Category: Let's talk
I still use the slate and stylus to take notes and write stuff down. its quieter than a brailler and if you practice you can write pretty fast. who else uses it? I find it useful still. do you? lets discuss.
Yep, I don't use it much, but it's nice to have around.
Nope. In my world it's obsolete. I have a notetaker and so many backup devices that I truly dont' need it and can't bother to write braille in reverse. lol
I didn't start to use a slate and stylus until I was fourteen. By then I was already used to writing with a Perkins because that's what I started using at the age of six. So I never quite took to writing things backward. I honestly hate it. It's sad, but right now I use so little Braille, and I sometimes miss that, but I have my Victor, both to read and to record notes, or my computer, so I really don't use the stylus at all.
Nope. Always hated it. I've known some slate speed demons, but for me it was too slow and cumbersome, no matter how much I practiced.
I will use mine on occasion, and I have no shame in that. However, I am not a slate and stylus dogmatic zealot as some are. I grew up hearing about these amazing speed demons on the thing.
But I used it for everything before computers, everything but math. I never got that fast at it, tell you the truth, though I tried deploying different techniques speed writers use to improve.
I question the real existence of these speed demons, just as I question the existence of Bigfoot. The zealots who threw that stuff in my face generally used straw man arguments and could never themselves deliver, nor did they know how it was done. All they could say was practice more, but I used it for everything non-print. I could never get the hang of using those recording things for getting something written down.
Just how it works. And the fervor and fire of the zealots only serve to increase my disbelief. Again, it's like people who insist because I cannot see the strange lights in the sky, I am a skeptic about UFO's.
I have heard, and felt their hands as they wrote. Just pop pop pop pop pop pop pop at machine gun peed.
I still use em for labeling stuff
why on earth should there be any shame? do people still feel ashamed if they use a pen and paper to write something?
since I learned Braille more recently, I'm far from proficient but I definitely use it although for anything long I'll use the keyboard
I'm particularly fond of my Janus (not 100% on the spelling) slate that fits a standard index card, very handy for jotting something quick
I'm not crazy about recording my own voice, but I do use the recording feature on one of my devices when it suits
I went to LWSB with a woman named Debra West, and I heard her as she took a time test on the slate and stylus. It popped and banged, but still wasn't nearly as loud as a brailler, and she did 22 words a minute on the thing. I never could get that fast with it. She was amazing. She also read 192 words a minute outloud in Braille.
Wow.... I don't know how fast I read/write braille, but I would like to think I am pretty good...
I do use a slate & stylus, primarily for labeling stuff, but that's about it.
Kate
I don't know about speed, I never worry about that, but mine rides in my shoulder bag, and sits on my desk. Sometimes you just need manual operation.
Slide my slate out with the card already in side and write. I don't have to power it up, worry if I remembered to charge it, or have I used it more than the charge I gave it can handle. Nope, I just get her phone number.
Ah, nothing like reading something you scribbled.
I also take notes, or write notes to myself. The things just work.
I think it's cool how you have to write backwards with the thing I guess because I'm a weirdo and I think things like that are amusing. I haven't used mine in months. I actually need to get a new slate which kind of upsets me because I lost the one I had while I attended LCB, and it was kind of a souvenir or something along those lines that braught back a lot of memories. I got up to 15 words a minute at one point, but it took hours and hours of practice. Some people are probably naturals with it, especially those who are used to working with their hands which I did not have muc h experience doing before attending LCB. Same went with Braille -- I got to a point where I read 195 words in a minute, but it took hours and hours of reading and practicing. That included both hands. When I first attended LCB, I could read 130 words per minute with my left index finger, which is the way I always read before attending LCB. I'm glad I worked both hands though in case something was to happen to one of them.
Strangely I hadn't used a slate and stylus until I met Westcoastcdngrl, I'd always used a Perkins for producing Braille mechanically before that. I'm fairly neat with it but slow, I know how people who used manual typewriters must have felt when they made a mistake though. It's interesting that slate and stylus users considered the Perkins to be backwards when they first came out. I don't think I'll use it a great deal for the reasons that others have given, but I'm glad we have them.
