From: Richard Webb 
Subject: Re: Has anyone used MEGA
Hi Mike,
Recently, you wrote in nfb-talk as follows:
   >RW> My gripe with the six key entry
   >RW> systems is  that you still must have
   >RW> trained transcriptionists, therefore,
   >RW> it doesn't speed the availability of
   >RW> material in accessible (braille)
   >RW> formats.  That's the whole idea behind
   >RW> computer translation software in my book.
   >I beg to differ with you. Although many computer enthusiasts
   >envisioned computers as being able to produce good quality Braille
   >under a wide variety of circumstances at the touch of a button, in
   >practice (except for the simplest of materials), id doesn't work
   >that way and will not for quite some time. IMHO it still takes a
   >trained Braillist to know how things should look and make the
   >appropriate adjustments to make the Braille decent. Yes, simple
   >ASCII sentence-by-sentence Braille can be translated fairly
   >automatically. More and more stuff, however, isn't formatted that
   >way. I can't count the number of times I've received absolutely
   >crappy Braille which was "automatically" translated from the print
   >without regard to formatting. I had to throw away a whole
   >Government personnel manual because it was unreadable.
I think, however, it's easier to train them for formatting than it is to
train them the 6 dot alphabet symbols.  I've gotten quite good results
using nfbtrans, but I had to go through the file and embed the proper
codes.  Still, easier done for the neophyte than having to learn the six
dot code.
My mother, who started taking transcription courses, was able to translate
a manual after transcribing it to ascii so the braille came out formatted
just fine.
As you say, just automatically feeding the file to the translator and
hoping for the best isn't the idea here, but, it's still easier, Ithink, to
get transcribers to format it properly by educating them to a few rules,
such as only 40 spaces per line, no blank lines, etc.
   >RW> I hear that, and more importantly, we
   >RW> need one that nls will finally
   >RW> certify foro use by braillists.  This
   >In the opinion of this curmudgeon, it's a way off.
That it is, but, it'll only happen if we have folks such as raised dot
still selling product, and developing improved versions.  As I saidd in my
msg to Warren, I've only used nfbtrans and turbobraille.  I get much better
results using nfbtrans with the tilde commands embedded, as I know how the
doccument should look when embossed.  It's a lot easier to train typists to
use those than it is to teach them the entire code.
I think we'll get there, eventually, but, to arrive, we must support
companies working in this market, since it's quite limited from the start.
REgards,
Richard Webb
kb0ruu
   >Mike Freeman; Internet: mikef@pacifier.com; Amateur Radio Callsign:
   >K7UIJ President, National Federation of the Blind of Washington
   >/* PGP2.6.2 Public Key available via my ".plan" file */
   >.... 0x20 -- the final frontier.
   >___ PCRR QWK 1.60
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