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Braille Transcription using WYSIWYG

Hello folks,

Today, on Vocal, is another article that I had published. This article covers Braille2000 and how it became more accessible. If you’ve been to the blog, we’ve got an entire category called Braille2000 which has all the details.

Since I publish all my tech articles here, why not include this one?

The simulated braille is from assignment 1, and it is probably imaged right, but Jaws does read the assignment and it is in grade one.

I may have that changed to an image, I’ll inquire.

Braille Transcription using WYSIWYG: How Braille2000 became more accessible to the blind transcriber education.media January 31, 2020 is the article, and I hope you enjoy it! Thanks for reading my work, and make it a great day!

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Braille2000 being talked about on internet radio

Hello folks,

I just want to come in and let you know about Braille2000 being talked about on Internet Radio. Besides my shows which mentioned it by passing, there is now a show which featured me as being interviewed recently.

On this podcast, I talk about the benefits of Braille2000’s talking edition, how it came about, the various methods of getting braille including the percent codes, B2K itself, and the like.

If you wish to listen to the program, you can go to the go to the RSS feed or you may download the 220mb file right here.

I’ll have it up on jaredrimer.info next week, but the mix gets first dibs.

Its also available on livewire on my tree at box 2276.

I hope that you enjoy the program, and please tell your friends!

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Braille2000 version 2.274 Jan 25, 2020: brings simbraille and a transcription fix

The update that is released for January 25, 2020 fixes a translation issue that was found, as well as simulated braille issues.

Part of the simulated braille aspect includes simulating a braille page as part of an exercise that you want to do when showing an example of formatting or other aspects for a class. There were issues with this, and percent codes have been added to support this including the aformentioned pager and interpoint tags I’ve mentioned before.

to update your copy of Braille2000 to this release:

Select panel, file management
• Select fetch software update.

When you get to the screen, hit the down arrow key and it’ll say Braille2000 2.274 1/25/20 14:07 or similar text. Pressing enter selects OK and it’ll prompt you to exit Braille2000 when you’re ready. We don’t want you to stop what you’re doing, so work as normal. When you exit, it’ll start the installation and no data is lost. After downloading, it’ll run the installer, and follow its prompts.

Should you have any questions about the update process, please contact us through the Braille Transcription done as a blind person or Braille2000 web sites.

No matter whom you choose, we’ll be happy to help you!

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Assignment 17: I passed!

Hello everyone, yesterday after writing the first post, I got my report back. There are three errors that were in my assignment.

• A contraction (groupsign) error
• Two quote errors

The quote errors are up for interpretation. I understood it to be one way based on the text, and I’m looking for clarification on this because of how the narative of the problem occurred. Be that as it may, I passed!

As I discussed in my prior post on 17 Braille2000 as it currently stands played a very crucial role on my work. While I got four brailleouts, I was able to still check the formatting, and even check other aspects that I could only do with braille.

At some point, I’ll do a full write up on assignment 17 which will include audio, as I’ve done to date with the rest of the assignments.

I’ll also get clarification on 18 and how I understand it to be done.

Are there any questions about B2K and how it may help you check work? The Braille2000 team is here to help you. Please go either to the Braille Transcription as a blind person web page and select contact, or you may go to the Braille2000 web site directly and find contact info for Bob.

We look forward in serving you for your needs in regards to B2k, and if this is any indication of what you’d like to do, we want to help. Only you can make the decision on what you need, but we can definitely help answer questoions if this intrigues you. Thanks so much for reading, and make it a great day!

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Assignment 17 has been submitted for grading

4 braille copies later, lots of time understanding what is wanted, I believe that the assignment is finally ready for grading. The purpose of this blog post is to describe how I put this assignment together. I’d like to thank Bob for sending me the text, so that I have it.

First, I took the text, and put percent codes where I thought they needed to be. For example: I used the percent code %pn=1|10 which started the page numbering for the assignment. This is a brand new percent code to have page numbers that are hyphenated. Next, I used the usual percent codes for formatting which include %3-1 and %1-3 in spots. Braille copies indicated that I need to continually change things, and my mentor gave me prompts on what may be wrong without giving me the answers.

I continued to ask questions to understand what was needed. I definitely got confused on one part where it said to use list format, but also said to use cell 5 runover 5 (5-5) for the footnotes. That understanding and clarification is crucial to this assignment, and I’m not going to give any answers to how it should be done as there may still be an issue.

