Project Math Access DVD 04 - Facilitating Inclusion - Part 03 Transcript Start Audio Description: Part three; Printing math with the Braille Lite. KAPPERMAN: Ok, well what we're going to do John, today we're going to be talking about using the Braille Lite to print math symbols and we‘ve developed a system by which you can do that. You can actually braille in the symbols. We've got a Braille Lite here and it's hooked up to the an HP printer. And... in summary, let me just summarize what we're going to be doing and then we're going to do it. What we'll do is develop a... we'll create a file, and then we will have that file, we'll turn off the braille translator, and since I know that you are an accomplished Braille Lite user, and a person who isn't an accomplished Braille Lite user this system, this method would not work well. You have to be able to use a Braille Lite well in order to be able to use our system, process that we've developed for printing math symbols. So, back to the system... back to the process. What we do is make a file, create a file, turn off the braille translator so that you are using computer braille. And then in order to print the symbols you use computer code symbols and also ASCII numbers, ASCII code. And in summary there are many, several symbols in mathematics, which you cannot use just a regular, lets say the plus sign, dots 3-4-6 in computer code will translate into a nice plus sign on your ink print printer. Well there are some symbols which cannot be done that way so you have to use an ASCII number. That designates which symbols the ink print printer should print. The degree sign or symbol is a good example of that. In summary what you do then to print a degree symbol is, as an example, we would use the ALT command, there is a sequence of keystrokes, and these are they. You use the ALT, which is dots 3-5-chord, and then your Braille Lite says “ALT", then you plug in the number of that ASCII symbol, whatever it might be. It happens to be for the degree symbol it happens to be 243, so you put that in in computer code. That is in the lower portion of the cell without numeric indicators. Some people say it is Nemeth code numbers but in fact Nemeth code number always, well not always, but have a numeric indicator in front of them. This we will, to be very precise, will call computer code numbers. Then you finish that sequence off with a chord-e. That then tells the Braille Lite that when you do the print command that you want the degree symbol to be printed and the braille printer, I mean the ink print printer, will do that. So we're going to get started. Would you take the Braille Lite that we have in front of us right now, it's the Braille Lite 13, and turn that on please. BRAILLE LITE [synthesized speech]: Braille Lite 2000 ready. Help is open. KAPPERMAN: Good... exceIIent. And would you create a file; because you are, as I said, an accomplished Braille Lite user I don't have to guide you through all the... yes there you go. BRAILLE LITE: options, enter file, file to create... M-A-T-H...Math now open KAPPERMAN: Good, and now would you... turn off the braille translator, and just to make sure everyone knows what we are doing. You did a chord-p. JOHN: Yeah, I did a chord-p, then it says enter parameter, then I did “T" for braille translator and now it's just said Braille Translator enter Y or N. So I'm going to hit N right now which will turn it off. Always when a file is created the braille translator is automatically on so... BRAILLE LITE: OK KAPPERMAN: Very good. Ok, now so let's just do some numbers first, just to make sure we have this all squared away. The computer code numbers, as I had indicated earlier, are slightly different from Nemeth code. In that Nemeth code numbers in most cases have a numeric indicator in front of them. The computer code numbers are just the lower numbers without the numeric indicator. So, if you were to, say, braille in the number one, you would use the dot 2 for that. So would you do that please. JOHN: OK. BRAILLE LITE: one one KAPPERMAN: And hit the space bar. There you go. Now do the number 2 which is dots 2-3, of course. BRAILLE LITE: two, two KAPPERMAN: Excellent; and a number three BRAILLE LITE: three, three KAPPERMAN: Good; and number four BRAILLE LITE: four, four KAPPERMAN: Excellent! And 5, 6, 7, 3, 9, and 0. Would you do those? BRAILLE LITE: five, five, six, six, seven, seven, eight, eight, nine, nine, zero, zero KAPPERMAN: Now tell me when you put your fingers on the tactile display what you are seeing