Category: accessible Devices
I was googling slate and styluses today and came across one I have never heard of!
A hollow-ended stylus so you can write traditionally left to right. Wow!
http://www.soundbytes.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=SB&Product_Code=430734&Category_Code=filing-organization
Does anyone still own a slate and stylus?
I have a few around here. A cute notebook size with smaller slate and small stylus. Then a huge nearly full page slate with a pen style stylus.
I just saw on the braille bookstore, a size for business cards. What a great idea, but also for jotting down quick notes.
Lol, I'm thinkin' old-school here!
Still got a couple of mine. That does sound cool though. A slate and stylus is all I had for taking notes in college.
No matter what a slate fanboy will tell you, they're not nearly as efficient as modern things, though obviously have their uses like anything else does.
definitely have several around. use mine all the time and love it.
nothing is as cheap or as portable for writing instant, hard copy Braille.
just an aside: sharpen those styluses and your writing will be a lot easier and you'll like doing it a lot more.
also, if you can stop thinking of writing on the slate as "backwards" and just punch the dots you want for the letter your writing, it'll also be a lot easier and more efficient.
And you can write on damn near anything with those things. They're pretty slick, and the chain don't get stuck like the Braille writers
i could never get the hang of them, i mean i knew how to use them, but they drove me nuts, i always had to write backwards to read things the right way.
Lol, I never thought about sharpening the stylus. Pretty clever!
I remember in school I had a metal correctable one. That thing was nice. You could flip open the back to read what you had brailled without removing the slate. The slate was set up in a frame.
I'd like to see this hollow-ended one though.
My wife used to use the hollow one to write me letters, because she didn't have to think about writing backwards. As far as taking notes in college, I didn't realize people sometimes slept in film strips and movies in class till I stabbed myself one night in graduate school and uttered profanity and woke up the class. When I travel I always carry a notetaker, but the slate is in my luggage somewhere. There are times when hard-copy braille is simply more efficient, and there's nothing like the immediacy of the slate for producing it.
Lou
Here is a little side question. Has anyone seen or used the jot a dot? Lol, funny and clever name!
I saw it several years ago, but wasn't impressed. I think it was a great idea to have a portable writing device that used a Perkins-style keyboard, but the final product didn't look very well-built. They might have improved it, so don't take this as a solid thumbs down. I really hope I'm wrong.
Lou
Jot-A-Dot is a clever name; I like it. I have not used or even seen one. I suppose the advantages of the slate and stylus are the same as those of the pen or pencil-- immediate, cheap hardcopy. They're portable and reliable, too. Having said all that, I never got very good with the thing. At Perkins, the brailler was so ubiquitous. In college, I taped and took notes from the recordings.
just FYI:
a great book on learning the slate and stylus is: The Slate Book by Jennifer Dunnam
I believe I could write a novel with mine. Love the thing. Love tech too, but when I just want a note, or to think as I write well give me my slate. I like a plain braille writer too, but these are heavy, so. Lol. The one I like best is a double sided one that has 6 lines on one side and 5 on the other. You slide a 3 by 5 card in and you just flip it to write on the other side. Sweet!
I love them too and recently just bought the hollow-ended one (out of my curiosity) and found it quite hard touse but for my sighted friends they love it!
How do you sharpen a stylus? I never knew there was a tool that would allow you to do that.
I've seen some people use a file to sharpen them, or a sharpening stone like you use on knives. I'm sure there're more ways than that as well. It does indeed make it easier to write.
I don't use mine a ton, but it does come in handy, especially if I need to jot something down like a certain number or somesuch and read it quickly, or to keep track of an address that I'll be going to, so I don't forget it.
forereel, is that model available in metal as well? I saw the plastic one, I think it is called Janis, but in my experience, the plastic ones are pretty chunky.
I think I'd like to get one of these small ones, especially if you can braille on both sides, how cool!