I also used simulated braille to have the note separation line that is discussed. I was unclear if every note needed a line or just the first one, so that was confusing to me. While I kept reading the book, trying to understand what is required, it left some very interesting questions.

I’ll have more on this assignment on a full write up through jaredrimer.info once the assignment is graded. For now, know that this uses lots of different formatting, and a full understanding of what is required is definitely important.

Braille2000’s talking edition played a crucial part, as I was able to check the formatting based on what I wanted, and how I understood the assignment. Each time I changed something, I checked its formatting carefully, then got a braille out of that copy to determine whether I was reading it correctly.

Initial versions did not understand the new symbols I’ve never seen until now for dagger and double dagger. B2K was updated to handle this in import.

I think thats all for now, but I wanted to take an opportunity to talk about my experience to date and how I used B2K for this as well as various percent codes.

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Braille2000 2.274 introduces new options for percent code usage

For Immediate Release:

• The Jared Rimer Network, Braille Transcription As A Blind Person
• Braille2000 LLC

December 30, 2019 11:05 AM US Pacific time 13:05 US Central Time

We’re happy to release a new Braille2000 release for those of you who use percent codes.

Assignment 18 illustrates an assignment whereby you’re handing out documents, and each document needs to be on a separate page. Those documents that have a second page need a running head.

To accomodate this, there are new percent codes which have been introduced, and this update understands these.

• %interpoint   (declares the document to be interpoint mode)
• %pager        (begins a new braille page WITHOUT a runnning head
• %page1        (begins a new front-side page, used in an interpoint document)
• %page2 and %page 3 are similar in regards to Interpoint transcription but %page1 may be used the most

This update released today understands these codes. While the lessons tell you to use single sided mode even for electronic delivery, the final lesson which is 20 stresses to using single sided. I could see us using this mode for our work when we do interpoint work.

The update can be done by doing the following:

• Hit alt+p for panel, and m for file management.
• Tab to fetch software update.
• On that screen select Braille2000 2.274 which is dated 12/30/2019

A dialog will pop up to tell you that B2K needs to be closed. Close it at your convenience, and the update will run.

As per usual, contact Bob or I if you have any questions or concerns. The percent code aspect of Braille2000 is going to be a helpful edition and I’ve been using it for my lessons. Between the simulated Braille when needed, and the percent codes and these new editions, we’re having a fine product. The Talking Edition can also be used to check to make sure that the formatting you wanted is used as intended.

Thank you Bob, for your hard work and dedication toward this valuable service toward the blind transcriber. My hope is to get people interested in a different method of doing this work, and this edition adds to what we might need.

Contact the Braille2000 team by going to our site and finding the method that works best for you.

Thanks so much for your time and interest in our product!

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Braille2000 2.274 brings new functionality, fixes

For Immediate Release:
December 22, 2019: 11:23 AM US Pacific Standard Time
JaredRimer.info’s Braille2000 Transcribing as a blind person
Braille2000 LLC

Today we’ve braught a new feature to Braille2000 in regards to unicode lookup and inserting. This dialogue was mainly a graphical interface, but a text representation has been introduced with the update released very early this morning. It also fixes Dagger support in the Braille translation.

The interface for the unicode lookup is very nice, It was introduced after I wanted a list of the most common codes. I have a very short list of items that I’ve used through my lessons, but then I needed more. This lookup tool can put the characters directly in to your Braille document, and also we can take the decimal number (alt+number) or unicode number or other set. that might be available within this tool.

I’m not too familiar with all of this, however, if the decimal check box is unchecked, the system gives the unicode number which is different.

We had some major issues with transcription in regards to the dagger and double dagger. I’ve never seen these characters until assignment 17, and there are several in there. The assignment teaches formatting of various kinds, with footnotes and other notations. The write up on 17 will be done after I submit it to the proctor for grading.

To get this latest update:

• Hit alt+p for panel and select file management (m) and press enter
• Tab to fetch software update
• The update will be dated 12/22 2:03
• Press enter
• B2K will tell you that it needs to close to be able to update

The update will run and download and it’ll then install over itself. The version number is still 2.274.

If you have any questions, please contact Bob or I, and I hope you enjoy these changes and new functionality!

