Hi guys, I am a final year medical student about to graduate to become a foundation doctor.
I have an interest in specializing in opthalmology/vision and I have some spare time at the moment so I am picking up brialle as a hobby and something that I could potentially use in my specilization.
I have a few questions about brialle:
1. I was wondering what is the current consensus on braielle? Is it still being used in the current age with advancement in technology/medicine, especially with the use of audioguides and audio books, as well as surgical intervention to recover vision? 2. Any online resources I should start with (youtube, ebooks, pdf guides, etc)?
Thanks for all the replies in advance and hope to graudate soon.
OutWestTexas5 points4y ago
Braille is still very useful. You need it for find the right restroom, reading labels, etc.
That_Dog_Nextdoor3 points4y ago
Especially on medication. So labels just medical stuff!
jrs124 points4y ago
In my experience, I have found that people who know braille set themselves up for greater success in life. Using braille at an early age allows for significantly higher exposure to important aspects in literacy and grammar. If a child cannot read enlarged print for an extended period of time, that child needs braille. It's actually so important, that in the US we assume braille is the reading medium for any student with a visual impairment unless the vision teacher can prove they are capable of being successful in another medium. For adults later in life, I think it is less important, but it still has it's benefits. You can complete tasks silently. It makes it much easier to review and edit text. I think braille on screen keyboards are faster than qwerty keyboards on iPhones. You don't have to rely on technology that doesn't always work. Braille is still very important, especially for a younger population. Check out Hadley for learning. They have classes.
CloudyBeep1 points4y ago
An alternative to Hadley is www.uebonline.org.
Hellsacomin941 points4y ago
+1 for Hadley. I just started their lesson one tactile Readiness course. So far it’s been great. You may have to make some special arrangements with them though, the course I’m taking uses some oddball cartridge you need a special player to listen to.
jrs120 points4y ago
Is it a cartridge for an NLS player? Your chapter of the library for the blind should be able to give you a player for free.
CloudyBeep1 points4y ago
Their courses for sighted people are different.
jrs121 points4y ago
u/CloudyBeep, it seems as though you woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning and have decided to attack specifically me for some reason. I'm not sure if the person who wrote about the tactile readiness course is sighted or not. Weird cartridge and tactile readiness makes me think NLS player.
dmazzoni4 points4y ago
Braille is important for literacy. If you only listen to audiobooks and screen readers it's very hard to learn spelling and punctuation.
Blind professionals who need to write formal emails or documents often rely on a refreshable Braille display for a similar reason - to be able to get the spelling and formatting precise.
Of course it's also useful for signs, like in an elevator, hotel, restaurant, etc.
Finally, note that as a sighted person if you just want to learn to read Braille by sight and not by touch, it's pretty easy. It's not like learning ASL which is a completely new language. It's more like learning a new alphabet plus some symbols and contractions.
You can learn the whole code in less than an hour and have the essentials memorized in a week. Of course learning to read Braille by touch takes more practice.
jrs122 points4y ago
I agree with most of what you said, but I would say the average bear could learn the alphabet in an hour. Learning the contractions, when to use them, and how to differentiate between similar symbols takes about 3 months of three times a week classes. Then there are all the other codes such as Nemeth, computer braille, music braille etc. Learning it with vision is still way easier than teaching your fingers to do the work, but it does take time.
CloudyBeep1 points4y ago
But a person reading it for pleasure probably wouldn't need to learn the music code, the Computer Braille Code is no longer used, and Nemeth is being phased out. Not to be nitpicky, but it is comments like yours that discourage people from learning it, while we should be doing the complete opposite.
jrs121 points4y ago
Woah. If you read my other comment to OP's post, I'm in support of braille, but we shouldn't be short changing people regarding how easy it is to learn. What if OP gets super frustrated that he didn't learn it in an hour like everyone else?
CloudyBeep1 points4y ago
I completely agree with you that braille is extremely important and useful. It's just that I know of a lot of sighted people whose motivation to learn braille disappears when they hear that it is hard (there are other ways to say that it isn't just learning the alphabet) or who believe blind people are "inspirational" because we can read it.
blindnessandbees4 points4y ago
Braille is still used, mostly through braille displays. I am currently learning braille because I am going blind and I have honestly kind of been loving it. I love reading and languages so I just think of it as an hobby instead of a sad thing.
Hellsacomin941 points4y ago
That’s the one. I’ve got the player now, but it takes a while to get.
dmazzoni0 points4y ago
One note about restoring vision: I'm sure you know this, but there are a lot of causes of blindness and while some of them may be curable I'm the near future, many others are unlikely to ever be cured. Also, anyone who was born blind and is now an adult is unlikely to ever be able to use their vision even if it was restored - there have been many studies of this.
Please keep that in mind when considering whether things like Braille will be useful in the future. Of course they will be because there will still be blind people.
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