Lindy Walton
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What a great example! This is a complex fraction showing cancellation without replacement values. The BANA Nemeth committee is suggesting a new way to transcribe cancellation when no replacement values are shown, allowing linear transcription. Although the new Nemeth code book is not yet published, the lesson manual is teaching this method. I suggest you use it here. In the attached brf file, I have shown both ways. The new way combines a spatial rendition of the complex fraction, but the simple fractions within it are transcribed linearly, with appropriate cancellation indicators in place. The old way is entirely spatial. I think the new way is easier to read. See what you think. (brf file attached)
Lindy
Hi Shellee.
Including the switch indicators within the box lines is format option 2. in the "Guidance for Transcription Using the Nemeth Code within UEB Contexts" and will also be in the new Nemeth code. However, there are no examples of consecutive boxes like you have in your example. Since box lines may be transcribed in either UEB or Nemeth, and since Nemeth continues after that first bottom box line, I see no problem waiting until the end of the second bottom box line to terminate Nemeth code.
Lindy
Hi Michael.
Please accept our apologies for not seeing your question until recently. I am stumped by your dilemma. Have you summoned the advice of the tactile graphics committee? They may have some ideas regarding the colors in this complicated table.I am sure you would have no trouble dividing this table vertically into (many!) sections in order to show the vertical relationships of the items, but the color correlation would of course be lost.
I would be curious to find out how you solve this one.
Thank you for your question.- Lindy
This is always a question -- what to do when print substitutes a math symbol for a word in nonmathematical context. Is that the case here? I'm not familiar with the topic. We are not to use the UEB equals sign, even though it is tempting. That is the "argument to use Nemeth" here.
Question: Does anything in the surrounding text indicate that "= automatic 0 points" (that is a zero) might be the math portion?
If you determine that nothing here is mathematical except for the symbol used for "equals", then, according to the rules, transcribe only the = symbol between code switch indicators. Your job is to provide a braille transcription of the print, which this will accomplish.
- Lindy
Thanks, William. I have been trying many of these tactics with Word and Braille2000. Yes, it is very time consuming. ) :
I was hoping for a magic wand. Thank you for the links. This will be helpful.
Lindy
This is an interesting dilemma.
Ideally, the student should understand the subtraction concept being presented here by using her hands, as pictured. To present this as a tactile graphic or as tally marks is adding another layer of conceptual learning that is not the point of this exercise.
If you go ahead with the tally mark idea, I would substitute a different symbol for the crossed out finger (thumb, in this case) -- I think I would use a full cell (123456) which, in Nemeth, is the general omission symbol. I wouldn't introduce cancellation indicators at this point.
Recommendations regarding transcriber's notes can be found in Guideline 3 of the BANA publication "BANA Guidelines for the Transcription of Early Educational Materials from Print to Braille" which is available on the BANA website. 3.1.5 states that "Kindergarten transcriber's notes are limited to as few words as possible ..." This is difficult to do. You could make a key where (456) means one finger and (123456) means no finger. Something very simple like that. 2.2.3 and 2.2.4 gives good information regarding "teacher's reference materials" that you will be providing in print for the teacher. The teacher can then choose whether or not to use the tally mark system or a more hands-on method.
You may find other information in the Early Educational Materials publication that will help you make decisions in this transcription.
Thanks for this example.
Lindy
Deciding whether or not to transcribe the family letters and the parent notes is an agency decision. If this transcription is being done for the publisher or to be put in a general library, everything on the page should be transcribed. On the other hand, if it is for one client, it depends. If the transcription is being done for the child, you may choose to omit the text that is meant for the adult. If the transcription is being done for the parent, then the notes and letters should be included. Check with the requestor to see what is needed. If the book is being prepared for general use and not for a specific client, then you might consider putting the family letters and the parent notes at the end of the chapter. This transposition or omission must be stated on the transcriber's notes page.
To clarify, current Nemeth transcribers have been transcribing in UEB with Nemeth following the "Guidance" document that has been in use since UEB was adopted. The new code will be introducing some new rules and some new braille symbols. These new rules and symbols are being taught in the lesson manual. Those are the items that a current transcriber may not use until the Nemeth Code is released.
Yes, there is a course for UEB with Nemeth, available from the National Federation of the Blind. The course is based on the proposed new Nemeth Code. Enrolled students will be assigned a grader through the NFB and will receive lesson exercises from their grader.
Once the new code is adopted and published, certification will be available in UEB with Nemeth.
The lessons are available for anyone to download. They are still being edited and updated frequently, so people are encouraged to revisit the website often to check for newer files. Current Nemeth transcribers are not to use the new symbols and rules until the code book is released.
The course files can be downloaded from this location:
https://nfb.org/programs-services/braille-certification/mathematics-braille-transcribing
Hi Brian.
I am unfamiliar with MathCAT or with the topic of tensor indices and multiscripts. As a transcriber, I look at the print and translate it to Nemeth according to what I have learned about print-to-braille transcription. The possibility of having side-by-side letters at the same subscript level yet meaning two different "multiscripts" is not something I am familiar with mathematically. Insertion of the dot 5 before letter "l" does indeed separate it from letter "k" in a similar manner that it functions as a separator between subscript "i" and superscript "j". I see nothing wrong with this transcription.
Lindy
This is one frame within a video that I expect has been building up to this point where the answer is finally revealed.
Transcribing the math itself is straightforward in the Nemeth Code. (Note that the first numeral, 6, seems to be mostly gone from this screen.) However, to show precisely what is printed, tactile lines must be drawn for the curved lines, the horizontal brace, and the vertical line that demonstrate the moving decimal point and the long division process. An alternate method would be to explain what you see here in a transcriber's note. In order to do that, however, you need to understand the math. It is not the transcriber's role to teach the math. It might be helpful to the student to have the process explained by the teacher and then inserted as transcriber's notes by the transcriber, if this is what is being asked of you.
The colors cannot be replicated. They seem not to be significant. I don't know what the orange and purple squiggles are above the 2 in 25.
The underlining of "63" must be from a demonstration earlier in the video. I would disregard the underlining.
The cancelled 3 in the partial product and the "10" that is dropped down is unusual and may not translate well to braille.
I don't expect my response is what you were hoping for. Powerpoint demonstrations and videos are difficult and time consuming to try to reproduce on a stand-alone piece of paper.
I invite others to chime in on this topic. What would you do?
Thanks.
- Lindy
Hi Dennise. Thank you for asking your question here on this forum. Your image has not appeared. Can you try attaching it again?
Lindy
Brian,
The Nemeth Code calls this type of notation "non-simultaneous superscripts and subscripts". See Section 82.b of the 1972 Nemeth Code. A baseline indicator comes to the rescue. By inserting dot 5 before each non-simultaneous superscript or subscript, you will indicate to the reader that they are to be read left-to-right because you are returning to the baseline before indicating the next superscript or subscript. Here is the transcription of the image you provided.
_% ,R;I"^J";KL _:
Lindy
The new Nemeth lesson manual reflects the upcoming changes to the 2022 revision of the Nemeth code book. Although the new code book has not yet been published, the new rules and symbols have been incorporated into the lessons.
As a current certified transcriber producing Nemeth materials, you should use the indicators and methods from the 1972 Nemeth Code (and the Updates and the Guidance document) until the new code is published.
