.
2) No. For the sake of clarity, translatability, and consistency, we should not braille text comments contracted within a numeric passage.
Regarding your key for comments: I really like your placements of the key letters (i.e., each following the quotient piece to which it applies). However, remember what RUEB2024 § says: "... any lowercase letter a-j is preceded by a grade 1 indicator." Since you'll have to use a grade 1 symbol indicator for each of those letters, I think you should get rid of the periods. Also, in your key listing, please check the formation (and grade 1 indicating) of your letters (especially the b). One more note: you do not need a blank line before the braille line that contains only a numeric terminator (GTM §4.1, last paragraph before 4.1.1).
In other words, regarding your #3, it is a good choice to use a key for the comments, and it seems practical to use a TN to explain the printed down arrows showing numbers in the dividend moving.
Last, but not least, I agree, spatial division with operation signs is challenging; I think you've done a very good job of aligning by place value and placing the symbols of operation where they apply.
Braille on!
–KyleFor what it is worth, personally, I would be tempted to use UEB's composite symbol for horizontal juxtaposition (GTM §14.3.4) but would probably not use it, trusting the braille user to recognize the significance of two sequential equals symbols without my grubby little transcriber hands getting into the content.
14.3.4 Horizontal Juxtaposition ;=
"Horizontal juxtaposition" is to be invoked only when two symbols are written in close proximity and it is clear from the usage that a new single symbol, distinct from the elementary symbols considered in sequence, is intended. Otherwise, symbols written one after the other should simply be brailled accordingly.If you had an example to share, Shellee, I would love that because the committee could come to a decision for that specific circumstance.
–Kyle
P.S. I noticed you quoted a sentence from a course, and I think there is a different interpretation than you assigned to it. The sentence is, "Linked expressions are displayed expressions that are made up of an 'anchor' and one or more 'links'." I believe the sentence means "linked expressions can be displayed" rather than "if something is a linked expression, then it is necessarily displayed."
Thank you for sharing more of your thoughts.
The committee has been discussing this, and our conclusions are summarized below:
- The fact that these expressions are itemized removes the need to treat them as displayed. [see BF2016 §9.1.2, which says, "For formatting purposes, lists, boxed material, and tables are not considered displayed material. ..."]
- Only the comparison symbols require spacing.
So, we recommend using the indention pattern and lack of blank lines that make up your Example 1.
And, we would probably omit all the spaces we could. I think that means keeping only two kinds of spaces: 1) spaces around symbols of comparison and 2) spaces that make a word more likely to keep its usual form. This is illustrated in a snippet below and in slightly more context in the attached picture and brf.
"7 .- t5?s"/.- t5?s
The big takeaway is that an itemized list is not displayed material.
As for spacing, the best choice is likely what you can best do consistently.
Braille on!
–KyleJanice, Computer Braille Code is no longer an active code in the United States. Please see the document BANA Positions on Computer Braille Code and Braille ASCII.
Does that lead you to further questions, or is that all you need?
–Kyle
