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Welcome to at your fingertips Braille then and now for November 2024. Maybe I should call this Braille Buffet. A little of this and a little of that. I'm going to be mentioning quite a few resources, web links, ideas, products, so forth. So feel free to come back to this podcast and we will also put some links on the in the show notes for you. And again, the website is Unmute show. So I have a little tech tip for you. It's kind of obscure and it may only apply to a few of you, but if you need it, you really need it. So I have a brilliant bi 40x as well as a 20x and this is a braille display that can connect to my iPhone and I was helping a student of mine who also had the same braille display and what she was experiencing was that none of the so called chord commands worked. So if you connect your braille display to your iPhone you can use a lot of really cool commands like h + the space bar goes home and s + the space bar goes to the status bar. And you know, just any number of tips. But really the Braille display commands are pretty simple. Even if you don't use those letter commands you can use space+.4 to go one item forward. So none of these commands was working and it was very frustrating and I could not find the setting to make this happen. And here we go, Apple versus humanware. Not unfriendly, but just one passing the buck off to the other. So I did call Apple Accessibility and they were wonderful and they spent quite a bit of time with me because my settings were, I thought, the same as hers and my braille display was working just fine with my iPhone. I thought it was perhaps an 18.1 at that point, 18.1 issue, but we could not find it, we could not solve it. So I was busy working and my student texted me back and she said ah, I solved it. So it was problem solved by my sleuthing student. She remembered that in the brilliant settings I oh and yes, I did also call humanware and they told me it was Apple's problem. So there you go. Anyway, so my student said okay, under option and you go to User Settings, there is a little setting that is listed as Disable Perkins in Terminal. What this means is when you're in terminal mode, you are connected to something, either your computer via USB or via Bluetooth and your iPhone. So what had happened was this setting had gotten switched on inadvertently, maybe due to an update or, you know, some other reason it had gotten switched on inadvertently. So the Perkins keyboard was not active, was not able to be used when connected to an iPhone. And so that is why none of the keyboard commands worked. I could use the thumb keys and that should have been my tip, but I had forgotten about the setting. I could use the thumb keys to go to next to previous item, but I could not use the Perkins style keyboard with any of the chord commands. In other words, spacebar plus something on the Perkins keyboard. So anyway, if you should run amok with your Braille display connected to your iPhone, it is under User settings and the setting is Disable Perkins in Terminal. That was on, that should be off. So it is not disabled. So I called humanware back and I said, you know, someone at humanware didn't happen know this. And the guy that I spoke to said, oh yeah, yeah, that happened to me once. So. So these kind of obscure settings, it's just a little dicey to figure them out. But, you know, once you do, you never forget it. So here we go. That is a little troubleshooting tech tip for your braille display connected with your idevice. So next, let's take a stroll down memory lane. When I was a kid, I was in a less than optimal school for a while and I didn't happen to even read what we call a chapter book until I was in fourth grade and had to learn how to do a book report. And that caused me to have a meltdown because I didn't know how to do a book report. I didn't know how to, you know, do any of that, nor had I read a chapter book. And I. I kind of had a meltdown and got a migraine and just suffered a lot of stuff. But that being said, because I was so excited about reading and was finally exposed to wonderful books from fourth grade onward. I was just a voracious reader. And I think it was probably in fifth grade I was given a book for free. And it was called Expectations and it was produced by the Braille Institute of America. They say it took about a year to produce these books for blind children. And they were given out free since 1948. And I don't know how long that continued. I'll tell you about some things that I found on ebay recently in a minute. But this was a wonderful one volume book and it had, I think, about 10 stories and a couple of poems. And the stories were chapters taken from popular children's books or series with authors that had agreed to make their content available. And there were also raised pictures, raised line drawings, which was cool, but everybody's favorite thing was the scratch and sniff page in the middle of the book. And so we all, you know, every year, the few years that I got the book, I would always go to the scratch and sniff page. And you know, there were things like mint and I remember those gasoline smell and there were some really funny chocolate and just different scratch and sniff little items the shape of maybe there was an ice cream cone and it smelled like chocolate and that sort of thing. So I loved those books and I looked forward to them. About Christmas time they would send them out and it was just a wonderful thing that the Braille Institute of America did at that time. And I know that at least they had a 50th anniversary 1997 or eight production. And I'm not sure when the book was discontinued, but I could find them on ebay. Strangely enough, some people have these books available for sale. You can find, as I mentioned before, a lot of things on ebay. Restroom