I could never get the hang of it, and I tried for a lot of years simply because teachers expected it of me. Anyway these days if I need to write something down I record a memo of it on my IPhone.
The only times I've used a slate and stylus over the past several years was to label decks of cards with the card slate. Other than that, I haven't really found a need for using it. Plus, I'm not very fast, so the process is just cumbersome.
I was always way way way faster on the Perkins. I still have one. Needs a little repair work, otherwise it's in good condition for a 40 something year old machine.
Nope! I do have one, but I don't touch it. It's too cumbersome. I get the concept of writing in reverse, but I don't like it. Pluss I'm teribley slow at it. By the time I type in the first word I missed a number or something. So no. I use a braille labler for certain things. No glue, no tape, just peal and stick. I use the brailler to write cards. I'm pretty good at that thing. I charge my devices at night, and I'm good to go. :)
I got my Perkins brailler in the fall of 1978, and it's showing its age, but still works.
I have a slate and stylus, but I barely use it. The index card slate is very nice, though. If you need to take down something fast, they're really good for that.
What I really do hate are the regular slates. Not because of writing backwards, or even that I'm slow at it, but because I could never get the hang of moving the thing down the page in a straight line. So I would always end up either leaving gaps between lines of text, or writing over everything I had previously written. I don't know what it is, but me and getting things straight just don't mix. It's the same reason why I have to use one of those label guns for labeling stuff in Braille, because for some reason I can't cut with scissors in a straight line, either. I've wasted many sheets of labeling paper trying that, and it wasn't worth it, that stuff is expensive.
As to the whole slate and stylus is better than everything stuff, I've heard it, but it goes in one ear and out the other with me. I think it's a cool thing to have, but nowadays it isn't essential. It's just one of many tools that people have at their disposal if they so choose. Then again, I don't really take any dogmatism seriously.
Re: post #12, Here's my number, so, call me, maybe; LOL. Seriously, not knowing how to use the slate and stylus is like a sighted person not learning how to write with pen; what school would consider that, even with all the tech around? I attended Perkins School for the Blind, where they spoiled us with tapes and braillers, then tried introducing the slate. Maybe they should do it the other way?
Re: Post #20, straight lines and I do not get on well, either; I share your frustration.
I still use mine actually. *smile* I have one that is a full-page interpoint slate, and I use it pretty regularly. At one point, I considered getting rid of my Perkins braillewriter because I loved that I could now write on both sides of a page, but I still like to put single characters in the left margin when putting addresses/contact info on my notecards as a way to label each piece of info while taking up very little space, so I decided to keep the braillewriter. But yeah, aside from that, I keep much of what I write down in binders and folders anyway, so the full-page slate is very handy to carry around with a binder/folder and some lightweight braille paper. I've had problems several times with much of my personal writing/notes either getting lost or wiped out when done electronically, so although I still use my devices to take down notes and download books and USB devices to store them, I don't really trust keeping written stuff on them for too long if I can help it, especially when it comes to personal writing/notes or articles/sections I really like. I also have a interpoint slate for writing on the 11-by-11-inch braille paper that I use sometimes for writing notes, and I want to get a Janus slate as well for when I can't/don't want to carry around the full-page one. If it wasn't for me being able to write on both sides of a page, I don't think I'd like using the slate and stylus as much and would really not have been interested in buying them to use.
Aside from the interpoint/interline ones I have/want, I also have a one-line labelling slate and one for writing jumbo braille. I don't use those as much, but I can store the labelling one in a small place with my labelling tape for when I need it, and the jumbo one is just different and fun to use and read the braille once in awhile. *smile*
I have two slates and a bunch of stylus that I got when I first started learning Braille.
