Grade III Braille Compared to Other Abbreviated Forms of Braille

Grade III Braille Compared to Other Abbreviated Forms of Braille

Future Reflections Summer 1990, Vol. 9 No. 2
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GRADE THREE BRAILLE
COMPARED TO OTHER
ABBREVIATED
FORMS OF BRAILLE
by Sharon Duffy
Editor's note: The following article is reprinted
from the National Association to Promote the
Use of Braille Newsletter.
At present, there are three systems of contracted
Braille that are shorter than literary Braille,
Grade Two, currently in use in the U.S.A. They
are: Adam Speed Braille, Braille shorthand, and
Grade Three Braille. Of these, Grade Three is
currently the most popular. A brief examination
of these three systems suggests the reason why.
Adam Speed Braille is a highly contracted system
whose rules require several volumes of text to
learn. Most people do not have the time to learn
such an elaborate system. Information about this
system can be obtained by contacting the Hadley
School for the Blind. It is not currently offered as
a course, but its inventor is a former staff member.
Mr. Adam sent me a copy of his text and
expressed a willingness to teach it to me should I
be interested. After examining the text, I
demurred, feeling that it would not be something
I would teach or use personally.
Braille shorthand is designed to resemble print
shorthand. This includes such illiterals as using it's for hard c's and s's for soft c's. It also uses
certain symbols to represent several combinations
of letter with the same sound. Unfortunately,
this phonetically based system is ambiguous to
the point of making cold notes almost illegible in
much the same way that print shorthand users are
sometimes unable to read old notes. Also, it is
geared for business use, abbreviating commonly
used business words and phrases. This system is
more abbreviated than Grade Three, so it may be
the most useful for individuals who need to take
dictation in a business office.
Perhaps Braille shorthand's most confusing characteristic
is that its rules often conflict with those
of Grade Two. For instance, the word discussion
in shorthand is written dis sign/ k/sh sign/ dot 6 -- a
combination which is not immediately recognizable
to the Braille reader.
Grade Three does observe most of the rules of
Grade Two and, in fact, builds on many of Grade
Two's methods of contraction. There are over
200 two-celled words with combinations of dots
4-5-6 and letters or other symbols analogous to
Grade Two signs for the words young and these. In Grade Three, the word keep is written dots 4-5/k and the word change is written dot tych sign.
Other ways that Grade Three builds on Grade
Two include; additional short form words such as ack for acknowledge, additional letter-group
signs such as dots 3-6 for pp in the middle of a
word, and continued practice of the final letter g on such words as receiving, denoting the dropping
of the e and addition of ing. Two practices in
Grade Three save considerable space. The first
is called outlining. This roughly amounts to leaving
out all vowels that are not already part of a
contraction or diphthong and are not in the
stressed syllable of a word. The second is a system
of rules for leaving out spaces between specified
types of words. If these rules are observed carefully,
Grade Three can be easily read at any future
time. My seven-year-old college notes in
Grade Three are quite readable. If the rules are
not observed, this system can be worse than
Braille shorthand in illegibility. Fortunately, the
rules for outlining and spacing are not difficult or
numerous. The sentence "To be happy, keep
changing" is considerably shorter in Grade
Three.
In addition to its use while taking notes in college,
Grade Three has proven as an easy way to do
editing of material written in Grade Two. Words
can be squeezed in and altered using Grade
Three signs for revising. It makes a messy copy,
but is preferable to rebrailling at the second draft
stage.
Grade Three's chief advantages are as time and
paper savers. College students and others who
must write rapidly will find it useful. I use it for
all of my personal notes and diary.
However, it is not for everyone. Those who have
recently learned Braille should be advised not to
learn Grade Three immediately. Confusion
about which signs belong to which grade will
inevitably result. After a person has used Braille
for two years, learning Grade Three should not
be a problem. Also, persons considering it must
be able to discriminate between such similar dot
patters as ad and dot 4/ d {doing in Grade Three)
or between dot 4/ e and dot 5/ en sign {etc. and entire in Grade Three).
Perhaps the best book available for the teaching
of Grade Three is the book used by the Hadley
School for the Blind. This book is not available
to any but those Hadley students taking the
course. The Hadley course is an excellent way to
learn it. The course is free and convenient for
anyone in the United States since it is by correspondence.
The instructors are very conscientious
about returning corrected lessons on time.
Also, the Library of Congress has a few titles
done in Grade Three which are helpful in practicing.
It
is unlikely that Grade Three will ever replace
Grade Two Braille, just as print shorthand has
not replaced conventional print, but these abbreviated
writing systems have their place. For
those who wish to conserve paper and time in
writing, Grade Three can serve very well.
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