Facilitated by Catherine Smith and Theresa Mcmordie

Unified English Braille workshop at RWPN and BCU Rehab Work seminar Thursday 9th July 2015

Facilitated by Catherine Smith and Theresa McMordie

UEB and how it affects braille contractions in a nutshell

The main reasons for UEB are to:  eliminate ambiguities  unify the various different versions of English braille around the world  reflect print

Changes as they occur within lessons 1-22 of the Braille Primer.

Lessons 1-4: Capital letter indicator sign now mandatory and introduced in lesson 1

Lessons 5&6: and for of the with – no sequencing allowed so these need to be spaced apart from each other and from ‘a’

Lessons 7&8 – no changes

Lesson 9: no longer use ‘ble’

Lesson 10: no longer use ‘com’ PLUS new dash i.e. dot 6 then dots 3&6 (was previously 2 x dots 3&6)

Lesson 11: no longer use ‘dd’ PLUS new round brackets – both opening and closing round brackets were previously a lower g (i.e. dots 2,3,5 and 6). In UEB opening bracket is now dot 5 then dots 1,2&6. Closing bracket is dot 5 then dots 3,4&5

Lessons 12&13: no changes

Lesson 14: no longer use to, into, by as no sequencing is allowed in UEB

Catherine Smith and Theresa McMordie: RWPN and BCU Rehab Work Seminar 09/07/15 Lessons 15-19 – no changes

Lesson 20 – change with ‘ence’ i.e. now use ‘ence’ rather than ‘en’ + ‘ed’ or ‘en’ + ‘er’ or ‘en’ + ‘ea’ when followed by ‘d’ or ‘r’ or ‘a’ –

Lesson 21: no changes

Lesson 22: no longer use ‘ation’ or ‘ally’ (remember that instead of ‘ation’ can use ‘a’ + ‘tion’)

‘Find the not UEB’ exercise.

The ‘Washy’ reading book is written in Standard English Braille. All the contractions and rules up to the end of lesson 22 could appear in the reading exercise that accompanies exercise 22 in the old Standard English Braille Primer. Try and identify what would be different about this passage if it were written in UEB – this will mean spotting what you now wouldn’t use in Unified English Braille PLUS thinking about if there were anything else you could use instead.

The following would need changing in UEB:

Line 1: wouldn't use ‘ally’ in ‘eventually’ – need to braille out each letter. Only contraction in ‘eventually’ would be ‘en’ Line 2: wouldn’t now use ‘en’ and ‘ed’ in ‘experienced’ – would use ‘ence’ + the letter ‘d’ Line 2: would not use ‘ation’ in ‘elation’ – would now use ‘a’ + ‘tion’ Line 3: would not use ‘to’ […driving the car on to a rocking…] – would need to braille out each letter in ‘to’ and then a space before ‘a’ Line 3: would not use ‘to’ [...to cross…] Line 6: would not use ‘ally’ in ‘really’ – would use ‘ea’ instead Line 7: would not use ‘to’ […we went on to a place…] Line 9: would not use ‘to’ […high enough to see the…] Line 11: would not use ‘to’ […it always seems a pity to leave such…]

Catherine Smith and Theresa McMordie: RWPN and BCU Rehab Work Seminar 09/07/15 Line 12 would not use ‘ation’ in ‘situations’ – would use ‘a’ + ‘tion’ Line 13: would not use ‘ally’ in ‘usually’ – need to braille out each letter. Line 14: would not use ‘to’ […to be almost..] – would braille out each letter of ‘to’, leave a space and then use contraction for ‘be’ as a wordsign (i.e. lower ‘b’] Line 14: would not use ‘ally’ in ‘equally’ – would need to braille out each letter Line 14: would not use ‘ble’ in ‘enjoyable’ – only contraction in ‘enjoyable’ in UEB is ‘en’. Line 16: would not use ‘to’ […progress to the open sea…] Line 17: would not sequence ‘for + ‘the’ – need to have space between them in UEB Line 18: would not use ‘to’ […river to pour through,…]

***Remember also that need to use the capital indicator sign (i.e. dot 6) whenever there is a capital letter in print.***

Resources

UK Association for Accessible Formats – useful website with lots of resources about UEB including a useful summary document www.ukaaf.org

Free downloadable PDF chart of UEB from Aroga Technologies: http://www.aroga.com/unified-english-braille-chart-tabloid-11-x-17- pdf-format/

Unified English Braille: Australian Training Manual – available to download as PDF from: http://brailleaustralia.org/wp- content/uploads/2013/09/ueb-au-training-manual.pdf

The Rules of Unified English Braille – available to download as PDF from International Council on English Braille (ICEB) website at: http://www.iceb.org/Rules%20of%20Unified%20English %20Braille%202013.pdf

Online UEB course using your computer keyboard to enter braille. Available at the following website: http://uebonline.org/ This course is offered free – you only have to pay if you want certificates of completion.

Catherine Smith and Theresa McMordie: RWPN and BCU Rehab Work Seminar 09/07/15 Perky Duck software from Duxbury for producing braille on a computer. Only available for Windows at present. Available to download free at: http://www.duxburysystems.com/product2.asp? product=Perky%20Duck&level=free

**Please also see the separate Braille apps resource for details of many apps that can support braille learning**

Any questions?

Please contact us on:

Catherine Smith: 0121 202 4225 or at: [email protected]

Theresa McMordie: [email protected]

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Catherine Smith and Theresa McMordie: RWPN and BCU Rehab Work Seminar 09/07/15