I have a 4 row portable slate and a 8.5 x 11 inch letter size slate as well... I got the smaller one from my Grade 1 course and I got the Letter size slate from http://www.braillebookstore.com/ ... they're located about 45 minutes east of Vancouver, Canada so they were able bill me in Canadian currency and mail it to me for free.
Anyway, I digress... I used to use the slate to braille out my assignments and cards for Ed_G (it used to absolutely kill my hands) but since we rescued his old school Perkins from his Mom's house, I have started to learn how to use the Perkins.
I still use the slate and stylus. Since I don't have a notetaker, and I hate listening to myself on recordings, I don't have much of a choice other than to write it down in hard copy. lol
I have the same problem with moving the slate down the paper in a straight line. I write down phone numbers and addresses with the perkins on rolodex cards, and my braille sense.
I have never seen a full page slate. Wonderful as it sounds, though.
They don't have that raised line between the rows of slots like the regular slates. Never tried one but I imagine it would be easy to lose your place if you stopped writing for a bit.
Just remember what line and cell you stopped at.
I never use them personally. I tried, but am way too slow at it. Has anyone ever heard of the jot-a-dot? It's supposedly a mini Brailler.
Cool that I'm not alone in having trouble with moving the slate in a straight line.
I have seen a full page slate before, but I'm content with the index card slate I have. I rarely need to write down anything with it that I would need more than both sides of an index card for.
@Dave and @Green Turtle... I wouldn't worry too much about not consistently getting straight lines using the slate. I'm a sighted slate user and I occasionally have problems moving the paper so that my work is straight.
The best way to get the whole straight line thing with the slate is when you load a piece of paper in to the slate, press the top edge against the two top pins of the slate. Don't put the paper on top of those pins. Now hold it in place until you can get the slate closed. The bottom two pins will punch the paper. After you have written the 4 lines and are ready to move the slate down, open the slate and pick up the page just enough to move it over the pins. Move the page up until the previous holes made by the bottom pins are now over the top pins, then close the slate. You can keep doing it this way until you reach the end of the page.
That generally works if you have a thicker piece of paper; thinner ones make that difficult... since not a lot of people/places carry easily available card stock, you'll just need to be REALLY careful about where you put those pins! LOL
I hear ya on losing the place. So what I do is tuck the stylus into the slate on the cell where I left it.
The hardest part about using a slate and stylus is not being able to look back at what you did. I mean, you start writing, someone comes into the room and you get interrupted. You end that and go back to what you were doing. Now you have to open the slate and look.
Less problematic than the typewriters of old but yes, I do find the slate easier for simpler stuff.
The other thing with Braille writing of any kind, it's hard to erase like people do with pencil and paper. Yeah I know about the Braille erasers or use a fingernail but it never comes out quite right.
Oh and writing Braille music with a slate, while at one time necessary, is quite the laggardly experience. Just sayin'. i'm sure someone of a dogmatic persuasion will trot on out here and tell us how they can do it 120 measures per minute, but not I, and I actually wrote down quite a few scores that way when I was younger. But it was one laggardly way to do it. Only thing worse is doing Algebra with a slate. Both music and math it's necessary to check your work / look at the results all the time, so, I'm using the Perkins Brailler when I do any of that without a Braille display.
I wasn't sure how to explain how to do it but hopefully the way Anthony said it makes sense. At Leo: I never even learned Braille music when I played the trumpet... I just memorized all my music by hearing them on a recording.
Me too. Never had the patience to learn to read and write music. Fuck all that rest rest rest half note whole note bullshit, just play.
I'd never want to do maths on the slate! Agreed with @Leo on erasure of any kind of hard-copy braille. With the Perkins, I'd rather "for-sign" something out and start over. The erase button on the new Perkins is a bit better, especially if you only need to erase only one character. Doing hard-copy braille makes one think before one writes; LOL.
I did math on the braille lite.
Speaking of math: is use of the abacus still taught?
Don't know but I hope not. It was a fucking nightmare.
Yes it is still being fought... I had a teacher who used it... it was hell
Glad someone agrees.
