Hi all,
A lot of people who use Braille 2000 know that there is a nice little program called the Childrens Grade Relaxer. It is known as simply “the grade relaxer” and its job is to uncontract a document in a way where it is appropriate for children to read it. When I got Braille 2000 version 2.273, this portion of the software was not accessible to the blind instructor or braillist. Now, in 2.274, it is. When 2.275 is released, the dialogue which was accessible hasn’t changed much at all, but now, we’ll have spoken feedback on the aspects of “can read” “can’t read” and partial. Partial is actually called mixed.
The colors of the dialogue are green for can, red for can’t, and the node of the tree being yellow for a mix case of green and read within it. Also, we can now press the space bar to toggle a node, or specific options for yes or no. This is another reason why I love Braille 2000, the dedication of Bob is paramount to have the best software that can be produced.
Here is how it works. Lets say you have a child or adult named John. The first thing you’ll do is make a profile named John. It comes with one profile which is default which is everything read. The dialogue won’t be described here, but you’re able to adjust the profile in a dialogue that says you can’t read any grade 2, to a mix bag of can and can’t read based on the child’s progression. The dialogue will also have options to relax the running heads. It also has an option to create the job as a new work area, which is recommended, and whether or not you want the file double spaced or not. Within each profile, you can select whether or not the child or adult understands single spaced material or not. If not, it becomes double spaced.
There is also an option to say yes or no each and every change, I would recommend this to be off, so it does the work for you. In a future version, the yes no will be removed, as it proves to not be useful. It may have been useful in a prior version, but it may not be useful today.
Since this tool has been in braille 2000 from the beginning of brraille 2000, and it could be very valuable based on lesson material being taught, I could see the blind instructor producing material once in RTF, format it using percent codes or shape paragraphs, and have a profile set for each child entering the class. The profile is like an account, where each child or adult has their own account, and you adjust that account based on their reading capabilities. Once they master everything, then they can use the default profile which is set to read everything single spaced. The possibilities are endless.
Note that double spaced work takes twice as much room, so my 5 page letter turned in to 9 pages, when just applying the doublespace. Single spaced uncontracted for that same letter for assignment 13 was 6 pages. Braille 2000 knows and understands this fact, and formats it correctly.
If you have any questions comments or concerns, please contact Bob or myself.
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