Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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Using the Unicode braille characters instead of braille ASCII in text files (self.Blind)
submitted by Altie-McAltface
This is just a stupid idea that popped in my head. Unicode has a block set aside for 8-dot braille patterns that show up visually when inserted into a text document. NVDA and VoiceOver will render these patterns as their corresponding raised cells on a braille display.
I used a python script to convert a BRF file containing braille ASCII to Unicode braille encoded in UTF-8. Unsurprisingly, it was 2.8 times bigger than the ASCII file. The advantage is that the Unicode file unambiguously represents the braille cells, including 8-dot cells.
So, other than the size difference, why not use Unicode braille in plaintext documents rather than a special file type?
I used a python script to convert a BRF file containing braille ASCII to Unicode braille encoded in UTF-8. Unsurprisingly, it was 2.8 times bigger than the ASCII file. The advantage is that the Unicode file unambiguously represents the braille cells, including 8-dot cells.
So, other than the size difference, why not use Unicode braille in plaintext documents rather than a special file type?
ryan516 3 points 2y ago
Essentially, because there is no incentive to. 8-dot braille is only used in incredibly niche circumstances (Luxembourg Braille defaults to it—Japanese Kantenji also use it, but no one actually uses them).
Additionally, Accessible Technology in practice is not about optimization — it’s about making the most barebones product that they can still milk $3,500 out of. Since ASCII works well enough at representing Braille, most Braille Device manufacturers will default to that.
Additionally, Accessible Technology in practice is not about optimization — it’s about making the most barebones product that they can still milk $3,500 out of. Since ASCII works well enough at representing Braille, most Braille Device manufacturers will default to that.
[deleted] 1 points 2y ago
[deleted]
retrolental_morose 1 points 2y ago
because braille embossers, braille displays and notatakeers can't read/translate them, mainly.
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