Thunder Dog (20 page)

Adapted with permission from BraillePlus, an organization that provides alternate format documents to print-disabled individuals. For a complete version of the glossary, visit:
http://www.brailleplus.net/visually_impaired_resources/Glossary/
.

Accessibility: Most definitions of this term emphasize the ease of use. In the United States, several laws govern requirements for accessibility. Each of these laws, and even portions of them, is overseen by different federal agencies. Each agency is responsible for writing and publishing rules and guidelines that implement the particular law.

Accessible Format: A term that most frequently applies to visually impaired and blind users of print material. Its partner term is “Alternate Format.” Standard print is usually published in either 10-or 12-point fonts. However, 10-or 12-point type is completely inaccessible to those individuals with limited or no vision. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) sets 14 point (5 characters per inch) as the “minimum” font size. However, many other resources emphasize that this font size is only a minimum and a legally blind individual may only be able to read the largest fonts starting at 18 point (4 characters per inch). At some point (around 36 point), a print document will become nearly unusable because of the sheer volume of paper required to hold the very large print. Imagine a novel, letter or government report printed with just a very few large font words per page.

Accessible Web Design: Accessibility in web design is a measure of how easy it is to access, read, and understand the content of a web site. Accessibility is complicated by different browsers, different platforms, use of speech synthesis or indexing robots, graphics, movie clips, and sound files. Consideration must be given to many aspects of the site including fonts, color, spacing, background colors, use of tables, and animation.

ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act): The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a complex set of laws. The law assigns regulatory and investigative responsibilities to various agencies. Each responsible agency has published its regulations and complaint processes. Complaints and/or lawsuits can be filed on any discriminatory act within certain time frames.

Adaptive Technology, Assistive Technology: In the broadest sense, this term addresses the use of some sort of tool to deal with limitations presented by a disability—wheelchair, magnifier, talking computer.

Assistance Animal: A generic term referring to those animals specially trained to help people with disabilities with various activities. Such trained animals and their use are protected under the ADA. No such animal may be excluded from lodging, public accommodations or public agencies. The use of a guide dog by blind people is covered by this provision as well as the use of a Hearing Dog, Animal Companion, and Service Animals by those with other disabilities.

Audio Tactile: Cutting edge technology that combines the use of a tactile (raised line) graphic, a touch screen or drawing pad, and computer software. A file is loaded into the computer that has commentary associated with different areas of the touch screen. The tactile graphic has raised lines that represent or lead to those areas that have commentary in the file. Speech synthesis software voices the commentary when pressure is exerted on the various areas of the touch screen. This technology is still in development but has shown excellent prototype uses for a variety of disabilities.

Blindness: Partial or complete loss of sight with visual acuity of not greater than 20/200 in the better eye with correction or a field not subtending an angle greater than 20 degrees. Blindness may be caused by injury, by lesions of the brain or optic nerve, by disease of the cornea or retina, by pathological changes originating in systemic disorders and by cataract, glaucoma, or retinal detachment. Blindness can be caused by infectious diseases and by dietary deficiencies in underdeveloped countries where medical care is inadequate. Specific kinds of blindness include night blindness that may progress to total blindness, color blindness (an inability to distinguish colors), and snow blindness (a temporary condition caused by the reflection of sunlight on snow).

Braille: Braille is a code in the same way that we understand Morse Code, sign language, and short hand. It is not a different language. Braille consists of “braille cells.” Each cell is two dots wide and three dots high. When the cell is filled, it looks like a rectangle standing on its narrow end. The Braille Code assigns specific meanings to virtually every mathematically possible combination of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 dots located somewhere inside that cell, and combinations of up to 4 cells. For ease of reference, the dots are numbered top to bottom down the left side 1, 2, 3, and down the right 4, 5 and 6. Throughout the educational materials and rules, you will see reference to “dots 1, 3, 4” or “dots 2, 5, 6.” Since there are only 64 mathematically possible combinations with one cell, many dot combinations have to serve many functions and have rules governing that function.

Braille, contracted: Braille consists of a standard alphabet and hundreds of abbreviations and contractions. Using such symbols creates contracted braille, saving approximately 20% of the space of non-contracted braille.

Braille display, refreshable: These machines use various approaches to raising and lowering plastic or metal pins through a grid to create braille characters. Some such systems are only for use with a desktop computer while others have the functions of a laptop computer also built in. Some units have but a few braille cells while others actually have enough braille cell space to replicate an entire print monitor.

Braille Embosser: A computer-driven machine pressing braille dots into paper and other thin materials.

Braille, Foreign Language: Most written languages also have a set of braille symbols representing that language. Each language and nation generates its own sets of rules concerning those characters and the formatting of the document itself. In most non-English languages, no short-form or contracted braille is used.

