[Athen] Computer Science student -- Braille?

[Dan Comden]

I agree with Jim, mostly. Certainly having the student involved is key. A 
lot depends on the abilities of the student.

The student *may* have familiarity with LaTeX markup -- if that's the 
case, that can be helpful as some materials may be available in that 
format. Duxbury's translator can convert LaTeX to Nemeth, though there are 
some "gotchas" we've discovered in past years -- you can find those at 
http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/yasuhara/tmp/dss/latex/

We had a team of students involved in creating LaTeX content for a student 
a few years ago -- having workers who are familiar with the course content 
is very important in maintaining accuracy.

You'll most likely need to consider production of tactile graphics as 
well, as there will be quite a bit of important content in textbook 
figures from their courses.

-*- Dan Comden                 danc at washington.edu
     Access Technology Lab      www.washington.edu/computing/atl
     University of Washington   UW Technology Services

On Fri, 9 May 2008, Marks, Jim wrote:


> Hi Dawn,

>

> I think you should hire someone who can read and transcribe Nemeth

> Braille to publish Nemeth Braille.  It's possible to do the work without

> this, but it still takes a lot of effort.  Gaeir Dietrich teaches a

> wonderful seminar on producing Braille yourself.  I hope she will say

> something on this topic as well.  The reason that I prefer hiring a

> Braille transcriptionist is that it's the best way to assure effective

> communication.  Nemeth Braille especially requires a foundation.  We

> produce our own Braille here, but the person doing is a Braille reader.

> He spends a lot of time trying to get the formatting right, and there's

> no good way that I know to do this unless the person producing the

> Braille can read Braille.  Cost is always a concern, but in the economic

> considerations, we should think about frustration and learning curves.

> It may be a good idea to bring the blind student into the process

> somehow, too.  For example, in working closely with a student, one might

> find that only a few things need be Brailed while access to the majority

> of the material may be satisfied through other alternatives.

>

>