Re: [orca-list] the low cost canute braille display\

[Alex Midence <alex midence gmail com>]

I had to learn various braille codes in my adventures in linguistics 
back when.  I am a native Spanish speaker and never learned grade two 
Spanish braille.  I did learn, of all things, German grade two.  I 
haven't seen French grade two but know the grade 1.  Same for Italian 
Portuguese and, oddly enough, Hebrew.  I am fortunate enough to have a 
refreshable braille device that I use at the job but would love one for 
home use that I purchased with my own money and not one I got from the 
state.  I think it's hugely important for us to be able to afford as 
many adaptive devices as we can with an average salary for a developed 
country.  The sad thing is that, the super high prices stuff doesn't use 
any majorly expensive components or top-of-the-line tech in all cases.  
It's just put to a very specialized use in a very specialized manner.  
Couple that with patents and a limited pool of people who know how to 
work on them and you have the situation we are in.   So, again, eBook 
reader or not, I welcome this device and feel like scrounging up the 
cash to buy it just to support the effort.  If it's Open Source and runs 
off a Raspberry Pie engine, I see great potential in its future if it's 
taken up by enough of the right kind of people.

Alex M


On 7/3/2015 6:21 PM, B. Henry wrote:
> This is still a prototype as I understand it, but I have no reason to think it does, or does not have grade 
> II ability now.
> If grade II capability has not been incorperated yet it certainly should be befor the device is  brought to 
> market. I'd think handling different
> languages and contracted braille should be rather trivial.
> As far as I know in English grade2 is the worldwide standard for everythinig other than some little kids 
> books. In Spanish however few folks know
> grade2, and I've never seen much content available  in grade2 Spanish braille either. I'm not at all sure 
> about other languages, but think it's a mixed
> bag. Many languages use accents, and maybe even extra letters that use up a number of the symbols that could 
> otherwise be used by grade2 braille. In
> Spanish we certainly have some of this, but French has even more accents and I think grade2 French is rather 
> more common than grade2 Spanish.
>