It was taught in the 70s but I was precluded from learning it, once my parents found out. Some dogmatics, who probably blow up buildings or something for a living, persuaded my parents it was some sort of asking for privilege, so I suffered the consequences, regardless of the fact no elementary school asks for a way to do things. Except maybe when they can next go outside.
The way I look at it is this: The Chinese used them to take censuses and do advanced accounting / tax records for thousands of years, so it can't be so ineffective, or that dreaded p word - privilege. Our first mechanical calculating device was the mechanical adding machines used to take the 1880 census.
I remember the very basics of adding on it but don't know how you would multiply or divide. It was pretty straightforward and a lot more carbon-friendly than reams of Braille paper, and required one learn all the math concepts only do them a bit differently. It was not hell, only its violent end in my case was: A bit of a macabre east meets west fantasy of somebody's I suppose.
I can read and write music. No way can I do it with the slate, it's too hard. I used to play the piano by ear when I was younger, and I still have the ability but sometimes what happens with that is that certain notes or scales may sound alike and we may get them wrong. But I just couldn't do it with the slate. I did memmorise orchestral solo fragments of the piano and it wasn't so hard, but a sonata is a whole other story. Playing by ear is fun for jamming and such...
like others, I don't ever use a slate and stylus. I honestly never got the hang of it, and I have plenty of other devices that successfully get the job done, when I need to write stuff down.
I'm a braille speed reader, too. while at the LCB, I reached my goal of reading 200 words a minute, two handed, rather than the one finger on one hand that I was taught to read with, in my school days.
that doesn't make the least bit of sense, to me, that they teach like that. most people have both hands, so why treat one/most of the other as if they're broken?
I never heard of reading with one hand. I've always read with both, not just using the left hand to track the left edge.
I'm glad I learned to use the abacus as a mechanical calculator. I got some lessons on the braille slide-rule, but, uggg! When I was in high school, the Speech Plus talking calculator was just coming in. It was expensive and too big. Long Live The Abacus! LOL
I have considered getting one and learning it.
I learned the basics of the abacus; I started learning how to multiply, but then calculators became affordable and classes started requiring them... and if I recall correctly I got frustrated easily then (as now) if I didn't pick up something quickly. So I never did learn those skills, or if I did, I didn't retain the knowledge.
Kate
oh, and, to answer leo's previous question about the abacus, I learned how to use it in elementary school, and found it was much easier to learn that way.
to those of you who weren't taught to read one-handed, you must have gone to a good school. I wish that were the case the majority of the time.
Reading with one finger... say WHAAAAAAAT?
Yes, I was taught to read with my left index finger alone. I was also taught to use my right hand as a guide so my reading finger wouldn't go off the page. God Forbid that left index finger lept from the page... I might never ever find where I left off again.
*rolls eyes* I don't remember how I was taught (I think with the left hand trailing?) but I have always read with both hands. One of my friends growing up did the 1-2 finger method, and I always thought it was silly. I could be 100 pages through a braille book by the time she got 1/3 that far.
Kate
Long live the abacus . Lost mine, really should get another one.
About the abacus-it is torture to learn as an adult who lost sight. I finally started to get the hang of it but had to stop for while. I think the person teaching me went out of town for a while or something and by the time she came back neither one of us had time and then I just forgot about it. Which is a shame since it was such a struggle to get my head around in the beginning and I don't know if I could face that again!
As far as reading with one finger goes, I must say I never heard of that until just now. How ridiculous. I can imagine that would be a very slow way of reading.
As for the abacus, I was required to use it in elementary school, since using calculators was considered cheating. I hear this is changing nowadays, but I do agree that using an abacus is pretty cumbersome. Actually, the combination of doing that and writing out long division on a Perkins was enough to make me use that forbidden calculator. I mean, what kid wants to spend 3 or more hours on their homework every day?
Having said that, my TVI had a really unique and cool way of showing me how the abacus worked. On certain days, she would bring in this game called Abacus Attack. Does anyone else remember that? You would have to solve math problems with the abacus in order to move ahead. I think that there were spaces that forced you to move back, and there might have been other setbacks as well. The whole game was tactile.
