[Athen] Advice Sought for Student Learning Arabic

[Brian Richwine]

To add to those resources, ABBYY makes a special version of the ABBYY
Finereader program that recognizes Arabic. We've used it in house a bit.

-Brian


On Tue, May 13, 2014 at 2:30 PM, Gaeir Dietrich <gdietrich at htctu.net> wrote:


> Someone asked about Arabic a few years ago (Angie? Theresa? I was thinking

> it was one of you...).

>

> I did some research at that time on OCR programs, TTS programs, and fonts

> for Arabic.

>

> The nice thing about Arabic (as opposed to some of the Asian languages) is

> that you do not have to Anglicize the writing. You keep the Arabic letters.

> You would use the Arabic translation table in Dux for the conversion. There

> are two translation tables, apparently because, as was suggested, the rules

> for Arabic have changed, and that I do not know about. You might check with

> the instructor about that.

>

> There is a foreign language transcription manual available from NBA:

> https://store.nationalbraille.org/product.aspx?pid=375

>

> There is also a textbook formatting guide now available:

> http://www.brailleauthority.org/formats/2011manual-web/

>

> The Library of Congress has a nice list of foreign language resources:

> http://www.loc.gov/nls/foreignlanguage/index.html

>

> For the OCR and fonts, I would probably start by looking at Sakhr. They

> seem

> to have the most complete solutions. (See links below.)

>

> Arabic OCR:

>

> http://international.sakhr.com/arabic-OCR-optical-character-recognition.html

>

> http://international.sakhr.com/arabic-nlp-natural-language-processing.html

>

> http://aramedia.com/

>

>

> http://www.leadtools.com/sdk/arabic-ocr.htm?SrcOrigin=Google-CPC-%2Barabic%2

> 0%2BOCR&MatchType=b&gclid=CPjPmIDmrqoCFQg_bAodlRYK-A

>

> Arabic TTS

> Acapela Voices

> http://www.acapela-group.com/text-to-speech-interactive-demo.html

>

> Sakhr (has ORC and TTS)

>

> http://international.sakhr.com/arabic-speech-recognition-and-arabic-TTS.html

>

>

> Translator Software

>

> http://www.top4download.com/english-to-arabic-and-arabic-to-english-converte

> r-software/zjxwfkmx.html

>

> Arabic keyboard

> Info:

> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_keyboard

>

> Online versions:

> http://www.yamli.com/arabic-keyboard/

> http://www.lexilogos.com/keyboard/arabic.htm

> http://arab-key.com/

>

> Good luck!!

>

> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

> Gaeir (rhymes with "fire") Dietrich

> 408-996-6047 or 408-996-4636

> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

>

>

> -----Original Message-----

> From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On

> Behalf Of Sean J Keegan

> Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2014 11:04 AM

> To: Access Technology Higher Education Network

> Subject: Re: [Athen] Advice Sought for Student Learning Arabic

>

> Hi Asha,

>

> We did production work for Chinese braille a few years ago and it was a

> very

> educational experience (particularly around costs!). In short, we did the

> following:

>

> 1) We began by outsourcing the initial production work with contractor

> (starting at $400 per print page - ugh!) so we could have some materials

> ready at the start of the academic quarter for the student.

>

> 2) At the same time, we had an alt format staff member knowledgable in

> braille and, separately, literate in Mandarin. Luckily, the student was

> taking Mandarin, so our alt format staff member began learning the Chinese

> braille format. This was not easy as there were a number of different

> websites with conflicting information, but once we found accurate

> information, the process began to go more smoothly.

>

> 3) When our internal production was running, we shifted the majority of

> production from the contractor to in-house. We still did contract out some

> work, but that content was not time-sensitive.

>

> 4) For braille production, we converted Chinese characters (hanzi) into

> pinyin and did basic formatting in MS Word. With the pinyin in MS Word, we

> then imported into Duxbury. We did some extra work to include the tones

> back

> into the braille version of the document (there are four tones in Mandarin

> Chinese used to clarify the word). Normally, the tones are omitted in

> Chinese braille, but as the student was learning the language he preferred

> to include these elements.

>

> 5) As several of the books we converted were both English and Chinese, we

> did have to come up with basic formatting rules with the student. The

> Chinese braille was in grade 1, whereas English parts of the textbook were

> done in grade 2. We could not find a braille manual we could read regarding

> how to format academic materials and so we used some BANA formatting. The

> catch was that some of the formatting overlapped at times with the Chinese

> braille characters, so we worked with the student to standardize the

> formatting (e.g., line overruns, language changes, etc.).

>

> Due to the differences in the language, there may or may not be some

> overlap. In our experience, it was MUCH easier to have a transcriber

> literate in the language and then for that person to learn the braille

> equivalent. If you do not have access to a transcriber on staff that is

> familiar with Arabic and/or braille, then outsourcing may be the best

> option. Another consideration may be to hire a person as a contract staff

> member - it could be much cheaper in the long run than trying out outsource

> everything. While Duxbury does make the conversion process simpler, do not

> expect Duxbury to get everything perfect. It does a good job, but we felt

> it

> was necessary to have a person reviewing the content for accuracy.

>

> Hope this helps.

>

> Take care,

> Sean

>

>

> Sean Keegan

> Associate Director, Assistive Technology Office of Accessible Education -

> Stanford University

>

>

> ----- Original Message -----

> From: "Asha Kinney" <akinney at hampshire.edu>

> To: athen-list at u.washington.edu

> Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2014 8:49:32 AM

> Subject: [Athen] Advice Sought for Student Learning Arabic

>

> Greetings Athen List:

>

> We have a student with a visual impairment who reads in braille and will be

> taking a course in Arabic this fall.

>

> Has anyone ever dealt with a student learning another language which uses a

> special character set and/or has its own unique braille code? Arabic,

> Chinese, Greek, Japanese, etc??

>

> I would appreciate any and all advice. This extremely motivated student has

> volunteered learn the Arabic braille code over the summer but I am trying

> to

> wrap my head around the translation process.

>

> I'm also wondering what the most useful approach would actually be, and if

> it's even braille-based at all. This student does have limited vision so we

> could also make use of enlarged graphics, as well as tactile ones, etc.

>

> Any other thoughts, stories, advice, or referrals welcome! Feel free to

> reply off-list and I am happy to compile responses and share.

>

> Thanks!

>

> Asha Kinney

> Assistant Director of IT - Instructional and Assistive Technology Hampshire

> College Amherst, MA 01002 akinney at hampshire.edu

>

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