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                            THE BLIND NEWS DIGEST

                                 Issue # 1042

                           Thursday, May 19, 1994

Today's Topics:


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                            Re: ALL CAPS SOFTWARE
                             uppercase software
                  BRAILLE OUTPUT DEVICES FOR PC COMPATIBLES
           Braille Esperanto Magazine Celebrates 90th Anniversary
                      Re: Books/Novels on disc or CD ?


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Subject: Re: ALL CAPS SOFTWARE
From: danc@cac.washington.edu (Dan Comden)


Hi Bill,

Both WordPerfect and Microsoft Word allow for conversion of case.

For WordPerfect (version 5.1):
  1. block select text to be converted (using F12 or Alt-F4)
  2. Use Switch command (Shift-F3)
  3. Select "1" or "U" for uppercase conversion

For Microsoft Word (on a Mac (version 5.1a) or Windows (version 6.0))
  1. Select text to be changed
  2. Menu item Format->Change Case
  3. Select Uppercase

Either software allows for creation of macros to further automate this.
Hope this helps,

-*- Dan Comden               (danc@cac.washington.edu)
    Adaptive Technology Lab
    University of Washington





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Subject: uppercase software
From: dashiell@nadc.navy.mil (Jude DaShiell)


What has me concerned now that I think of it is just uppercasing
the letters doesn't cover punctuation and numbers.  Ultimately it may be
necessary to write something in pixel based characters where the size of
the characters all of the characters can be controlled.
That's an area of programming I don't do because my speech synthesizer dies
when it gets there.

jude <dashiell@nadc.nadc.navy.mil>




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Subject: BRAILLE OUTPUT DEVICES FOR PC COMPATIBLES
From: cd962@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Prateek Srivastava)
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)


HI,

I AM VERY NEW TO THIS GROUP. I AM LOOKING
FOR A BRAILLE OUTPUT DEVICE FOR IBM/PC CLONE
COMPUTERS. I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT ARE MY CHOICES
AND WHAT IS THE PRICE RANGE. IF SOME ONE
OUT THERE HAS ANY INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT
ME VIA THE E-MAIL OR JUST POST THE MAIL HERE.

THANKS

--
Prateek Srivastava                    539 Lowell Avenue, #9
cd962@po.cwru.edu                     Cincinnati OH 45220.  (513) 281 2755
cd962@cleveland.Freenet.Edu
                                      WE STAGE LIFE




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Subject: Braille Esperanto Magazine Celebrates 90th Anniversary
From: sbelant@eis.calstate.edu (Steven Graham Belant)


As you can see by my signature, I am interested in making Esperanto
available to all to communicate as equals.  Esperanto's most important
periodical (called "Esperanto") published a full page history of the
Esperanto Movement of the Blind in recognition of the 90th anniversary of
its main organ.  I believed it would be of interest to your readers, and
have translated it *especially* for this newsgroup, which I recently
noticed.  Please give it serious consideration.  If it needs editing for
this purpose, please let me know.  And e-mail me in any case to let me
know what you decide.  I will seek to publish it elsewhere if you decide
not to publish it.  Thank you.  Steve Belant <sbelant@ctp.org>

I communicate worldwide in an   Steve  <sbelant@ctp.org>  Mi komunikas monde
international second language __ _  _  __ _  _ _  ___ _   internacidualingve
allowing us all to relate    |_ (_ |_)|_ |_)/_\|\| | / \  allasante al cxiuj
to one another as equals.    |__._)|  |__| \| || | | \_/  ni rilati egalule.
____________________________________________________________________________
Info & Free E-Mail Course: <elna@netcom.com> or ftp ftp.netcom.com /pub/elna

   Braille Esperanto Magazine Celebrates 90th Anniversary

   The following is an article which appeared in the April
1994 edition of the official magazine of the World Esperanto
Association. It tells of the history of the blind movement
within the Esperanto movement, and vice versa.  There are
some 2 million speakers of Esperanto according to the World
Book of Facts. Esperanto is a planned, neutral, non-ethnic,
non-national language with a unique vocabulary, and its own
global culture, literature and history. It was initiated in
1887 in order to help bring peace to the world by enabling
communication in a common international second language
among all those who wish to make this dream a reality. There
are Esperanto speakers in over a hundred countries.
   There is an International League of Blind Esperantists
(LIBE) with some 500 members which may be contacted by mail
at Zwaansmeerstraat 48, NL-1946 AE Beverwijk, Holland, or by
telephone (31) (02510) 31079. It offers books and magazines
on cassette tape, publication of Esperanto works (original
and translated) in braille, and the publication of its
organ, Esperanto Ligilo (The Esperanto Link), which is put
out in braille in 10 issues per year of 25 pages each.

