[duxuser] Re: Apostrophe Alert

  • From: "Foxworth, Ann" <Ann.Foxworth@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <duxuser@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2008 09:05:23 -0600


"tactual assault" I love that quote and will use it often, from now on.

ANN FOXWORTH, BRAILLE CONSULTANT
MAIL CODE: 6804
DARS DIVISION FOR BLIND SERVICES
CRISS COLE REHABILITATION CENTER
4800 N. LAMAR BLVD
AUSTIN, TX 78756
PH: 512-377-0471


-----Original Message-----
From: duxuser-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:duxuser-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Catherine Thomas
Sent: Saturday, November 08, 2008 9:45 AM
To: duxuser@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [duxuser] Re: Apostrophe Alert



Susan,
You're making this much more complex than we need it to be. The keyboard

symbol which we use to transcribe an apostrophe is the key to the right
of 
the semicolon. If we want to transcribe a person speaking we use the
shift 
of that same key. If we want to transcribe a quote within a quote we use

the accent/grave key.

In most cases, if the apostrophe is messed up it's not just in one
place. 
An alert could simply show if: 1. words such as don t are showing up
with 
any character besides that created by the key mentioned above. 2. If a 
search for words ending in s produces any of the variety of characters 
that can appear as a print apostrophe. Yes, it would be nice if the 
apostrophe symbol which appears at the beginning of words instead of the

single quote could also be identified but 'tis a `far more difficult` 
thing to arrange. What we need I suppose is something similar to the way

spell-checking features turn up acronyms. I didn't suggest that DBT be 
able to correct this--only to alert us to the potential problem. You
need 
to remember that many people producing documents in braille these days 
have so little knowledge of what they are doing that they don't even
know 
there is a problem.

In summary, those of us who transcribe professionally would like an
alert 
first to make our job easier and second to protect the end user (the 
braille reader) from those who don't know any better. Since the print 
characters look virtually identical in some cases, you can't assume that

by examining a document visually, even with the knowledge of this 
difficulty, that the problem would always be observed. Some of the 
characters that are potential apostrophes can result in as many as four 
cells between the end of a word and the s. To those reading such a 
document it's a tactual assaultm much as a room with walls damaged by 
flood waters would be a visual assault. Sorry, I couldn't think of a
print 
example. Hope this clears things up a bit.
Catherine


------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
-Catherine Thomas
braille@xxxxxxxxx                     /

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