I love old things but this is where I draw the line. I can't see it as being more than a hobby today, except perhaps, in countries where people can't afford computers or braillers or maybe in extreme emergencies. I know it's possible, but how people could write quickly with them is beyond me. Still, I have some, just for fun because I do enjoy them as a way to relax my mind. I actually got the slate with board, the one that really is a full page, because I thought I'd need it for my braille transcription course. I'll have to check out that link. It might make things much easier. But how does it work? I mean, do you really right left to right and shape the letters as they normally would be? Wouldn't they come out backward when you turned the paper over? I have a Jot A Dot and love it. The only thing is that it has just one roller which is a bit small, even for small hands like mine and it doesn't stick out. But the device is very lightweight and can use regular paper. I've often used it for brailling out lists etc. the only bad thing is that the paper loses it's dots because it's so thin and it's small. But it's great for throw-away notes. Now where did I put it? lol
Except when you really do want something on a sheet of paper for one reason or another. I still use mine to be honest, and it's metal. Not all the time, but when it's handy it's handy.
I can't but I know more than a few people that can write pretty quickly with one; just like anything else (including typing) it's something that takes practice.
I can smoke with mine. Smile.
No I've not found a metal one, but you are right metal would be better. I never carry mine in a tight pocket, or bag afraid it might brake, so plastic is the only way for the 2 sided ones yet. If I find one I'll post.
hi, just a few thoughts on the slate from a user and a teacher.
Tiffaniitsa:
as to the slate being old-fashioned and obsolete. its the same as a pen. its cheap, portable, and quiet. its not the only option for blind people to write with, but still a viable option for all the reasons that the pen is still viable for sighted people. it puts the blind on an equal footing with the sighted.
as to sharpening the stylus:
oh, my goodness, how much easier and quicker writing is with a sharp stylus!!
to sharpen, buy a whetstone like you use to sharpen knives on. put the stylus point against the stone at about a 15 degree angle and rub it from side to side. be sure to turn it while you are sharpening so that the point gets sharpened easily.
during sharpening, stop and write with it often so you can tell if it "sticks" or not. if it sticks, sharpen on the smooth side fo the stone a little more.
as far as writing on both sides of a piece of paper, it can be done with a regular 4 line slate. fill up one side and hten just turn the paper over and put the slate on like always and write on the back side. it feels a little strange at first, but works fine. its good to use heavy weight paper when doing this, the dots hold up better.
let me know if there's any more questions anyone has. I love the slate!
James K
Using that analogy, I'd compare it with the quill for the sighted. I'd say devices like the Jot a Dot are more like the modern pens.
lol And btw, nothing against quills or parchment. I've always thought they were neat long before Harry Potter.
Never seen a Jot A Dot, but more considered my slate and stylus to be like a pen than anything, except it doesn't run out of ink and doesn't smudge.
Tif, you lost your jot a dot? Lol! I looked up the price and it is around $300! Too much for me, thanks.
I may buy one of these smaller 2-sided slates though.
For the slate where you can write the left to right, do the dots not come out as sharp?
I have an old notebook and small slate around here, I'll have to go count the lines and cells.
lol No. It's just downstairs. I didn't bring it up when I moved. I actually have an idea of where it might be. I didn't buy it. I got it from the NJ Comission of the Blind before I graduated. I'm surprised that the price is still so high, considering that it's a few years old.
I read about the Jot-A-Dot and that slate where you can write from left to right, and both sound cool. Since they have unique things like that, it would be cool for there to be an 8-dot braillewriter and/or slate. I use the 8-dot mode on my notetakers and think it's quicker to read, plus taking up a little less space (well as far as how many characters you can have on each line of writing anyway). I wonder if there are any 8-dot slates. I've never heard of one myself, but yeah, that would be nice to have if there is such a thing. *smile*
James, or anyone else who understands and can explain geometry really well, how do you hold something at a 15 degree angle? How can you distinguish it from, say, a 45 degree angle? I'm having a lot of trouble visualizing how to hold the stylus just so against the whetstone, and also figuring out how I'd move it from side to side and turn the point around and around at the same time.
