I am struggling to learn braille. Not so much learning the alphabet, but feeling the bumps correctly. I have got some of the way through the fingerprint course and I have a few labels around the house.
But I'm wondering - is tech a viable way to try to learn braille? I have never used a braille display but I did feel a couple at Sight Village last year. I liked the feel of the Orbit ones in particular as they felt much clearer than paper.
But it sounds like there may be a big learning curve to a braille display over and above the braille itself. Maybe the brailliant or mantis are good options because they have speech.
The qwerty versions also sound like they would remove a good chunk of the learning that would be needed. I'm not sure if getting to grips with the Perkins keyboard is a useful thing or not. I do have a Hable One which is a little different. I enjoy using it from time to time but I tend to jump back to the qwerty if I need to do anything substantial.
Is there a good option to use as a learning device?
Obviously the cost is a big issue as well and I am worried about spending a lot on something I never quite get my head around. But just curious.
In particular my long-term thought is that it might be something I could use alongside speech when I want to just check something for errors - in particular when coding it feels like it could be useful if I ever get fast enough. The thought of using a computer without audio feels like a bit of a fantasy that I am confident I could ever reach but it would be wonderful.
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Absorbing Hobbies and Tactile Toys
I never thought of it that way, but of course my recent purchase of a tactile Rubiks cube is basically an absorbing and entertaining hobby and toy. It was supposed to improve my brain, somehow, but the only time it was actually solved was when I first got it out of the Amazon box. But I do love fidgeting with it and admiring its distinctive tactile faces. Amazing what's on the open market sometimes.
Following the traumatic loss of my dear feline friend Tab of seventeen years, which has totally gutted me, I think maybe I should fulfil a longstanding goal of learning the slate and stylus for myself in order to ground me a bit and maybe prepare me for the forthcoming nuclear winter, so I picked up a pair of them from Amazon and we'll see how it goes. They both appear to be of the traditional matrix type, but they get good reviews so I'm hopeful this will be a fun exercise for me. I already have a supply of Braille paper. I was somewhat surprised to find that the only option the RNIB offers for sale is the reusable plastic one from Versa with the optional embosser accessory and custom notebooks. They are more expensive though and I really don't like the idea of a dependency on custom notebooks, so I'll keep it traditional. I've never heard of this "magnetab".
And you're right, this is a terrific thread.
Sent from my iPhone, using Braille Screen Input, which though it can be annoying sometimes when it misregisters ghost dots, is more often worth it than not.