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Braille2000 2.274 update 2274 120-5-19

For Immediate Release:

Braille2000 LLC
web site

We’ve just released 2.274 which has support for a percent directive dealing with numeric page numbering I.E. 17-10 which is written #17#10 in braille according to the instruction manual. Also, it supports telling ctrl+qt options for verbal feedback of setting. the options such as line, paragraph, and the tell as sections.

Run the updater as follows:

• Pannel, file management
• Once there select software update

It will be dated 2.274 for 12/5/19.

Please get in touch if you have questions or concerns!

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Assignment 16: I passed!

Hello everyone,

A full report will be available when i get to this on jaredrimer.info and the transcribers section. There wereissues in regards to the header. Since there were four pages, thats 4 errors and I understand. I could’ve done that.

Next is a groupsign error for a contraction. This is the ST contraction. I found it, but am not clear on it.

It was accepted and I’m happy about that. It took a long time to do.

We got exact because of this assignment.

Questions? Get in touch!

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Braille2000 and non-maximized windows

Hi,

The bug I talked about in the latest update that got fixed was in regards to non-maximized windows. As a blind user, the window should be maximized so that you get the best possible outcome, regardless of screen reader. In the release today, Bob fixed logic that would not remember window positions when the system was not maximized.

We’ll be implementing telling cues for changing settings as speak as as well, more on that soon.

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New 2.274 now available

For Immediate Release:

New! 2.274 with telling of what you’re changing to i.e. reading as explicit, as cells, or words. I’m realizing we can do more, and I’m sure it can be implemented if requested as telling goes. Set the option, get confirmation like tell the line, ctrl+qtl reading line numbers. Its a work in progress, and I’m sure we can get this to work the way we want over time.

What do you all think? The release was posted today.

To update: go to the panel menu with alt+p, hit m for file management, then tab to get software update, and press space. 2.274 is the only thing on the list, so tab to OK and say OK to the dialog telling you that you need to close B2K to install the update. If you’re working, close it at your convnience, and it’ll update when you’re ready.

A very interesting window resizing bug cropped up especially when two monitors were involved. This is mainly for the sighted, i’m currently looking for more details on that one.

I’ll post more about that later on.

Have suggestions? Please let us know. Without you, we can’t do it alone.

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Coming soon, a ctrl+q+a fix which I think I’ll love

Hello folks,

As I continue to work on my website for jaredrimer.info for braille2000, I found something I think will help us once its implemented. Its in regards to the ctrl+q+a (speak as) settings.

If you’ve tried braille2000, and/or listened to my demos, than you’ll know that something doesn’t seem right. When you use ctrl+q+a plus a letter, it sets the option of speaking. Thats great, until I realized for the final time today that when I set it, there wasn’t speech feedback confirming what I selected. It works, it selects it, but then I forgot that you can’t turn it off. You have to set another option.

What I’ve proposed is feedback to tell us what the setting was changed to. This way, we can have confirmation that it did take, instead of hearing silence. I’m confident that people will like this change. Of course, if you find that you don’t, I’m sure we can have a toggle somewhere, but I think I want to start by default to tell us when a change like this is made.

Have thoughts? Download 2.274 from braille2000’s web site and evaluate it yourself! I’d love to hear from you.

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Braille2000 and NVDA don’t mix

Hello all,

This morning, I decided to run NVDA to get it updated. When I ran it as part of the demonstration aspect I’m doing for jaredrimer.info it threw up some dialogs and decided not to deal with them during taping. I showed in this demo how NVDA in the main window is pretty much silent.

NVDA does not open its mouth unless you’re typing or in the menus or dialogs of B2K’s interface.

Braille2000 has a solution for this shortcoming, and thats the talking edition. The Braille2000 category on this blog talks about the production of this addition, and this means that NVDA users can also take advantage.

Jaws does read the window, but when proofing braille in full grade 2, this program as well as others will not read it correctly.

I’m not going to toot my own horn on how proud I am on a product I’ve actually used to help me with my assignments. I want each and every person to read up on the talking edition and make their own decision on what they want to use.

You can learn more by going to the link to my web site, or visit braille2000 directly. I just released podcast 330, but in future programs, we’ll talk more about how this came to be, we’ll talk about what the talking edition is, play the tutorial in sections, and allow you to hear for yourself how powerful this is.