I have a small and large slate, 2 or 3 styli, and a couple of tiny notebooks around here, though I rarely use them. I want to get into improve my writing speed, though; taking notes with one would help immensely in math classes where laptops aren't allowed, and the braille note isn't efficient.
I've never written like that. I just hold the stylus streight up, put it into the groove for each hole and punch down. It's fairly accurate and I could probably improve my speed if I practised.
as far as sharpening and the 15 degree angle, sorry I made it so complicated. just put the point on the stone, raise it up a little, and start rubbing it back and forth.
as for turning it to get an evenly sharpened point, just grind for awhile, turn the point a little and grind about the same amount of time, then turn it a little and keep grinding. the idea is to grind an even amount from all around the point so that it doesn't become crooked from grinding all in the same spot.
you don't have to turn the stylus point while your actually grinding, though. sorry to have made it sound like that.
are you coming to national convention in Dallas? if so, hunt me up and I'll show you how its done.
Oh and getting the hang of using a whetstone / grindstone / butcher steel is hard not just for us blind bats but for anyone. I do all our knives, using what I've got which is a steel, but it literally took years to perfect the art ... though I started with pocket knives as a boy. All them new feel good rules can't be good for you all in schools, outlawing the carrying of a Swiss Army or Barlow pocketknife. When did we hear about a mass school knifing? But I digress.
Patience grasshopper lol, you'll do fine, and if you screw one up, well, join the rest of us. You won't have wrecked the bevel on the edge of a nice knife, but even that's reparable with enough time.
As to the degrees thing here goes though others could do better:
Think of laying it flat as 0 degrees, not exact of course but serves the purpose. Now as you raise the fat end, you have an angle under there, where the point and the stone meet. The further up you go you get closer to 90 degrees which is straight up. So the difference between 15 and 45 is 45 is halfway between flat and straight up, while fifteen is a third of 45 or a sixth of the whole thing, just think of it in general terms like that, try not to be too precise but you get it. And yeah just work at it, then stop and check out what you're doing and work at it again. Ever see that when someone's sharpening a knife, it sounds like they start and stop, start and stop, same deal, that's what they're doing. Now I'm gonna have to do mine, never heard of sharpening them before.
Try as I might, and I did try for years, I could never get the hang of the slate and stylus, and not only because of writing from right to left instead of left to right. I could never get the stylus exactly in the right spot so everything I wrote had lots of mistakes in it, even more than I usually make on a Perkins.
I was never fast on a slate and stylus. It took me an hour just to write my first page of a letter.
When I was going to the State school for the blind in Vancouver Washington, the braille writer was all they taught us to use.
I didn't really know how to use the slate and stylus until I went to the rehab center in Seattle.
My problem with the slate and stylus was remembering that I had to write backwards from what I was use to on the Perkins.
Wonder if any blinks have pierced themselves with a sharpened stylus. Personally I went to a professional piercer for such things, but many in their youth now have used many things to do it, now that apparently the initial AIDS scare of the 1980s has passed, mythically or otherwise. Dunno what made me think of it ... just happened.
hmm, peircing utencils, needle, fork, stilis, braille one, or one for games, all sharp and pointy and good like that...
that was never something i was good at, i knew how to do it, but was never good at it, i kept messing up, the cells were small, so hard to move in.
Why anyone would want to pierce themselves is beyond me. lol I don't even like to have ear piercings!
i had the slate that was just the part where you put the paper between the cells and the cell hole thing... nothing more fancy then that...