Long die the abacus. I got so fed up with it one day I started doing equasions on the braille lite, because of coulrse you work one part of a problem, erase it, and start on the next part. Plus it had a calculator which my teacher never knew about.
I'll admit, I read Braille to what some people have called a haphazard fashioned. Sometimes, both hands work one from each end and meet in the middle. It's part of that dyslexic thing the Chick says I have a mild version of, I guess. Right to left and left to right are more often than not the same thing to me.
Someone told me that the NFB would not care about someone reading like that or get upset at a center over that. So if that is the case, my hat is off to them. I probably had better speed when all I had to read was Braille. And I'll confess, I am way way faster using Braille on paper than on a display.
You can skim read with Braille. I'd never thought of that until I was in a restaurant looking at their Braille menu. The mother in law said something about I was reading from two pages at once. Not quite, I was looking down each of the pages to find the sections, looking up stuff for me and the Daughter while the Chick was getting out the requisite coloring books and things for her.
Anyway the Chick told her mom "Oh, he is just skim reding," or something like that. I had not thought about this before. And I doubt we are as fast as someone sighted since their aerial view allows them to take in more at a glance. But you will never be able to skim read that fast with a Braille display.
Anyway I bet there are as many ways to read Braille off a page as their are people. It's like the people who tell you as a blind person to read Braille music only one line at a time. But it's easier to read a line with each hand if it's piano, or even use an extra finger from one of the hands to look at parts that are more than just two. Probably not explaining it right. Anyway I say just do whatever works for you as you figure it out. Someone will always have a criticism or a comment or claim that it is not the normal way.
I don't know, but I can read with one hand. I's my left hand. i can read with both, but I can still read with my left. And one line at a tie? That's ridiculous in my opinion. I don't read braillee music like that, it would tele me much longer to learn scores
I'm sorry for all my typos. ...
It's ok, I've actually seen the worst writing by those who begin writing with the slate and stylus. When we were at LCB and we would show each other stuff we tried writing, we thought what the hell are you trying to say? Haha.
My beads be just going click, click, click. 3 hours? Never, I had to many other things to do accept home work.
Plus the old abe was legal right in the class room. The teacher couldn't claim I was cheating, because they didn't know how to work it so.
Some didn't know what it was even. Maybe one of these stress gadgets? Smile.
I've even wipped it out in a store to figure out price percentages and stuff. Use to carry one about sometimes.
I wonder if I got one would it all come back, or would I have to spend 3 hours trying to remember what I've forgotten. Lol
when I read Braille. As my right hand gets close to the end of the line, my left hand goes to the next line, to pick up the first few words. My right hand then comes to meet it. It's so automatic for me now that I don't even think about it.
as far as reading Braille (and keep in mind I learned it around age 35, I read with one hand, mostly one finger. For some reason, my right hand can't understand a damn thing it feels. And I indeed only read one line at a time.
But when I could read print, I was always the first one done with a test (and yes I did well on them) and could whip through a 400 page book in a few hours. So nyah nyah nyah!
VH, this will probably rub some dogmatics the wrong way, but ...
I had a coworker who had recently lost his sight, and was struggling to learn Braille. So I said, give yourself the same amount of years with Braille that you had with print before you think about getting down on yourself about it. How many of us lifers, if we could instantly see, would be able to quickly learn how to read print with all that that entails? I think a bit of understanding from us lifers goes a long way to people in your situation. And, it's not exactly a contest even. Sighted people read at all different reading levels and speeds and so forth. The veritable pissing contest I've seen this stuff get into online with Braille is stupid, in my opinion. And next time someone gives you a hard time about it, maybe ask them how well they do with print. And as they begin to wax elephant and dogmatic about how they would if they could, get a print book and ask them to show you.
Or, put their hands on a hot waffle iron and say here, read this.