On this thanksgiving day, I’m thankful for the numerous hours Bob spent understanding what we should have, the bug reports, and a whole lot more.

I’m very proud of my work, but you should evaluate the product yourself. B2K staff will assist in all stages of the learning process.

NVDA, we started a dialogue with you, sent you some logs, but haven’t seen anything to help assist your customers. Now, we’ve got something that will assist them regardless of reader, so please give this product a look.

Let me know how I can be of assistance.

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Braille2000 gets update, gets some fixes

Hi all,

There are some fixes to 2274 which was posted on the 26th. The most notable came after doing one of the demos for the web site for the talking edition. The ctrl+qh should not stop giving help when requested, and thats fixed.

Other diagnosis tools have been added to try and fix an early bug when I downloaded and installed B2K 2274.

Also, if you do Portugal Spanish, there may have been some adjustments as well.

Go to panel, file management, check for updates and get the update. Its dated 11-26.

Questions? Please contact Braille2000 and the team will assist.

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Braille2000 and its companion web site

Hello all,

Braille2000 has a companion web site hosted at jaredrimer.info and it has quite a lot already with more to be added.

• A full tutorial based on the documentation ith demos
• demonstrations separate from the tutorial set on setup, specific dialog boxes, and more
• The beginnings of the transcriber section with demos on how I used Braille2000 without speech mechanism assistance
• documentation on the voice assistant and percent codes

I would like everyone to check out the web site and of course contact the Braille2000 team with questions and concerns. The price list is linked there as well. Please feel free to ask any questions, and I look forward in your feedback!

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Braille 2000 V2.274 is released!

Hello folks,

As discussed in this blog post posted within the past week, we’ve now released B2K 2.274. If you would like to learn about the talking edition, please go to my jaredrimer.info web site. I’ve updated it with the audio tutorial and I’ve also got demos as well.

These demos are files 100-104 of the file series and I’ve got a full tutorial zip file which includes these there on that site.

My goal of the upcoming podcasts is to demo and talk about the work. I’ll play the tutorial in sections and allow you, the listener, to ask questions. If you decide to download or listen to the tutorials through the site, the contact page there gives contact information directly to me. It is a totally different address than the one presented in the blog.

Please let me know how I can be of assistance, and enjoy the new release!

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Braille 2000 2.274 soon to be released, new features and functionality

EHello all,

Any day now, the Braille2000 staff will be releasing version 2.274 which I’ve been beta testing for the last several months.

• The Speaking edition is done. We’ve added the ability for speaking exact, which is used to check work. It tells you font attributes, capitalization, and punctuation.
• Numerous UEB fixes will be in this release.
• Porterican Spanish will be added to B2K for those who use it.

When the release becomes available, Braille2000 will pop up an announcement letting you know that it is out.

• Click on menu
• Select Pannel
• Select file management
• Select fetch software update

You must have an internet connection for this to work. When 2.274 is released, you’ll see it in the list. Once highlighted, click OK and B2K will prompt you to save your work when you’re ready and exit. Once done, B2K will install the new version.

Under the hood changes include a new patch for installation from one path to another. It should not effect the usage of the software at all.

B2K will be adding the accessibility department, which I’m responsible. I’m in the process of building a web site under the jaredrimer.info domain. You’re welcome to check this domain for audio demos, and the like.

Don’t worry! This tech podcast will be getting the tutorial material and demos as part of this process.

I’ll start releasing them once the official release is out, and I’m excited for this to happen.

Should you have any questions in the meantime, please feel free to contact me through the about the blog page on here, or through my social media profiles found on on my web site.

Thanks so much for your support, and sorry for the lack of posts as of late! The preparation of this work and the sudden news of a release has gotten me to concentrate on this project, but I still plan to be here.

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Braille 2000 can’t do greek … fix is in the works

I recently got off the phone with Bob and a very alpha version of assignment 16. I was pointing out some questions I had, and what the braille simulated print of the lesson was showing me. In this context, one of the items he was asking what it was. I looked in the braille, and sure enough, the simulated braille shows in assignment 16 Greek! There are several portions where Greek is used, and Braille 2000 and its Greek is greek to it.

The only fix is to write it in braille, I.E. 6-key entry.