   The following article was written originally in Esperanto
by former LIBE board member, Raymond Gonin of France, and is
translated into English from the Esperanto and provided to
you by Steve Belant <sbelant@ctp.org>.  It is about two
single-spaced pages long.  Please note that the abbreviation
"E-" is used for "Esperant(o)".

*esperanto* April 1994, issue 1058 (4), page 69:

            "The Blind: Braille Review Turns 90"

   Among the current Esperanto (E-o) periodicals, the
braille E-o Ligilo ("*EL*"--E-o Link) is one of the oldest:
soon it will celebrate its 90th year in existence. It has
maintained its idealism, spirit and in spite of all sorts of
changes throughout the world, the universality of its
readership. In this sense it is one of the mainstays of the
general E-o movement.
   On the other hand, *EL* is also one of the oldest
continuously issued braille periodicals. Even if it is
considered that the current internationally organized blind
no longer are in as great a need of the direct assistance of
E-ists as they were before WW II, we have to notice that
*EL* has remained an unequaled remedy in stimulating and
facilitating the exchange of ideas, information and
friendship across borders.
   It is true, as Harald Thilander said, that in general the
blind have so longed after contacts that if E-o had not
existed, it would have had to have been invented especially
for them. So it is not a surprise that since its early days
the international language was of interest to some of our
similarly situated colleagues [needing a common language to
speak with people from other countries]. Let us remember,
for example, about Hollander N. Schildt, who already was
interested enough to start learning E-o in 1888! Or about
the Swiss woman, He'le'n Giroud, a teacher and later
Director of the School for the Blind in Villeurbanne near
Lyon (France), who having received the "flame" from the
sighted pioneer Jeanne Zabilon d'Her (1868-1924) already
learned and taught E-o beginning in the last decade of last
century. However let us especially remember the names of
Harald Thilander (1877-1958, Sweden), William Percy Merrick
(1868-1956, England), thanks to whose interest the true
movement was ignited.
   Of course it was necessary to effectively work with
sighted E-ists in order to successfully launch such a
matter. Fortunately this was not lacking: Zabilon d'Her's
initial steps, Rector E'mile Boirac's warm encouragements in
response to a letter of Thilander and especially the firm
and constant activity of CART who put out an article in this
regard in *Lingvo Internacia* [a publication which name
means "International Language"] in 1901.
   During this era, braille books for learning foreign
languages, and Esperanto as well, did not exist.  Even a
braille alphabet suitably adapted for E-o's special letters
was lacking--until a proposal of Thilander's was accepted.
   Then Cart put together a simple three-part textbook which
the braille press "Blindaj Fratinoj de Sankta Pau-lo" [The
Blind Sisters of Saint Paul] produced. Thanks to diverse
efforts, publication of this learning material in other
languages followed in several countries. In this way a
"public" ready to accept an E-o magazine in braille script
was able to be formed little by little.
   Since the blind generally dealt only in small sums at
that time, enough money was needed to publish and distribute
the planned E-o braille magazine. Cart put a solicitation in
the *Lingvo Internacia*, but the decisive fundraising
resulted from a lottery organized by Zabilon d'Her.
   In fact the first issue of *EL* appeared in May 1904. At
first the notebooks were 32 pages and bimonthly, but
starting in 1906 10 issues of 24 pages were put out each
year. *EL* put out information about the E-o movement,
congresses, events of the blind; it also put out fine texts,
speeches of Zamenhof, etc. In the beginning Cart would
deliver the manuscripts to Mr. and Mrs. Poittevin to put
into braille and Mrs. Cart would write the addresses herself
for sending out.
  In this way our newborn Ligilo (Link) which immediately
fulfilled its roll as "catalyst" for getting the blind E-
ists together in a group first in Europe and afterwards in
other parts of the world. *EL* has become the official organ
of: 1) the Universala Asocio de Blindaj E-istoj (UABE) in
1923, the first such organization created according the idea
of Julius Hasselback of Berlin and Ignaz Kruger of Vienna;
2) the Universala Asocio de Blindul-Organizaj^oj (UABO), the
first attempt at grouping such organizations on an
international scale on the initiative of among others
Thilander, Rafal Israe"ls of Holland, Josef Kreitz of
Germany; 3) The Ligo Internacia de Blindaj E-istoj (LIBE)
which is still currently the central organization of all
sight impaired individuals in the world who practice the
international language [Esperanto].
   The continuity of *EL* is a remarkable phenomenon.
Thilander, who became its editor in chief in 1912, restarted
the magazine after inevitable interruptions of several years
during both world wars and remained its editor in chief
until 1958. Then--unfortunately a short time before passing
away--he entrusted the editorship to Raymond Gonin [author
of this article] (France) who in turn passed it on to Nora
Moerbeek (Holland) [current secretary of LIBE] in 1991.
   The subscription monies were never enough to distribute
the periodical to all who wished to receive it, among which
unfortunately many could not pay either due to a lack of
funds or due to the nontransferability of their [national]
currency.  Fortunately we have received financial support.
Between the two world wars much financial support from the
non-Esperantist blind or goodwill organizations supported
us. After the last war, the situation changed somewhat and
the support comes primarily from E-ist origins.
      We obtained much of the above information from the very
fine work *Historio de la E-movado inter la blinduloj*
[History of the E-o Movement Among the Blind] by Josef
Kreitz et al, [composed of] three braille volumes whose
reading we warmly recommend.