I went to the Perkins School 116 years, and never have I heard of whetting a stylus, until this board. How nice that there is still much to learn about the fine art of brailing. LOL
I think that's the biggest myth and the thing that holds ppl back from building speed when writing with the slate and stylus is the idea that you have to write backwards. You are not writing backwards at all! The letters in every word still come in the same order, the words in every sentence still follow one another in their natural order, etc. If you just think of the dots of the letter your writing and then punch them, you'll write much faster. Dots 1, 2, 3 always, always come on the first side of the cell whether your reading or writing, it makes no difference.
Think of walking down a halway. If you walk out of a room in to a hallway and turn right, your walking forward. If you walk out of the same room, turn left and walk down the hall, your still walking forward, right. Just because you happen to be moving left instead of right, you aren't moving backwards.
If you put that crazy notion out of your head and just punch the dots of the letter, always keeping in mind that dots 123 come first and dots 456 come next, you'll slate like a fiend soon.
Anyway, just ha to vent a little, smiles.
You're writing right to left is all. Ironically where in other things the left to right, right to left confusion for me made things difficult, using a slate was easy no matter how over and over they kept trying to say 'this is going to be difficult for you' I just kinda did it.
You're doing it right to left is all, though I can imagine for some that would be challenging just as other things are for me.
Hi, guys. I meant to post on this topic earlier, but have always gotten side-tracked.
I was taught slate and stylus when I was very little, when I was first learning Braille. I was taught that even before a Perkins, I think. So, I've never consciously thought about the writing backward thing. It still seems easy/normal to me when I do use a slate. I don't do that very often, since 9 times out of ten, I have my BrailleNote with me. However, I have a slate meant for 3 by 5 index cards, and so I carry that slate and stylus, plus a few index cards in my purse. There are some times when I don't have my BN with me, or sometimes technology breaks and must be repaired. In those cases, a slate and stylus is the most portable option for hard-copy Braille.
When I used checks more than my debet cards, I also kept track of my check register using a slate. I have carbon copies of my checks, so after I'd write a check, I'd use a small slate, and write on the carbon what the check was for, how much, etc. It was a great way to track things. Don't have need of that much anymore though.
I also sometimes use a slate to label print papers, if I have a lot of them. I just put it on the top of the page, and write something small to tell me what the paper is.
If a person learns the slate and stylus early enough, and has used it for most of their lives, they can really smoke on it. I've seen people who can just go like fire. they're generally of the older generations, before the advent of the Braille technology today, but they really do go fast enough that it's an efficient form of writing for them. I learned early, but since I don't use it often, I don't have that kind of speed. I do fairly well, but nothing as speedy as I've seen.
I haven't read each post here, so if I'm repeating things, I apologize. The best way to write is with the stylus pointed straight up and down. If you try to punch the paper at an angle, it makes the writing a lot harder. And, they do make interpoint slates, just like they make interpoint embossers. So, if you want to write on both sides of a page, simply use an interpoint slate. That way, you can flip the paper over, and never have to worry about taking the slate off it.
I'm on my second slate and stylus, but have hardly ever had need of one. We orriginally got me one before these pocket Olympus recorders and other MP3 players were invented, lol. I never got the hang of it either, not with my 1st 4-line plastic slate with plastic V-shaped stylus which had its own little vinyl velcro pouch and came with a blank Braille paper notebook. I lost the slate and broke the stylus accidentally in due course, lol, so we ordered a bigger metal 15 line slate and stylus so I could label food tins with this magnetic tape which wouldn't go in the Brailler but was specially designed and sold by RNIB for just such a purpose. I just couldn't form letters let alone words really quickly when having to move up the page and write from right to left as oppose to moving down the page and writing from left to right like you would on a normal piece of paper with a pen, on a PC or laptop/netbook or when using a Brailler. I used to practice but could never form anything which made sense, just a load of random letters and symbols came up every time I tried writing my name, my phone number, just random little things like that in order to practice using the new metal slate and stylus. It's still here in my bedside chest of drawers to this day, lol. I mean, you never know when these things might just come in useful, lol.