Fore Reel: If you were to get an abacus, your skill would likely come back soon.
I have been thinking about it. Save me paper from using my slate to do some math at times. Lol
Anyone heard about the rotating wheel braille displays? You set the speed and the wheel turns and you read continuous braille with a stationary finger.
Imp, that sounds interesting.
And, Leo, I've made my peace with my Braille skills. I know if I worked harder at it, I would improve but for various reasons, that's not happening at this point. While I could do better, my skill level is more than adequate for my needs at this point and time.
And I hate, hate! touching paper that much.
Nope, never heard of the rotating wheel braille display before. sound sstrange.
I use my slate everyday for work. I use it to take down my daily sales and any pay outs I have done. I use it to make my shopping lists for all of my suppliers and I just love it...
I use it for writing braille on plastic sticky paper to put on greeting cards and labling things.
I have always liked using my slate over a braille writer. Those things are too loud. I like that I can stick an index card in my back pocket and wip it out at the store to read from and don't have to bring anything clunky to use.
I use to spend my free time writing on one and got pritty good at it.
I'm glad, VH. While I can't appreciate your experience directly - I've read off paper by touching it for most of my life -, I can appreciate the Braille speed issue.
You know, even print readers slow down after awhile. You hinted at your age being somewhat similar to mine. Wll, you see all these college kids and educators online who talk about speed of reading. Except they are reading a ton of content all day every day.
I of course use my Braille display to program, but that will never build up your speed. You're not "reading" like reading books. And you know how many busy adults who are perfectly sighted now do audio books all the time. You get home from work and the last thing you want to do is think a lot. Unless your day job uses your body more than your brain.
So there ya go, another brick in the wall with you and other blind people who lost their sight making peace with yourself -- I hope.
I will be honest though if I could sheathe a stylus I would have carried it around a lot more. I used to hate the way the tip would poke at my hoo hoo from inside a Jeans pocket. And, Braille fades when squeezed into a tight spot like that.
I love my slate and stylous. I have like ten different kinds of slates for many different purposes at work and home. Just like sighted people jot down notes I do the same thing while on the phone at work or home. That also means though I am a very proficient user, I can use it very easily and I write fast. However, this has cost me many sessions of physical therapy, its horrible for your shoulders. I have used it since highschool. My way of retaining information is repitition, so in college I would use my slate to take my notes when reading a several page psychological journal or even textbook.
See? It's bad for you. Bad, bad, baaaaad!
Lol I always used it in college. Probably would more now if it weren't in a drawer. I even wrote music scores with it, will still do that if need arises and I am trying to learn something.
Lot of offices full of sighted people, and one cannot find a pen, however. My wife is a teacher, lifelong educator type and loves pens and pencils and shit, spreads out paper all over the place. And we've been places and she's said, "I can't believe nobody has a pen here." Not blind, just people using BlackFairies and other devices.
Meh, your stylus never runs outa ink though does it? and you never need sharpen it.
The major difference between us and sighted people's pen and paper is they can see as they're writing. We have to turn the page over and look. The physics makes sense, I get it, but c'mon dogmatics, we all know it's klunky. Know what? Any of us who worked as SW devs on the Win Mobile platform and loved the open architecture (then) were not too big in the britches to say plainly some aspects were downright klunky. But then again, for some the slate thing is a bit of a religion and no deist will dare to critique the deity.
Meh, I'll use mine as occasion suits, just like the Craftsman tools, but not too proud to say Craftsman is pretty shaky sometimes and so is the slate. Especially getting interrupted.
Oh and if you want to reduce shoulder strain here's one way: Get a Steno pad, then use your pocket slate in it, and use it on two sheets at a time. Then you have a good copy and a CC copy all the time, but not as thick as card stock or Braille paper, won't give you problems like that. I got through college using those pads, ran the PSU bookstore outa their supply a few times while I was at it. Can't stash them in a pants pocket, but a jacket pocket will do, or a fanny pack / purse for those so inclined.