signs. You know, we talked about that last podcast episode. Somehow less restroom signs make their way onto ebay. So that was a wonderful little stroll down memory lane. I am tempted to order a couple of these vintage braille books on ebay just to remind myself of my childhood and how much I really looked forward to that. So maybe you have a memory of Braille in your childhood that you would like to share if you're a lifelong Braille reader. Feel free to email feedback show and Michael will forward the email to me. So I'd like to next focus on some really cool charities that are really making a difference for blind children and adults. And I know that it may sound a bit US centric, but I am going to branch out. Especially I've heard about the UK's Clear Vision Library project where print braille books are made. And so. So I'd like to explore that charity and opportunity in a future podcast. But this time I'm going to focus on the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults. And this organization partners a lot with the nfb, the National Federation of the Blind. And I would like to tell you about some of the programs they offer. And one very timely Thing that they offer, timely in many ways is a calendar. So we'll talk about that in a minute. But they provide braille books. There's a Braille books program. Since 1997 they have distributed a braille book each month to blind children that qualify for the service. They have distributed over 318 book titles. Last year they distributed more than 45,000 braille books to blind children and classrooms across the US which is amazing. And there is an application on their website where person can sign up a child and that is just really fantastic. And I know the kids really look forward to it. The American Action Fund also coordinates a program called share braille. Sharebraille.org is a really cool program. It's basically a sharing library for braille and it promotes braille literacy and prolonging the use and life of braille materials. So it matches people who are looking for braille with those who are giving it away. And so after you register and log in, you can browse the library. Books are shipped free to the US and Canada through the Free Matter for the Blind. I don't know that they are not shipped elsewhere. It just mentions that detail on the web page. The American Action Fund also has the Braille Reading Pals Club which promotes the reading of print and braille books with sighted family members and blind children. They also deliver a free slate and stylus. In partnership with NFB, the Action Fund distributes a 4 line 28 cell plastic slate along with a saddle shaped stylus. And even if you think the slate and stylus is so yesterday last century's news, it really is helpful. And when we think about it, a lot of times I am so US centric that I forget that in a lot of parts in the world that is the way blind people write. They don't have a Perkins, they don't have a Braille display. And so I think to be very, very thankful to use these resources and promote them is a good idea. So now I want to a spotlight getting ready for 2025 and the free calendars that the Action Fund distributes. What are the Advant, a pocket Braille calendar, you might ask. Well, you know, they're easy to use when I'm talking with somebody. I don't need to open up my phone and hear my voiceover talking or my Android talkback talking. I don't need to hear my computer talking. I can look at while I'm talking with someone and not be interrupted by technology. I also think it's great if you want to practice your braille if you're beginning or intermediate braille reader, you only have to know a few contractions. If you think about it, and you want to read the months of the year, you obviously know what they are. Just the AR sign, the CH sign, the ER sign, and the ST sign are the only signs that really appear in the months of the year. That kind of rhymes. So you know. And how it appears is. What happens is you have a small booklet that's bound with a spiral binding at the top, and across the top you have the month. And then below that you have your stwth sign. I forgot that one. You need to know that one F&S for the days of the week. And then under that, of course, you have your list of the numbers in those dates. And then below that whole month view you have the list of regular holidays here in the us and so it's really handy for reading Braille as if you're a beginner. And also it's good for tracking practice. Sometimes people have a little challenge tracking across the line and returning to the beginning of the line. But here you only have, you know, four weeks to track. And so it's great for tracking practice. So you can order if you live in the us. I don't know that you can't order it if you don't, but you might call them and ask them or email them. You can order from the American Act Action fund@actionfundactionfund.org Again, the email address, if you'd like more information, is actionfundctionfund.org they also have a form to fill out where you can type your name and address and so forth. And how many calendars you want. I think you can get up to three. I got two of them, one for home and one for work. And also you can also make a donation if you'd like. And they subsist on donations, of course. And so if you'd like to, you can do that for sure. Next, I'd like to talk about getting ready for giving. You know, it's a giving season coming up, and there are plenty of opportunities to find gifts that involve braille for your friends or loved ones. And here are a few ideas for you. And I'll have some more ideas in December. But one of my colleagues has been finding a lot of cool things on Etsy. And Etsy, if you don't know, is a sort of a crafter's website. People make homemade things. And recently I got the most beautiful raised design with a description of a guide dog on