Jen.
oh i have one of those, and i think it's pretty good. I hate the fact of writing something and then when i look at over, it is backwards
I have a small slate that works well for notecards. It's fine for just taking down quick notes. IMO, the plastic slates suck! I don't think the braille is as pronounced. It never took me long to master writing with a stylus, they're great for things like shopping lists and phone numbers or addresses.
Um...I was looking up on the earlier posts and there is a light weight brailler and they really work, I love it! Also, I love my slate and stylus, much quieter and don't embarross me at all.
I generally use the slate and stylus for writing down phone numbers and addresses, not much else. I prefer the stylus where my right index finger curls over the top of it. I have a better grip on it that way.
i know how to use it... but havent' done so i quite some time now. my braille instructor and i used to see who could write more acurately at the same words and stuff, so i know a little of how to use it.
Like I said, I love it. It really helps and is much more quieter than that big stupid braille writer.
My braille writer is sixteen years old. I'm not going to use it just to have another key break. I've already spent a lot to get two keys repaired. Now it's just sitting in the basement collecting dust, and that's where it's going to stay unless I absolutely need it. Anyone know if slates are made to fit eight and a half by eleven and a half-inch paper?
eight and a half by 11, your standard notebook or printer paper, or what we called the narrow Braille paper, but the really wide Braille paper used for math and stuff I don't think so. But the widest slates do work on regular paper.
Yeah, the 40-cell ones. Look at the slate with clipboard (which I think is a bit narrower or shorter, i forget which, though they say it's a full-page slate) and the slate with board. That one is basically a standard 40-cell slate with four lines but it's got a really cool board that helps you evenly go down from one line to another. I really wish they would use that concept on smaller slates, parhaps making a plastic or foldable board... The one thing that can be frustrating when first using a slate and stylus is moving the slate down to the next line. My attempts tended to turn out crooked, too close to the previous line or too far away from it.
I went to Maxiaids today to check out their braille pocket note book and saw that they had two. The Reizen Pocket Braille Leather Note Book, which is made out of real leather and which includes a 19-cell, 6-line slate with stylus and the Pocket-Size Notebook, which is made of waterproof immitation leather and which takes a 19-cell, 4-line slate (not included). Interestingly enough, the filler paper for the pocket braille note books is 19-cell and 6-line, so I guess that with the 4-line books, you'd always miss two lines,unless you moved the slate down. As I said yesterday, this is my main problem with slates. But it appears that this won't be a problem with either of the notebooks so long as I don't mind the sacrifice if I get the cheaper one. But then, I found something called the Portable Braille King Roller Frame. It's32-cells, so not portable when compared with some of the smaller slates, but it certainly is when compared with the Perkins or a braille embosser. I personally love the board slates and can't understand why they can'tmake those smaller... But this roller serves the same purpose and looks really neat. It also has the added advantage of allowing the user to view his/her work by simply rolling the paper out of the machine and it's really light weight too. At any rate, do they make these smaller and has anyone ever used one or a similar product and if so, how did it work for you?
I don't think I have mine anymore. I was always slow at using it. lol
I think the slate and stylus suck, I have respect for it being the device that created braille, but other then that I think its a antique piece of junk.
Jeff, you contradict yourself; it's amusing. You claim to have respect for the slate and stylus, then go on to call it an "antique piece of junk" that "sucks". Not the most respectful of language. Is the pen or pencil antiquated? I think not.
Not respectful or correct in grammar either.
1. Sucks not suck, since it's a singular noun.
2. T h a n not t h e n.
3. An antique not a antique.
Just thought I'd clear that up... *smile*
lol to the last poster ... as i've said, it has its uses.
