2017-06-18 23:09:07

I am one of those that see braille as very important seeing that I cannot see a really a better way to gain access to what things look like on the printed page as it were. Plus I do make use of the braille numbers and the like in some of those buildings that have them. On the other hand, I get a lot of books from bard. So, here is  the questions I have. When is a book a book? When is reading not reading? Let’s see if I cannot put it in other terms. When is it reading and when is it listening? How is reading defined? What senses do you not use while reading? Ok, that last question is a little odd. Think of it this way, there is a difference in braille and print... In short, define reading and let’s see where this topic goes. The book I just read was the cause of me bringing this topic up. Look up the untold history of the talking book on bard and you will see why it brought this topic to mind.

All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king.
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2017-06-19 01:20:43

Personally, I think reading is reading no matter how it's done. That said, I think that audio and Braille serve different purposes, but even then, the lines between how beneficial those different purposes are for each individual can get blurred pretty quickly.

Let me try to elaborate on this a bit, because I find this to be a fascinating question.

If one is blind from birth, or otherwise unable to read print by the time they should start reading, I am a firm believer that they should be taught Braille. It's essential that spelling, sentence structure, and so on is conveyed to you in a format that is tactile, and is as close to what the sighted get to print as possible. There are certain things that you just can't learn by using audio alone. And, if that's all you've ever known, things can get messy pretty quickly.

The other side of this is that when we watch a movie, technically we're only listening to it, whether it's described or not. Yet most of us find it insulting when sighted people try to tell us that we listened to said movie or TV show. So of course, even if you listen to an audio book, I feel like you're still reading it, because even a sighted person might listen to a book on their way to work, or when their hands/eyes are otherwise occupied. I bet they wouldn't like it if they were told they were listening to their book, though.

So it all falls under the same umbrella of terminology, and whatever works best for someone at any given point in time is still their way of reading.

The glass is neither half empty nor half full. It's just holding half the amount it can potentially hold.

2017-06-19 05:21:29

I'm more or less with Turtlepower all the way.
There are some things which are probably better read in braille when possible. Math and science and anything involving maps/diagrams are the obvious cases, but some literature does formatting tricks which are hard to represent in audio. For example, Far Tortuga does this thing where, whenever a character leaves the story, there are words and names positioned in unusual ways. And then there are stories that make use of anagrams (although contractions make those a bit harder). And let's not forget poetry in the shape of its motif. Oh, and spelling, of course.
Oh, and I like pictures, apparently, so long as they're comprehensible and not overly complex. A 4:3 or 16:9 braille display really should have existed by now. Steam-punk braille plz.

看過來!
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