Raymond Gonin (France), Former LIBE Board Member






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Subject: Re: Books/Novels on disc or CD ?
From: jhusvar@Nimitz.mcs.kent.edu (John Husvar)
Organization: Kent State University

In article <32208@handicap.news> griffith@aur.alcatel.com (Mike Griffith) writes
:
>Index Number: 32208
>
>For books on audio cassette, you may want to contact the nearest
>Library For the Blind and Physically Handicapped (check your phone
>book or call your local public library for information).  For books
>on cassette tape to borrow and books on disk (DOS - I'm not sure
>about Macs) check Recording For the Blind at 1-800-227-4792 in
>Princeton, NJ.  There is a one time registration fee of $37.50, at
>least the last time I heard. The books on computer disk are for sale
>only.
>

It might be worth noting that there are increasing numbers of books being
published on CD-ROM media also. I just finished reviewing two very nice
ones by Ebook, Inc. These have a Windows Multimedia Viewer interface and
incorporate full sound reading with pictures and some little animations.
They use a hypertext format with the general appearance and function of
Windows Help Files.

They aren't designed specifically for blind readers but they worked very
well for my MS-impaired vision. Of course, Windows still doesn't admit of
much utility for the blind anyway though work on a good bridge is ongoing.

Because of copyright considerations, I can't post the reviews on Internet
but the names of these CDs are: The Sleeping Beauty and A Christmas Carol,
both, obviously public domain works. I was very favorably impressed with
A Christmas Carol which amounts to a performance of the novel rather than
a mere re-issue on a different medium.

These CD-ROMs should be readily available at retail and, one can hope,
a seller would let a handicapped customer see and hear a demonstration.
Ebook, Inc. publishes several other works which I haven't seen yet but
hope to see soon.

For more information, e-mail me. I'm not in the business of touting any
particular CD-ROM books or other offerings, but these impressed me enough
that I have no qualms recommending them.

They are not perfect. There is some utility lacking in the reader interface
but nothing that wrecks their function, just that limits it in some ways.

John

--
John Husvar, Art History, Kent State University (Yes, THAT Kent State :)
jhusvar@mcs.kent.edu - john.husvar@akron-info.com - bf910@cleveland.freenet.edu
Pres. ICBAGWA (Int'l Confraternity of Bad-Ass Gimps With Attitudes)




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                 End of Issue # 1042 of the Blind News Digest

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