I still have one of those half used up also. Just remember 2 sheets at a time and the binding on the pad helps keep you straight when starting out on the page if you start at the binding edge as I did. Do it like a calendar where the binding is away from you. And I did the whole thing ass-backwards: You read it by turning it around flipping it towards you and open the first page, flip it back to see the text. Then you never are pressing down over previous-written Braille when you are writing.
Anyway hope that helps if you are still using it. And it's better on your shoulders that way than using card stock or Braille paper.
I have a stylus that you can twist out the stick and turn it in to the handle and twist it back in so you don't poke yourself. I love it...
They also have slate holders that you can put your slate and sylus in to carry about but this can be a bit bulkey.
Hmm, I just use the soft pencil cases for my standard slate and stylus but you are right it is a bit bulky. Which is probably why I stick with the janus slate and stylus although I carry it in a soft pencil case, too, along with blank index cards and my iBill and a pouch that holds my earbuds.
You guys are fancy. Mine I get some 5 by 7 index cards, drop these and it iin my shoulder bag with the pokie deal.
I'vve got one that slides the card inside so you can use both sides.
I also have the 4 line regular one, but only use that sometimes.
Someplace I read, and that might be on here, there is one that you can write from left to right, and just open it to read the braille.
Was I dreaming, or did I actually read about it?
My post was bad. Was on the telephone with my mommy and well. Smile.
I have one of those index slates too. I can wright on both sides with it. I also have a full page slate and one of those normal standard four line slates and a few stylus.
Wayne were you dreaming? I"d like to know which one that is? lol!
How do you remember where you left off if you abandon the page slate for a time? I mean, on the paper.
it's a PITA but you can use the stylus to feel where you left off as in gently run it along the cell to feel where you've already pressed to find where the blank begins.
They do have the device that you write left to right but I ccan't think what it is called. I used one once; when you get used to doing it backward writing forward takes some thought.
Probably be seriously confusing. I'd end up with everything written backwards.
I think it would be much easier than the slate? Hmmm. I'll have to look into that
I use mine to put my addresses on thermoform paper from future-aids the braille bookstore site that's where I get the paper and then put it in a binder. got all my skype contacts in braille as well just in case the computer crashes.
I use the slate and stylus mostly when I need to write stuff down and don't feel like pulling out the perkins brailler that I have on a shelf. I like it because I can write on anything from light copy paper to light aluminum foil paper to thermoform sheets and the braille comes out good.
I wish I had known how to use the slate and stylus back in college in 2002 for my spanish math and science classes. that way I could have easily made verb conjugation and other tables on paper while in class and writing on thermoform paper makes it absolutely silent or very quiet writing.
I'm never silent when writing with slate and stylus; my cursing of my **#%%@@$ mistakes gets loud; LOL!
left to right slate:
http://www.braillebookstore.com/Read--and--Write-Slate.1
So, I wasn't dreaming! *sigh*
Maybe I'll give one a try.
Oo, gotta check it out, wayne! Thanks! :)
Thermoform sucks donkey balls.
No way. I've been glad I had it when I was in the rain, or it got wet somehow, and I could just clean it off.
Yes it has static, and yes it can actually fade with time. But you won't see it disappear in a rainstorm like Braille paper can do. Get caught in a June shower outside in a T shirt with a piece of Braille paper and see what I mean. That would not happen to thermoform.
I always found my fingers got stuck to the Thermoform pages, and the pates goe stuck together. Hated it!
Oh, I love thermo form! I think it's the best... I think it lasts longer, even if it raids but it will eventually, right?
The washibility of thermoform paper is a plus in cases like menus and recipes. Oh, and for those times when Leo gets caught in the rain with his braille book. LOL.
*kisses the thermoform book!
You know they even have different textures of the stuff, and some was sort of sticky, but the stuff that is smooth?
Ah, yes. No worries about the rain, spilt beer, coffee, sweaty hands when reading these, um, well, and yeah! thermoform.
I prefer braille-on.