In all fairness, I really do understand how someone could respect it as being something that got the blind started on the road to literacy and independence and yet see it as an antique. I never went so far as to call it a piece of junk but there was a time when I really thought that it was totally unnecessary today. I still think that it's far easier to pull out a tape recorder, laptop or whatnot and take information that way. But as many have pointed out, slates and stylii don't need batteries, can't malfunction as easily as more advanced technology and even the most expensive ones are cheaper than the modern adaptive tech, unless you get a really cheap mainstream recorder and bad quality tapes or one of those 10-second digital memo things. Some of them are also really small, allowing them to easily fit into a pocket or bag. So I guess it really does have it's place. Personally, I'd love to see one of those speed writers in person, the ones who zoom with the slate and stylus. I tried looking on Youtube for videos but couldn't find any.
I just got the Reizen Pocket Braille Leather Note Book fromMaxiaids. It came with a 19-cell 6-line slate and a flat stylus. I also purchased a pen-type stylus separately. I'll review these in another post. At any rate, I tried to write with them and felt like an ancient writing in stone. It's interesting but so frustrating! I'm the type who likes to feel the paper being punctured so that I know the dot was made and it just wasn't happening here. When I took the paper out, some of what I wrote was ledgible and some of it had missing parts of letters or faded dots. I'm not sure if these stylii just aren't for me or if I need to write on a flat writing surface. When I write with my board slate and a regular or saddle-shaped stylus, the results are somewhat better and I have more confidence. Perhaps, I should try these new ones on there and compare my results. I'm honestly not sure what's making me pursue this. Maybe, I just don't want to fail, especially at something so low-tech that's supposed to be easy. There are people who speed write using this device and it takes me forever just to write a word! I hope that I can master this... I'm not giving up yet.
I never mastered a tape recorder. Sounds ridiculous I guess, but is easier to find something you have written down rather than going over tape. I remember hating tapes as a kid.
Tiff,
just some hints on why some of your dots came out and others didn't.
you may have been holding your stylus crooked. you want ot punch with a quick, straight down jab in to the paper.
putting the paper on a flat, solid surface will help, too.
sharpening the stylus point will definitely helpa dn will help to make writing easier and faster.
once you knwo the basics, the way to get faster is to write, write, write! try for a page a day and believe me, you'll increase your speed quickly. within a few months, you'll be writing at 8-10 words per minute
To LeoGuardian: Wow. I guess we really all do have something. I've personally always been a tape fanatic and could figure out almost any recorder or player. To jamesk: Thanks for the advice. I'll try it and see what happens. As someone who is used to typing, eight words a minute doesn't sound like much. But I suppose that when you're writing out each dot of the letter, it's okay. I wonder how a proficient slate and stylus user would do against someone using a pen or pencil?
I think Leo Guardian was referring to the difficulty of finding a bit of information on a tape, not working the recorder.
I hold my students to the same standard as the average sighted person witha pen.
it takes some work, but you should be able to write at 12 to 15 wpm if you practice.
write a page per day for a few months and you'll see a huge difference in your speed. when your speed increases, you'll find th eslate more and more useful and efficient.
Well,I just spent some time with my slate and stylus. I'm definitely alot faster and more confident on the board slate, although I have no idea why. I'll need to put one of my regular ones down on a table and try it. Most of what I wrote today was legible. But I noticed, many times, that when I was writing, I didn't get any confirmation, either by eel or by sound, that a dot had been punched. It felt like nothing was happening. Consequently, I wound up putting several holes in the paper because I was pressing so hard. Normally, I don't have such a heavy hand, but when I can't tell whether or not a dot has been pressed, I exert more force. I know this isn't right but how do I get over this insecurity and tell whether or not ithe sylus is working? Anyway, I'm quite satisfied with myself. I'll probably work with the board slate predomenantly in the beginning so as to avoid having to worry about bringing the slate to the next line without a guie, though I will, of course, graduate from it.
Glad you're satisfied with your progress. Regarding confirmation of dot punches, this will come with more practice. James, the slate-and-stylus efficiency never changes, the user gets more confident, faster, more accurate, etc.
