Before we begin.....
The materials in this and subsequent sessions have been re-written using the newly-approved Braille Formats: Principles of Print to Braille Transcription 1977, better known as "Formats". This new code, consisting of 19 rules, is now the "industry standard", and transcribers must adhere to these rules in transcribing all textbooks.
If you own the "blue book", or the Code of Braille Textbook Formats and Techniques 1977, it is recommended that you find a circular filing cabinet for it! Copies of the new code can be purchased from the American Printing House for the Blind for $30.00, and we recommend this. We are working to get permission from the Braille Authority of North America (BANA) to publish the rules in their entirety on this site.
If you are familiar with the older 1977 Codebook, we have included a list of changes that appear in the new code. This list is not inclusive, but it should cover the majority of the changes.
General Considerations:
Before getting into some of the specifics, some general rules and guidelines for preparing textbook braille documents are offered. To a much greater extent than with literary books, it's probably unrealistic to expect that the code will provide answers to every brailling challenge. The code serves as a guideline, although if a textbook is not transcribed following the official code, it cannot be listed with a distributing agency such as the American Printing House for the Blind. The transcriber should try to remember three rules:
- represent the print material as closely as possible, using transcribers notes (TNs) when deviations from the print are done in braille. TNs go before the change in the braille.
- use common sense
- ask others how they might handle the problem (that's what the electronic discussion board is for!)
- Know your audience! Often times you will be transcribing for a specific student and/or teacher, so you might consider consulting with them to better understand the needs of the user.
Think first, then transcribe!
This may be common sense advice, but it probably still needs to be stated. The very first task in preparing a textbook (true for all books, but definitely for textbooks!) is for the transcriber to carefully review the textbook to determine formatting structures, potential difficult sections, etc. In addition, one should be especially vigilant about computer notation, mathematical and scientific notations, music notation, technical illustrations, and the like. There are specific codes for these items, and the transcriber must be aware of when and how to use these codes. Specific discussions of these issues will be presented in subsequent sessions.
Often times, a textbook is part of a series. If this is the case, the transcriber should work to examine the entire series to establish a consistent structure throughout the brailled version. If a group of transcribers are working on the series, every effort should be made to coordinate to ensure consistency.
We'll talk more in-depth about this later, but one of the difficulties in transcribing newer textbooks is that publishers don't use a "top-down" layout as much as was done in "earlier" times. What is means is that there is a great deal more use of side-bars, off-set boxes, text that is wrapped around graphics and tables, and other publishing styles meant to make a page visually attractive. It is important and imperative that, as the new codebook calls it, an "order of presentation" be established early on and followed consistently. We will try to help you to understand that by providing you with numerous examples and "challenges". At the risk of being redundant, we will also regularly encourage you to use the electronic discusssion board to share ideas about interesting transcribing challenges.
The rest of this (long) reading provides some specific guidelines and rules for specific parts of the transcribing of a textbook, including:
In brailling textbooks, it is often necessary to know your audience! Textbooks for younger children have some special considerations that the transcriber must keep in mind:
Page Size:
Textbooks for students in grade 1: suggested page size is 11 inches by 9 inches. Blank lines should be left between each line of braille in the text. Since the teacher is typically not a braille reader, the transcriber might use interlining, the insertion of print above the braille. If this is done, the print should appear above the braille, word-for-word. Some braille embossers can produce interlined braille.
Textbooks for students grade 2 and above: use "standard" 11x11-1/2 paper, with 25 lines per braille page and a maximum of 41 cells per line. No blank lines between braille text are inserted.
Volume Size:
- The transcriber should work to ensure that volumes for grades 1 through 3 have no more than 50 pages (one-sided). It is also suggested that words not be divided at the end of the line. Common sense hold here: if brailling a few pages past the 50-page limit allows one to complete a chapter or otherwise end the volume in a logical spot, it is recommended that the transcriber do just that!
- Textbooks for all other readers should average approximately 90 pages in length.
- Common sense suggests that it is appropriate to braille appendices, indexes, glossaries, and other supplementary materials in a separate volume. These can be identified as "Supplement I", "Supplement 2", as appropriate. The braille pages should be labeled as s1, s2.... for each volume.
Page numbering in textbooks is complicated enough to warrant its own page in this session!
- Titles: a quick read of the rule on titles is useful!
- Running Heads
The purpose of the running head is to help the reader to identify the title or name of the document. The running head for the work you have been asked to do to date might be "Braille Work for Session 3"; if you are doing a section of a textbook, your running head might be "Codebook of Formatting Techniques". The rules for use of running heads are as follows:
- The running head should appear on the first line of each braille page
- The running head should not occupy more than one braille line
- The running head should be written in double capitals and centered on the line
- The running head should be shortened so that there are at least three (3) blank cells before the running head and at least three (3) blank cells before the page number
- One blank line should be left between the running head and a heading which follows, such as a chapter heading.
- No blank lines should be left between a running head and the continuation of text.
There are times when you might need to reduce the amount of brailled text on the running head to ensure that it all fits on one line. The transcriber has the responsibility to "edit" the title so as to ensure that it fits. The strategies for doing so are two-fold, in order of priority:
- Capitalize only the first letter of the first word and the first letter of principle words (excluding, for example, "the", "a", "and", etc.)