right there. JOHN: Well I'm actually seeing the numbers 2 through 0 KAPPERMAN: Because we overran the tactile display JOHN: Right, yeah we overran the little display thing, but I can move back and forth through the numbers. It actually looks like, you can definitely tell when you're looking at this in the braille display that there is no number sign in front of the numbers. They look like letters, except for they are, as you mentioned earlier, in the lower portion of the cell. KAPPERMAN: OK, exactly. If you were to move over those character by character, do that, with a chord dot 6 or chord dot 3. Let's see what happens there. BRAILLE LITE: space, two, three, four, space, five KAPPERMAN: So in fact you can read those. The point is the Braille Lite actually says it correctly. Now would you print that series of numbers? JOHN: OK BRAILLE LITE: Top of file KAPPERMAN: And tell me what you are doing. JOHN: OK, well we have this printer hooked up to the Braille Lite serial port so I'm going to hit a T-chord, a BRAILLE LITE: enter transmit parameter. JOHN: A t-chord, a, just as I would if I were printing out normally a homework assignment for a teacher. So I'm going to do that. BRAILLE LITE: one page is printed, OK. [printer noise] KAPPERMAN: And the HP printer is printing it out right now, and if both of us could see this... we would see... JOHN: I'll turn the paper the right way so maybe the camera can get a look at it. KAPPERMAN: We would see the numbers 1 through 9 and zero there. OK, good, excellent! So let's do an algebraic equation. JOHN: I should probably delete these numbers first right? KAPPERMAN: Excuse me? JOHN: Should I delete these series of numbers? KAPPERMAN: Go right ahead and do that. BRAILLE LITE: top of file, ...OK, file is empty KAPPERMAN: OK, file is empty. Now, we're going to do an algebraic equation, and let's just make it x squared plus 2x minus 1 is equal to 24. To start off with then, let me just summarize and then we're going to do it. In order to do the x squared plus 2x minus 1 is equal to 24, what we have to do is we have to do the exponent portion a little bit differently than what normally would be done. In that we can't cause the exponents, the superscripts, to be written above the line of print with our Braille Lite so what we'll do is use a caret, and that is to show the beginning of the exponent. And a caret is an upside down v, let me put it on your hand here, upside down v is the way it is printed in the ink print printer. Then you would have the exponent following that, whatever it is, in this case it's a 2, then following that with a dot-5. Well, you and I know that the dot 5 is the baseline indicator, but it's going to show up in the print version as a quotation mark. So what you're going to have to do is tell your... is make a deal with your math teachers that when they see a caret and then whatever follows that caret and then is finished off with a quotation mark, that expression between the caret and the quotation mark is what you mean to be the exponential... exponent of that particular expression. And it's very easy for a sighted person to interpret that. It doesn't take a very sophisticated person to be able to say, uh-huh that is the superscript, so that's really the only difference. And it turns out that when you do this, caret, and the superscript, and then the dot 5 on your display it actually looks like very good Nemeth code. So, let's do this. Now I'm going to guide you through this. We'll do the x squared first. Would you please braille in an x. BRAILLE LITE: x KAPPERMAN: Now to do the superscript, the character, the caret character, we would do a chord-u followed by dots 4-5 so would you do a chord-u please? BRAILLE LITE: uppercase KAPPERMAN: Uppercase, and then dots 4-5 BRAILLE LITE: up arrow KAPPERMAN: It says up arrow, I've been calling a caret, but the Braille Lite calls it an up arrow, both are correct. Now do the number two, please. BRAILLE LITE: 2 KAPPERMAN: Excellent; and the dot 5 following that, BRAILLE LITE: quote KAPPERMAN: Quote, it says quote, and then do let's say, plus 2x, and the plus sign as you know is JOHN: ing sign BRAILLE LITE: plus two x KAPPERMAN: Excellent, now do a minus sign, dots 3-6 BRAILLE LITE: dash KAPPERMAN: then a number one BRAILLE LITE: one KAPPERMAN: Excellent! Then put in a space. BRAILLE LITE: x up arrow 2 quote plus 2 x dash one KAPPERMAN: Then it told us what we've got there so far, now... because we've got interactive on, apparently. Now what we want to do is do the equals sign. The