I second that. I honestly can't believe the progress that I'm making! I'm alot faster now than I was at the beginning and have largely gotten over my worry when I don't feel the stylus punch the paper. Most of the time, it's working regardless of whether I feel it or not. But I still prefer the flat stylus over the pen one and really don't like the slate that came with the braille notebook at all. No matter whether I press down or go smooth, it seems that most of the dots of the words just don't come out correctly, many not at all. I'll need to try one of my other regular slates to see if this one is just badly made or if I'm having problems using a slate on a table instead of the one on the board. But I think it's the former, to be honest, and I'm not too thrilled about that. Hopefully, I'm wrong.
I'm not sure why, but I've been drawing the board to me more and more lately and just writing whatever comes to mind. It's strange somehow, as if the flow that I usually get as a writer on one of my machines has transferred itself to the slate and stylus, only with a magical sense of calm. I'm sure that I sound crazy, but the feeling is incredible. There's something about punching out each dot, watching the words form themselves. It gives you time to think instead of writing along at breakneck pace.
When I first learned braille (in arabic) I only was able to use a slate and stylus. Consequently, I learned to be a speed demon at using it. We would be driven to be faster and faster, and even now about oh, probably 23 years after learning braille, I still practice it. Both in writing out arabic braille, and english braille. It is as others have mentioned, a lot like what a pen or a pencil is to a sighted person. A cheaper means of writing. After all, sighted people could also use technology to do their writing. Theirs doesn't usually cost as much as ours granted, but it still can cost a considerable amount.
Slates and styluses certainly do not "suck" as was stated earlier here. I would much prefer carrying them around over lugging those monsters that we call braillers. Even though the braillers are considerably faster even to an experienced user of the slate like myself.
While I do agree that the slate and stylus is a very handy way of writing/jotting down quick notes: I must confess, I am absolutely terible with it!!
However, one cannot depend on technology alone, and it is imparative that a slate and stylus is carried around for good measure.
The trick is finding one small enough for regular travel. Personally, I'm not the type for purses or pocket books, so the most I'll carry with me is a pouch, what some would call a fanny pack. Unfortunately, the pocket notebook is too big to fit into it or most pockets, though if you have a deep one it's fine. In any case, it is a good idea and I'm trying to figure out how to do it.
Well, today I have great news. I pulled out my Braille Pocket Notebook, it's accompanying slate, my flat stylus and a new pack of small index cards that I bought today from the dollar store and started playing around with them. It was wonderful! Previously, I thought that this was a bad slate, but I soon learned that, on a flat surface, I could write as accurately with this one as with my big board slate! Then, something wonderful and terrible happened. I stood up and my good flat stylus went flying! So I only had the pen one, which I really didn't like. But since that urge to write grabbed me, I proceeded to try it out, now on the original paper that came with the notebook, which was much thicker than the index cards. The results were spectacular! Not only was I writing on the slate that had given me trouble but also with the stylus to which I thought I'd never adjust! Oh, and as an extra surprise, I was able to line-space correctly, not smushing my words, so I used the entire length of the card and I only made a few tiny mistakes! My only complaint now, and I think this will never change with this particular slate, is that the pocket notebook papers are a bit wider than the slate so that alot of extra space gets wasted. The index cards fit almost perfectly but are a tiny bit shorter than the braille paper so don't completely fill the pocket of the notebook. But who cares! I'm loving my slate and stylus adventures, and all I could say is thanks to all of you for encouraging and supporting me!
Keep it up! it'll give you the opportunity to write when and where you want, just like th epen gives the sighted person.
Really Slate & Stylus in a accessible device board? WTF corse they are accessible, but they are like the crappiest tools ever. I respect that with out them we wouldn't have braille, but there time has long past in my book.
Well, I just had two totally different experiences with the slate and stylus. Previously, I had only worked with metal slates and on thin braille paper. The kind for the board slate, I know is actually called thin and is lighter than the standard one and the notebook paper seems even thinner than that, but still not as thin as regular print paper. I've been playing dominoes with Grandma alot lately and decided, about two weeks ago, to start jotting down the scores with the notebook slate and it's original paper in order to improve my speed and writing skills.
