Bringing Braille into the Computer Age

About the Book

Recently this Writer received information from a local Center for the Blind concerning the present method of converting a book into Braille. The Staff of this particular Center for the Blind had converted a Biology text book into Braille. Nine books had been ordered. These nine books in Braille were intended to enable nine students to read along with sighted pupils in the same class. Each of the nine book orders of 43 volumes consisted of 3601 pages. Thermoform copies of each page had to be made. After they had been created they had to be punched and labeled. The nine orders were then shipped to the customer. The charges for the Order came to $763.20. To prepare each of the nine sets of 43 books took the volunteers from January 6, 2003 until February 26, 2003. This time did not take into account other work the Transcribers performed at home. Within the pages of this book one will find the following: 1. A revised simplified Braille and a Reverse Braille for transcribing Braille. Easy to learn and easy to use. 2. A proposal and design for a dynamic Reader where any book; textbook or other, can be loaded from a CD and read directly in the Revised Braille. 3. The fascinating Story of how the Louis Braille Code came to be written.

About the Author

The author of this novel was born in central Texas near the end of the Great War to End all Wars in 1918. At that time Texas was still on the frontier. The author was born into a farming community, located in Central Texas. Farmers struggled to exist depending on the vagaries of the weather. If the rains came and the crops of corn were bountiful the price per bushel dropped dramatically and the average farmer struggled to even purchase seed for next year’s crop. If the rains failed to come at the right time the crops dried up in the field. All that could be done was to borrow money; tighten ones belt and try to ride out another year. When this writer was quite small his father moved the family to Southeast Texas. South of the City and east of the main highway was the giant Spindletop Oil Field and west of the highway for miles thousands of wild long horn cattle roamed free. Oil, Cattle and Timber sustained a growing community along the banks of the Neches River. The writer’s Uncle grew up on the farm and when he moved to the city he figuratively brought the farm with him. The Uncle had purchased a half city block in a residential community. There he had a stable and corrals for his cow and several cow ponies. So this writer was around horses from an early age. Government assistance was non-existent. When a man became too old to work he essentially survived on his offspring’s charity When this writer was eleven years of age the unwise investment strategies in the Stock Market finally resulted in a total world wide financial collapse. The entire world community was plunged into a decade long financial dark age. War erupted in Europe. This writer served in the Regular United States Navy prior to the start of World War II on Battleships. During the War this writer served on one of the destroyers in Destroyer Squadron 12; the most heavily involved squadron in the early days of the Pacific War. After the War this writer was a Teamster in one of Jimmy Hoffa’s biggest Unions on the west coast: Later he became an Engineer on The Apollo Project from 1964 to 1967. All of these experiences in one way or another led to the writing of this book