a card with a little message that was brailled when my guide dog passed away this past spring. And my friend, she got it on Etsy and she doesn't read Braille. So she just found a way to find this braille card that was made that had a raised picture of a guide dog. It was just beautiful, made me cry, you know, that sort of thing. And so a lot of people are doing these homemade things. My colleague has found a lot of things, including, like, a braille fidget toy. You can make different Braille characters and twist and turn the little parts of the braille cell. She's also found a braille peg board that has, I believe, eight Braille cells, each of which has obviously six pegs. And the pegs move up and down, and they are stationary. Some of these peg boards and things have pegs that come out and then you lose the pegs, and then you're. You're kind of. You're kind of sol. Because you don't have any option anymore of making those Braille letters without the pegs. So these pegs move up and down, but they don't leave the braille cell. So you can make different contractions, different words and things. And you have, you know, eight cells. So you can make fairly, you know, fairly long words, especially if you use contractions. And it's a great little tool. She bought a few and happened to give me one. So it's sitting in my office. And so that is one of the things. And so I think if you just type in braille what you're looking for into Etsy, you know, Braille pegboard, braille toy, braille card. You know, I think you'd be busy for quite some time, and so that would be a good option for you in a this episode. And we will publish the link to that. I talked about braille games for children and adults, and that was really a fun episode to do. And then, of course, another cool website is the Blind Mice Mega Mall, and they have tons of shops there, a few that I especially really enjoy. Besides their general offerings, there is Blind Book Stop. This is a wonderful shop. She produces really excellent quality braille. She has crafting and cookbooks is her focus. And Marjorie does a fantastic job with that. And so if you'd like to check out Blind Book Stop. Bookstop is all one word, but it is listed in their little mall directory. And also Blind Girl Designs is a new one. It's just been added. And I love her shirts, and a lot of them have Braille on them, and it's just really, really fantastic designs and I look forward to ordering more from Trisha at blind girl designs. Blindgirldesigns.com is her website, but she also has a storefront on the Blind Mice Mega Mall. Finally, I like to end with this topic and I'm calling it Beyond My Borders. And I've mentioned a few times in this podcast in particular and in others that I've kind of, you know, by nature unfortunately a US centric person. And I I am striving not to be that way. I have several students that I teach who English is not their foreign language and they are obviously from other countries and they have immigrated here. And so I really try to be sensitive to what they did or did not experience in terms of learning and braille and opportunities in their native country. But I wanted to point out the wonderful work that the Sao Mai center in Vietnam is doing. Sao Mai Center. Sao Mai is spelled S A O M A I Center. So those are sao is one word, M A I is the other word. So salmaicenter.org, they're doing some really awesome things. They provide resources for their owned blind fellow citizens in terms of voices for JAWS and a Vietnamese keyboard and so forth. But they've also produced a wonderful translation program that is free called SMB. And the SMB, basically Salmai Braille is a translation program that offers tables for 150 languages. It also offers math and chemistry notation, nemeth and tactile graphics. And of special interest to me is the music translator. And so I do a fair amount of arranging and composing when I have the bandwidth. And I have enjoyed also working with some of my students on braille music, brushing up their skills or teaching them braille music in the first place. And if they have a music notation software that it provides them with an XML file which is a version of a music a standard music notation file. They can execute a few keystrokes if they have the sound my braille translation software installed on their computer and they can get a BRF or Braille ready file music file of their score which is really awesome and it's very high quality braille. So I wanted to mention them. In particular they have Salmai center has a playlist that gives demos of their software and we will put the link to their website, their English version of the website and the download for the samite braille translator in case you would like it. Sometimes I have found it difficult to locate that because the sometimes the website comes up in Vietnamese for me and so the main website is salmycenter.org and then if we add a few other things after the slash we get to the English version of the website with the download of the program. And so if you want a free translation program, this is a really good one to check out. So I would like to share with you that upcoming for December we're going to have a spotlight on another charity organization. I'm going to be looking at the UK's Clear Vision Library. I also want to share with you pictures with Perkins, which includes how to make the easiest of all pictures a Christmas tree. And then we'll talk about Braille greeting cards revisited in case you'd like to send out some cards and the easiest way to do that. And then I'll have part two of my gift guide, my giving suggestions for those who love and use Braille. Thanks again for joining me today and if you have other things that you would like me to talk about and present, feel free again to check out our website Unmute show and then you can also email feedback at Unmute Show.