My Brush with UEB

Well, if you follow this blog, and you read my most recent entry about seeing Beautiful, then here’s a little different thing that happened today.

I forgot to order a braille program, but the theater had one I could rent, by leaving my ID with them. I opened the program and started reading it aloud to Sandie. And suddenly I was baffled and confused. This was some funny looking braille, with a whole bunch of symbols I did not recognize, missing contractions I’d always known, making it actually hard to recognize some words. What the bloody hell? Oh, damn, it’s frigging UEB, the so-called unified English braille, that every braille reader in every English speaking country is now supposed to read and write. Okay, I already ranted about this some months ago, so if you look back, you’ll find my feelings laid out very clearly about what I call ugly English Braille.

But today, I got to read it for the first time. And yes, of course, I could still read. But I didn’t like it. My braille program was in seventy-three, yes, that 73, pages. For you sighted folks, how big is a print theater program? Braille has always taken more room than print, it has to be bigger so people can feel the dots, and it has to be embossed on heavy paper so it can hold up to being read. But in the past, it would have certainly been less pages. They’ve removed a number of contractions, and added symbols that are somehow supposed to be more equivalent to print. But wow, got a newsflash, braille is not print! Just like ASL is not English. So, there were new symbols around quotes, new parentheses and no ation, double D sign or various others. It wasn’t my program, so I had to give it back and didn’t get to read the whole thing.

So, my impressions, after my first brush with UEB, yeah, it’s ugly. I don’t like it. Can I read it, sure, but I don’t like it. And any braille books I buy in future will be even huger than they already were! Boo hoo. I want real braille back! Lol.

My Brush with UEB

Well, if you follow this blog, and you read my most recent entry about seeing Beautiful, then here’s a little different thing that happened today.

I forgot to order a braille program, but the theater had one I could rent, by leaving my ID with them. I opened the program and started reading it aloud to Sandie. And suddenly I was baffled and confused. This was some funny looking braille, with a whole bunch of symbols I did not recognize, missing contractions I’d always known, making it actually hard to recognize some words. What the bloody hell? Oh, damn, it’s frigging UEB, the so-called unified English braille, that every braille reader in every English speaking country is now supposed to read and write. Okay, I already ranted about this some months ago, so if you look back, you’ll find my feelings laid out very clearly about what I call ugly English Braille.

But today, I got to read it for the first time. And yes, of course, I could still read. But I didn’t like it. My braille program was in seventy-three, yes, that 73, pages. For you sighted folks, how big is a print theater program? Braille has always taken more room than print, it has to be bigger so people can feel the dots, and it has to be embossed on heavy paper so it can hold up to being read. But in the past, it would have certainly been less pages. They’ve removed a number of contractions, and added symbols that are somehow supposed to be more equivalent to print. But wow, got a newsflash, braille is not print! Just like ASL is not English. So, there were new symbols around quotes, new parentheses and no ation, double D sign or various others. It wasn’t my program, so I had to give it back and didn’t get to read the whole thing.

So, my impressions, after my first brush with UEB, yeah, it’s ugly. I don’t like it. Can I read it, sure, but I don’t like it. And any braille books I buy in future will be even huger than they already were! Boo hoo. I want real braille back! Lol.