Braille - Tumblr Posts
Fantastic work
Martin Kunz: ‘Pictures for the Blind’ (1902)
since i have no concept of what is dumb anymore pls dont judge the possible dumbness of this question;
is braille considered a language or a dialect?
if asl is american sign Language, then it is a Language. but braille is a “tactile form of Writing” (fanks kiwi-pedia) -- so is a difference in writing [and there4 reading] considered to be a change from its root spoken/written langueg, like a dialect, or a different language altogether?
Aynu Maytak Question
Despite all of the proposed writing formes me & my editor have seen for the Ainu tongue, neither of us have ever seen any for the maytak (braille) forme. As such, would anyone who’s familiar with the language like to help with this glaring gap?
Ahun-iyepa-hi ari obitta-kur wa aynuitak maytak katu kunip newa.
(Accessibility for everyone and Ainu language needs a braille form too.) These would illustrate how & why it’s important for native minority tongues (even outside of the Commonwealth countries) to have an access point for the blind & purblind, just as it’s important to have an access point for the crippled to get into buildings (even if said access points end up being other people carrying them over to the place they want). This would allow them to express themselves more freely & independently even if they’re sensory-deprived (like blind, purblind, deaf, mute, etc). Frankly, if such people have no way to express themselves one way or another, then what do they really have to do for themselves?
My point still stands, especially with how differently this kind of braille works from most other kinds. I think this form could possibly work with Ainu, with even the consonants being shown as above in standalone form (meaning sans the vowels) as unlike the kana form, this would have an easier time handling the phonetics inside. The ‘ye’ syllable would of course be written as -y- and then the kana e from its row. This may even hold true if a few new vowels were added into the equation, albeit in new combos. The one question is how to handle the allophony between s/sh & c (ch/ts).
Japanese Braille (and why it’s easier than written Japanese)
Okay, so I thought I’d write a post about a topic that’s really close to my heart, being a Legally Blind person: Japanese Braille.
There are 1.64 million people in Japan with an Uncorrectable Vision Impairments, 187,000 of which are listed as Blind.
Japanese Braille sounds really difficult, but in reality it’s not actually that hard! Especially once you get a few hundred Kanji in, learning Japanese Braille is honestly super simple.
First of all, a note: Japanese Braille (99% of the time, at least) is completely phonetic; there’s no differentiation between Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji like there is in Written Japanese.
Additionally, it follows really basic patterns; with the exception of a few Punctuation-type characters, you basically only have to learn 21 basic pieces, as everything else follows basic patterns beyond that.
First off, the vowels:
All other Syllables use these same Vowels, in the same places
Following this, there comes all of the Consonants
Note that the vowels are in the exact same spot as in the AIUEO characters, just with an added mark for the Consonant.
Here is probably a good place to point out: Dakuten is marked by a single dot on the middle of the right side of the cell, placed BEFORE the character that gets changed by the Dakuten (Handakuten is the same, except the dot was lowered to the bottom right of the cell)
You’ll note that this brings us up to 14 characters…. where are all the rest?
If you’re observant, you’ll note that Ya, Yu, Yo, and Wa and (W)o are missing from the chart here. That’s because these 5 characters break the rules, just a little bit.
(Note that the Wi & We characters are only there for Ancient Japanese; don’t worry if you never learned them before, they’re gone from Japanese now)
Note that the -y- character there is placed BEFORE another consonant to make it a _y_ version of it (i.e. put it before Ka to make Kya), and that the -w- character is used to make all the irregular Little Characters (i.e. put it before Ha and you’ll get Fa).
There’s 2 more characters to learn, and they’re pretty easy.
They’re made for doubling consonants, and doubling vowels respectively
For example, putting a Sokuon before Ka makes Kka, and a Chouon AFTER A makes Aa
Anyways, that covers all the fundamentals of Japanese Braille, hopefully enabling even more people to make Blind Literacy possible, in an entire other language!
i searched it up and apparently Braille is a code so its kinda transferable across different communities eg English, Spanish etc if thats wrong then ill say English braille specifically
If you could instantly be granted fluency in 5 languages—not taking away your existing language proficiency in any way, solely a gain—what 5 would you choose?
This is me, a live blind person, telling you all it is okay and good to learn braille! Accessibility tools that help people and which can be used by anyone are good and you can use them! More people using and knowing braille would actually be a huge help to the blind community because it would make braille more widely spread and give people less excuses to deny us the ability to read (which is a huge issue, about 90 percent of the blind population is functionally illiterate because people are refusing to teach us braille when we absolutely need it). Also braille is cool.
some people think i learned braille for Cool Points but i actually learned it bc my medicine holder has the days printed in braille and i forget to take my medication a lot. i didnt feel like turning on a light one night just to see my medication so i learned braille out of spite. now everytime i go anywhere i have to read the braille signs and i have seen “woman” misspelled as “noman” SEVERAL times.
@drchucktingle Camp Damascus is available in braille at last! I’ve read it thrice via text to speech ebook and audiobook but now I can really read it myself! I’m so excited!
Wanna learn braille? Now you can! Everyone is allowed to use braille, sighted or blind. There is a 90 percent illiteracy rate among the blind because nobody is able or willing to teach us how to read. If more people used braille maybe that would fix this. Braille may also be an alternative for people with dyslexia and can help those with a more kinisthetic (touch based) learning style.
Does anyone know a good way to make small run or individual shirt prints? I've always wanted to make one with acurate braille (the kind blind people actually read, not some half baked online font) that says "If you can read this, stop touching me" and why not now? XD
I waaaaant but even with a grant I'd still have to make about $2k appear out of nowhere. ;_;
A blind friend of mine was nearly killed by mislabelled meds and I certainly struggle with mine because I can't read them and accessible pharmacy anything is really hard to get (never did get a call back from ScripTalk). I'd love to be able to just read a label when I'm having a migrain and can't use my eyes too, that would be rad.
DOT WATCH
a smartwatch for the visually impaired