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Blind and Visually Impaired Community

Full History - 2016 - 06 - 13 - ID#4nzkfl
7
Question for blind people about spelling (self.Blind)
submitted by gelema5
Occasionally I notice blind users on this sub using words that are homophones or simply missing a silent letter, very simple things like passed (the verb) instead of past (the noun) that aren't any bother to read over. I imagine this is because the screen readers don't note the difference to the user, so they can't catch those errors before they post their writing. I wouldn't bother with correcting people unless they asked me to, since it could come across as rude. That being said, was it a big difficulty learning to type and spell? If you were blind from a young age, what do you think of having to learn proper spelling if words sound exactly the same spelled a different way?
justanothergirling 4 points 7y ago
It has to do with the software they are using (braille-to-text or voice-to-text). Most aren't typing the same way you are and as you can imagine, impossible to "read over" unless they have access to a refreshable display unit.
gelema5 [OP] 2 points 7y ago
Thanks for the reply! By braille-to-text, do you mean there's braille on the keyboard keys?
justanothergirling 3 points 7y ago
Braille consists of six keys plus a space bar that is typed in a certain combination and order to produce braille. It can be a mess to use a computer to translate braille to text because it's not a letter-by-letter code and some symbols mean more than one thing depending on how it is used (the same way a certain combination of words can mean an entirely different thing depending on how it is spelled).
gelema5 [OP] 1 points 7y ago
I'd never heard of Braille typewriters before, but it makes sense now that I know about it.
justanothergirling 2 points 7y ago
The kind that hooks up to a computer look roughly like this: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Braille_keyboard_DASA_museum_Germany.jpg

The six keys in the center are the main brailling ones. The long one is the space bar.
Unuhi 3 points 7y ago
Usually isnʻt.
I have a braille keyboard on my mac so i donʻt have to guess what i type.
But usually braille keyboard would be a smart brailler where you can type directly in braille.
Most people listen to the text instead of refreshable displays - cost is a huge issue here as they can cost a lot (easily over a $1000).

So when you listen to something but donʻt have access to verify spelling, especially in english or french or other nonphonetically spelled languages, itʻs difficult to know how something is spelled.
Then we have all the words that sound similar, and that get misspelled easily if you use speech to text forntyping (dragon, siri etc). So a guide dog becomes "guy dog".
gelema5 [OP] 1 points 7y ago
I watched Tommy Edison's video about how he types. I suppose there's lots of combinations for things like obscure symbols. What about reading or writing a foreign language?
Unuhi 1 points 7y ago
My first two languages are easy.
Phonetic spelling, no braille contractions either.

How i think when reading... No clue
When thinking by myself but not talking i usually have i,age/comcept mode that does mot have a language. When speaking or typing with people i need to turn ln language mode.
[deleted] 1 points 7y ago
[deleted]
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