Today, I decided to use my 28-cell 4-line metal slate in order to better practice line spacing without a board. I've been doing quite well on the cards but these would offer more chances for me to make sure the paper was even etc. Well, I couldn't find my slate anywhere! Fortunately, I did have a plastic one of the exact same number of cells and lines. So I decided to try that, and to add to the mix, I used it with a regular sheet of printer paper from the Braille Blazer, the first page that's usually a throw-away. The experience was pure magic. My hands flew across the page and I felt almost as if I were talking and not writing. Never in my life have I written so quickly and effortlessly on a slate. I felt as if I could've written all day without tiring and my mistakes were few and far between. I still occasionally write things backwards. *smile*
But I wanted to see if it was the slate or the paper. So I decided to try the standard weight, three-whole punch paper that I usually use with my Perkins. The experience couldn't be more different. Nightmare and torture are two words that come to mind. After writing only two lines, I had to put it down! My hand hurt and it felt as if I were writing in stone! Mind you, I had the slate/paper on the cover of my Mac, as I had done with the other paper, so it's not as if I were writing on my lap or the bed/another unflat surface. Never again will I use that grade paper! To be fair, I'll try it with the board slate, just to see if it makes a difference, but I highly doubt it.
The moral of the story, at least for me? Use light weight paper! I'll save the really heavy kind for the serious stuff that I'll be keeping for a few years at least. *smile* In the meantime, does anyone know if there are any regular print notebooks with the paper size of the braille ones? I have no problem using the actual braille paper but it would be nice to just be able to have Mom pick up the regular kind if I run out and don't want to pay for shipping and/or am waiting for it to arrive.
Oh, you can get those from anywhere. All of the office supply stores like staples, or office depo has them. Just show someone there an example of the paper and they can probably take you to packages of 500 of them.
Same probably goes for online, just go to the above mentioned's websites.
Hi Tiffanitsa,
Your right, its definitely the paper. Regular paper works fine, the Braille dots just aren't as durable but I use it for all kinds of stuff. Junk mail works particularly well. So do glossy magazine pages. They're lighter than standard Braille paper, but the dots hold up well on them.
If you want ot write on standard heavy weight Braille paper, make sure your stylus is sharp. You'll be amazaed at the difference it'll make. Even on standard "print" paper, it'll make your writing even faster and easier.
Glad to hear your using that slate of yours.
Definitely let me know if you ever have questions. I love to promote the use of the slate and stylus.
As I've said, although I truly enjoy it, I think that my leather notebook is a bit bulky for a regular pocket. I'll be going on holiday for a week, and though I'll be bringing my laptop, I don't want to carry it around with me. I'd like to have a slate and stylus with me incase I need to write something down. So while at Maxiaids today, I decided to compare the leather and the immitation leather pocket notebooks and noticed a few strange things. The immitation one is smaller, which I like but it requires a 19-cell 4-line slate which Maxiaids does not sell. The closest they come is 18-cell 4-line. So could I use the 19-cell 6-line one that I already have from the leather notebook or would it be too tall to properly fit in this new one? Another discrepency that I've found is in the paper. They only sell the smaller kind and not the larger. While I personally feel that the larger paper is more suitable for a 21-cell 9-line slate, it still works well with the provided one and does fit the leather notebook. Does anyone know where I could get paper of similar size? I've found that this paper holds eight lines while the slate is designed for six but that's fine. Does the smaller paper actually hold six lines, even though they recommend a 4-line slate or does it really only hold four lines?
Finally, has anyone here successfully used the Pocket King Frame or the Roller King Frame? These are the ones with the hollow-ended stylus. They sound fascinating but several people here have said that they were difficult to use. Do any other frames (slates) exist with a rolling capability?