November 10, 1994
To: Members of the NFB Forum
From: Emerson Foulke
foulke@iglou.com or
e0foul01@ulkyvx.louisville.edu
As many of you already know, the International Council on
English Braille (ICEB) has assumed responsibility for the Unified
Braille Code Project. A committee known as the Unified Braille
Code Development Committee has been established by ICEB to manage
this project. The code development committee that was called the
Objective II Committee when the search for a Unified Braille Code
was a BANA project, has become a subcommittee of the Unified
Braille Code Development Committee, and is now called Committee II.
Its initial responsibility is unchanged.
ICEB's Unified Braille Code Development Committee will be
meeting concurrently with BANA during BANA's semiannual meeting
next April, in Washington D.C. At that time, it expects Committee
II to report a second draft of its effort to unify the braille
codes now in use. Shortly thereafter, it will be necessary to
submit this second draft to braille readers, braille teachers, and
braille transcribers for evaluation.
For some time, the Braille Research Center has been
accumulating the names and addresses of people who have indicated
a willingness to help with the evaluation of the Unified Braille
Code. Our plan is to sort the names in this list into three groups
- braille readers, braille teachers, and braille transcribers.
>From each of these subgroups, we will draw a sample of evaluators.
Each sample will be constructed to reflect a broad range of age and
experience with braille, and will include representatives from as
many States in the United States and Provinces in Canada as
possible.
We need to have some information about each potential
evaluator, and to get this information, I have put together three
simple questionnaires- one for braille readers, one for braille
teachers, and one for transcribers. The questionnaires follow this
message. At present, the list includes a large number of braille
readers, a fair number of transcribers, but only a few braille
teachers. In order to construct representative samples of
evaluators, I need more volunteers in all three groups.
If you are willing to serve as an evaluator, please supply the
information requested in the questionnaire for the group to which
you belong. If you are qualified for membership in more than one
group, please complete a form for each of the groups to which you
belong. You may answer questions in braille, print, by e-mail, or
by fax. If you prefer braille or print, send your letter to
Emerson Foulke
Braille Research Center
American Printing House for the Blind
P.O. Box 6085
Louisville, KY 40206
The fax number to use is (502) 899-2363. My e-mail address is
foulke@iglou.com.
When the questionnaires have been returned, we will begin the
process of constructing the samples of evaluators, and if your name
is drawn, I will be sending you a letter to inform you, and to tell
you what the next step in the evaluation will be. The three
questionnaires follow.
Questionnaire for Braille Readers
Please supply the information requested below. If you write
your answers in braille, write them on a separate sheet of paper,
and begin each answer on a new line that starts with the number of
the question you are answering. If you need more than one sheet of
paper, please place your name on the first line of each new sheet.
1. Name:
2. Age:
3. State or province:
4. Age at which you learned to read braille:
5. Years of experience reading braille:
6. Please indicate the type of braille text you feel you are
qualified, by training or experience or both, to evaluate. You may
indicate more than one. literary, mathematics, physical science,
social science, computer programming, foreign language, other
(please explain).
7. Estimate the percent of all of your reading for which you
use braille.
8. How do you read braille? touch? sight? both?
9. Please indicate the type of reading for which you prefer
braille (you may make more than one choice): recreational reading,
nontechnical reading matter, technical reading matter (mathematics,
science, computer manuals, etc.), reference material (dictionaries,
directories, catalogs, etc.), notes and labels, other (please
explain), all reading (if you prefer braille for reading matter of
all kinds, just mark "all reading").
Questionnaire for Teachers
Please supply the information requested below. If you write
your answers on a separate sheet of paper, as may be the case if
you want to write comments, begin each answer on a new line that
starts with the number of the question you are answering. If you
need more than one sheet of paper, please place your name on the
first line of each new sheet. If you are also a braille reader, in
addition to this questionnaire, please complete the questionnaire
for braille readers.
1. Name:
2. Age:
3. State or province:
4. Years of experience teaching braille:
5. Please indicate the type of braille you feel you are
qualified, by training or experience or both, to teach.
the braille used for: literary braille, mathematics, physical
science, social science, computer programming, foreign language,
other (please explain).
Questionnaire for Transcribers
Please supply the information requested below. If you write
your answers on a separate sheet of paper, as may be the case if
you want to write comments, begin each answer on a new line that
starts with the number of the question you are answering. If you
need more than one sheet of paper, please place your name on the
first line of each new sheet.
1. Name:
2. Age:
3. State or province:
4. Years of experience transcribing braille:
5. Please indicate the type of braille text you feel you are
qualified, by training or experience or both, to transcribe.
literary braille text, mathematics, physical science, social
science, computer programming, foreign language, other (please
explain).
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