Now, I realize that my grumblings of 6-key and what a waste of time it is, proves to be very valuable.

Here is what I plan to do to fix the horid importation from the PDF to RTF file.

• Go in to Speech, engine settings, and turn on keyboard feedback.
• Fix the file up by deleting the old material that doesn’t need to be there and typing by hand the greek that it didn’t understand.
• Putting in some script signs which were not properly put in place.
• Fixing item 23 in spots where it was completely and utterly wrong.

I’ve been griping about the lesson material and the teaching of such material before, but I think that this has to be the worst piece of material that ever crossed my desk. I can’t fathom what the powers that be who developed this did a piss-poor job on the material and how correcting some aspects in RTF fixed some of it, but yet, we still have to correct quite a number of things that are completely wrong!

I know, I know, those of you who are reading this will say “This is the job of the transcriber. The software is not going to be perfect.” I get it. If the print is done correctly, and the software is trained how to back translate it, it should not have any problems.

In two of the numbers, it didn’t put a closing mark, it put a dot pattern that I’m not familiar with. The dot pattern is (dot 5 2) as a sequence at the end of the sentence. The elipses it put in place came from the print and was spaced, but braille doesn’t have that spacing so I can correct that and I do not fault the software for that.

My issues with assignment 13 are miniscule because I minipulated the RTF and got it wrong based on what I understood. Once I understood the correct method, I corrected it, and even learned how to correct it for the next RTF copy. Its all a learning process, and I do not blame software for something I did. All of the symbols except for the special symbol (shape indicator emoticon) aspect was done correctly. Once I corrected the emoticon special symbol shape, it was fine although it might not have backtranslated that correctly in to ledgable print.

I definitely know that I need to do some serious work at some point, and I know its going to have to be soon.

Have any of you done foreign language, especially with tools like Duxbury or any other piece of software and what did you think? Did it do an adequate job or did you have to correct it with the knowledge that you have on the subject?

Please contact me by leaving your comments here, by email/imessage/text and info can be found on the About the Blog page which has contact info there. If you can’t find it on the blog, go on over to my Web Site and leave your throughts through the contact/bug reporting form or any available contact info found there.

Thanks for reading, and make it a great day!

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Assignment 16, why does it look so bad?

Hello folks,

I’ve looked at my first braille out of assignment 16 of the braille transcription course. It looks aweful, and I’m nowhere near submitting this assignment.

Here is what I notice:

• There are dots of an unknown type at the end of several items where quote marks are shown in the braille edition of the lesson.
• I’m very unfamiliar with foreign language material, but understand why the symbols have changed in conformance with UEB standards, and Braille 2000 can deal with these when written correctly.
• Bob tells me that in number 23, the PDF to RTF extraction for a base file was absolutely horid. With Braille 2000s tools, I can correct these and get another brailleout.

Bob appreciates the fact that I’ve been sharing my assignments with him. It has opened his eyes on how bad UEB really is, and how BANA has forced the United States in believing this is the best thing we can do. This is not the best thing we can do. Lots of baggage has been reported, and even with my conversation with someone yesterday, the book is aweful in explaining the concepts of how this should be done.

I’m hopeful that I can pass on the first try on this assignment. With the tools we’ve built in to b2k, I’m confident I can correct these mistakes, and get it to a form I’m happy to submit.

As a side note, it took three tries on assignment 15, as there was still confusion, and that confusion was coming from the book. I understood what it was saying, but the instructor wanted it a certain way. The third time was the ticket!

Have you done foreign language material and how has it faired with b2k? What about other software?

I look forward in hearing from you. Please get in touch!

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My Obserbvations on assignment 15 and how I can use b2k to proof my work

Hello folks,

So this afternoon I heard from my proctor. The whole point on assignment 15 is to use typeforms throughout the lesson. There was a bit of confusion I had, and I couldn’t recount which one except for the displayed material. On one of the items, I believe I kept one typeform and I need all of them. I’ve fixed one critical mistake and it was critical and I described that and how I fixed it in this blog post (Sep 23 2019) and so I can use the same tactics to make sure that I put the typeforms in the write place, check the spacing, and make sure it still lines up.

My proctor was pretty happy with the work overall, but no blank lines on 25.

Time to go to work, and see if my second attempt can be submitted successfully without too much difficulty. This should get interesting.

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