equals sign in computer braille, in the computer code, is the all 6 cells, all 6 dots, the “for" cell sign. So would you do that please? BRAILLE LITE: equals KAPPERMAN: Equals, then do a space and a 24 BRAILLE LITE: space 2 4 KAPPERMAN: Great, excellent. Now the great thing about this, well you tell me. When you take a look at that under your fingers what do you see there? Tell me what it looks like to you. JOHN: Well it actually looks almost like it would if I had the equation brailled out on a piece of paper with the braillewriter. KAPPERMAN: Except that you don't have a numeric indicator in front of the 24, do you? And everything else is actually... and the equals sign shows up as all 6 dots, of course, the full cell, doesn't it? JOHN: It does show up as a full cell on the braille display KAPPERMAN: At any rate, would you print that with the braille printer? JOHN: OK, again I'm using the same commands to print as I did the first time. BRAILLE LITE: press enter, one page is printed, OK. (printer noise) KAPPERMAN: Good, and it's as simple as that. The algebraic expression should be showing x with an up arrow, or caret, or an upside down v pointing up, and then a 2 and then a quotation mark following it. Good, the expression in ink print should be showing an x with the up arrow, which is an upside down v or the caret, and then a 2 following that, and a quotation mark, and then a plus sign, then 2 x minus 1 is equal to... Then the equals sign shows up and 24. Good, now we'll do one more. We're going to be doing an example of the ASCII, using ASCII numbers and we're going to be doing the degree symbols. We're going to write the small expression 10 degrees. Would you delete the expression we've got there? JOHN: Sure. BRAILLE LITE: enter delete parameter, OK, file is empty KAPPERMAN: Excellent, outstanding. Now to do 10 degrees then, once again just to summarize real quickly, we'll do a ten like we have been doing and then we'll follow that immediately with the keystroke combination that is going to cause the ink print printer to print the degree symbol, the little circle up above the line of print. So, that is, in order to do the ASCII, to use the ASCII code we would have to do the ALT command, the Braille Lite ALT command, dots 3-5 chord followed by the ASCII number that is assigned to the degree symbol, which is 243, I happen to know 243, and then we follow that with an chord-e. So, in a nutshell, lets just do this. Put in, braille in the number ten. BRAILLE LITE: one, zero. KAPPERMAN: Good, excellent. Now do the ALT command with chord dots 3-5 BRAILLE LITE: alt KAPPERMAN: Alt and it said alt. Now braille in in Nemeth or computer code numbers 243. BRAILLE LITE: 2 4 3 KAPPERMAN: Excellent! Now do a chord-e. BRAILLE LITE: degrees KAPPERMAN: And it says de-grees [laughter] and we have... read over that expression character-by-character, go backwards over characters. BRAILLE LITE: top JOHN: oops KAPPERMAN: that's OK BRAILLE LITE: one zero degrees KAPPERMAN: One zero degrees, right. Now unfortunately, one of the things, if you do the read word-by- word, read the current word chord dots 2-5, it's not going to say the degree. I believe. Go ahead. BRAILLE LITE: ten x JOHN: No, it'll say ten x, and actually let me just point out one other thing here. The degree symbol on the braille display does not show up as it would if you had it brailled. KAPPERMAN: That's exactly, that's a very good point actually. JOHN: It looks like an L, actually. KAPPERMAN: The onIy... And that is a problem the ASCII code symbols don't show up in correct Nemeth code. Someday maybe they will be able to do that, but we cannot do that now. Would you... it's a simple matter to print that 10 degree if you would just do that printing command one more time. BRAILLE LITE: top, enter, one page is printed, OK. (printer noise) KAPPERMAN: Good, that was very quick. (printer noise) KAPPERMAN: So that should show 10 degrees with 1 0 and the degree symbol and it's as simple as that. And there we are. You can do many, many of the mathematical symbols using the Braille Lite in this... what I consider to be a relatively easy thing to learn if you already know how to use a Braille Lite or a Braille ‘N Speak. What I recommend though, is, a person who knows the Braille ‘N Speak, you can do this with a Braille ‘N Speak but you don't have the advantage of being able to see the symbols on a tactile display. So I really don't recommend this for the Braille ‘N Speak, but rather using the Braille Lite for studying mathematics.