- Abbreviate long words and/or remove non-essential words
Perhaps an example is useful. I am brailling a textbook entitled "Perspectives on Structure and Mechanism in Organic Chemistry". What are the (logical) possibilities for a running head?
- PERSPECTIVES ON STRUCTURE AND MECHANISM IN ORGANIC CHEMISTRY: requires 68 cells
- Perspectives on Structure and Mechanism in Organic Chemistry: requires 57 cells
- Perspectives on Structure and Mechanism: requires 37 cells
- Structure and Mechanism in Organic Chemistry: requires 41 cells
- Struc. and Mech. in Organic Chem.: requires 31 cells
- STRUCTURE AND MECHANISM: requires 25 cells
The only two viable options above are "e" and "f". Both a 25-cell and a 31-cell line easily allow the requisite three blank cells at the beginning of the line and the three blanks before the page number. I would probably opt for Option E, since it contains the significant parts of the title, even though abbreviated. Option F is also reasonable. Discussion and argument on this list are welcomed!
For your trial manuscript for certification by the Library of Congress, running heads are required. Use of running heads, however, is typically an agency decision. This means that the agency for whom you are doing braille work -- a school district, a brailling guild, etc. -- will decide what their policy is concerning running heads. The decision to include running heads is often made by agencies that are doing high-volume braille work. Running heads are helpful if the braille manuscript is dropped and pages get scrambled! If you are not working for an agency, you should consult with your client about running heads, or make your own decision.
Transcriber's notes (TNs) are insertions created by the transcriber to help explain unusual use of symbols, omissions, and/or other "peculiarities" that might confuse the reader. The TN symbol   precedes and follows each note. The format for a TN follows a "7-5" pattern, meaning the note begins in Cell 7 with runovers in Cell 5. Typically, a TN precedes the text being explained. However, if there is an unusual print sign or term for which a braille equivalent is being used, the TN comes immediately after the braille equivalent. No blank lines precede or follow the TN.
Perhaps an example is instructive:
The modern value of the Rydberg constant, used frequently in chemistry, is 109 677. This constant should be used in calculating energy values of electrons in orbitals.
You can open the braille equivalent, with transcribers note, in a separate window
Since TNs are important items, you should take the time to review the rule regarding transcriber's notes. In the section on Preliminary Pages, we describe the use of transcribers notes pages.
The transcriber is not an editor, and must resist the notion to be one. Often the transcriber encounters obvious typographical and other print errors, and the rule suggests that the transcriber should correct them in braille. The transcriber must, however, be careful that what might look like an error is not done so intentionally for some educational or other purpose. Common sense, and evaluating the error in the context of surrounding text, should be adequate tools to know what to do!
The rule on typographical and other print errors should be reviewed carefully.
The guidelines for syllabified words and word divisions are relatively straightforward. The main goal is to not provide the user with more or confusing information, especially true with textbooks. Words that are written out in syllables must be uncontracted. The rule on syllabified words and word division also suggests consistency in the use of a dictionary, especially if more than one transcriber is preparing a large textbook.:
The use of contractions must be avoided when the author is trying to convey how a word is spelled, pronounced, or used grammatically. Care must also be taken in the use of freestanding single letters and letter combinations that can be confused for braille contractions. The rule describing uncontracted braille also describes puncutation and composition sign order
As done "normally", one cell is left between words and sentences. Be careful not to put two cells between sentences as is done in print documents! Blank lines are used to show a change of some type, whether it be a new chapter, a break in thought, or to show offsets in displayed materials, stanzas of a poem, or other types of materials. Specifics will be provided for the various types of formats as they are presented in the later sessions. If you have different braille indentations indicating a change in format, no blank lines are used in the braille.
The full rule regarding use of blank lines is included for your review.
The rules for quoted materials or epigraphs (a quotation set at the beginning of a literary work or one of its divisions to suggest its theme) are as follows:
- put a blank line before and after the material
- ignore any special typefaces if the material is also in quotation marks. If a word or phrase in the quoted material uses a special typeface, you should use italics to differentiate it. In an example, the epigraph is all in italics, but the title of the book is in "normal" print. In braille, the italicized stuff is brailled normally, while the book title is italics.
- follow the print copy for paragraph indention. In the example, notice that the braille follows Cell 1 block paragraph format.
The full rule concerning quoted matter and epigraphs is included for your study.
The best way to describe this formatting is with an example. If you look at the example, notice that we have included the title (double caps) and the subtitle centered at the top of the page, since this is the first numbered braille page (notice "1" at bottom of the page). The word "Acknowledgements" is centered with a blank line before and after. The acknowledgement itself starts in Cell 3, with runovers in Cell 1. We then use the "four-cell" rule to handle the attribution to Paul Kennedy. The four-cell rule says that other attributions, credit lines, etc. are left-adjusted four cells to the right of the preceding braille line. Since the paragraph beginning with "My family ..." starts in Cell 3, the attribution to Paul Kennedy and Hamden, Connecticut are placed in Cell 7. Notice that the print italicized Hamden is not italicized in braille. Notice also that we ignore the boldface "W" at the beginning of the text, and use normal Cell 3 paragraph indenting.
The full rule concerning acknowledgements is included for your study.
|
The Shodor
Education Foundation, Inc.