Braille, Grade One: Previous name for the type of braille that is spelled out letter by letter. Now called non-contracted braille.

Braille, Grade Two: Previous name for the type of braille that uses abbreviations and contractions to save space. Now called contracted braille.

Braille Literacy: This term has been adopted by the blindness community in many countries as the central concept for advocating that children be taught good braille skills at an early age. Advocates equate braille literacy with literacy for sighted people and point to some critical statistics to bolster their position. In the United States, unemployment for blind and visually impaired people runs at approximately 73%. Conversely, only 26% of the blind people available for work have jobs. However, among those with good braille skills, 90% have jobs. The logic then runs that if children are taught braille literacy, their opportunities for gainful employment more than triple.

Braille, Paperless: There are machines that use various approaches to raising and lowering plastic or metal pins through a grid to create braille characters. Some systems are only for use with a computer while others have the functions of a laptop computer built in. The amount of braille characters displayed varies.

Braille Writer, Brailler: Braille writer has become a common usage term referring to the Perkins Braille Writer manufactured by Howe Press. These machines are the workhorses of manual braille preparation. In using them, the index, long and ring fingers of each hand are placed on the keys to the left and right of the long space bar in the center front. Dots 1, 2 and 3 are created by pressing the left-hand index, long or ring finger. Dots 4, 5, and 6 are created by pressing the right-hand index, long or ring finger. To create more than one dot, the machine allows you to press those keys simultaneously. Paper is loaded from the back and wound into the machine completely before beginning. As each line is completed, the paper is fed out the back of the machine.

Demographics, Visually Impaired: Demographics are the physical characteristics of a population such as age, sex, marital status, family size, education, geographic location, and occupation. The demographics for the visually impaired population are changing rapidly. On a world-wide basis, many eye diseases once causing much blindness are now growing less prevalent with the introduction of advanced medical care in developing nations. However, as that number shrinks, the number of individuals living long enough to experience eye diseases of the elderly such as macular degeneration is growing rapidly. For example, in the United States there are approximately 5 million people over age 65 with substantial vision loss according to the 2000 census. When the numbers are in for the 2010 census, this number is expected to double to 10 million.

Eye Disease: Conditions that impact the ability to see can be caused by injury, by lesions of the brain or optic nerve, by disease of the cornea or retina, by pathological changes originating in systemic disorders and by cataract, glaucoma, or retinal detachment. Blindness can be caused by infectious diseases and by dietary deficiencies in underdeveloped countries. More people than ever are facing the threat of blindness from age-related eye disease. Over one million Americans aged 40 and over are currently blind and an additional 2.4 million are visually impaired. These numbers are expected to double over the next 30 years as the Baby Boomer generation ages. The leading causes of vision impairment and blindness in the U.S. include: diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration (the most common cause of blindness and vision impairment in Americans over age 60), cataract (the leading cause of blindness in the world), and glaucoma.

Guide Dog, Seeing Eye Dog: This is a specially trained dog that helps people who are blind as they walk about. The dog wears a specially designed harness with a handle shaped like an upside down “U,” allowing the user to grasp the harness comfortably while walking. These animals are highly trained and must always be considered to be a working tool not a pet to be casually admired or petted by other than the owner. Beginning shortly after weaning, these animals are carefully watched and reared to exhibit certain characteristics (obedience, calmness in strange surroundings, passivity when around other animals). Additionally, their health is monitored since only the healthiest animals will be used for the advanced training and offered to a blind person for years of service.

Handicap: A legal term used in the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 that is essentially synonymous with disability as described in the ADA.

Impaired Vision: The definition for most legal purposes in the United State is 20/200 vision with correction in the best eye, or field of vision less than 20 degrees. (See Legally Blind.)

Legally Blind: The definition for most legal purposes in the United State is 20/200 vision with correction in the best eye, or field of vision less than 20 degrees. From a practical point of view, the visually impaired community talks in terms of “a high partial,” “a low partial,” and “totally blind.” Someone with 20/200 vision can see what the person with 20/20 vision can, only he has to be within roughly 20 feet of the object rather than 200 feet to see it. That person should also be able to use Large Print or magnification to read fairly comfortably. Eyestrain will become an issue, however, in many situations. A high partial may or may not use any sort of mobility aid such as a White Cane, guide dog, or sighted guide unless travel conditions are difficult. For example, at dusk or after dark, a white cane may be helpful to find the edge of steps, ramps or the like. Low Partial folks will have a tough time with most large print and are more likely to use a mobility aid. Depth perception and glare can become major problems in travel for them. Their choice for handling print material will be limited to either audio presentation or braille. Totally Blind means a virtual lack of any sort of functional vision. Some people with minimal light perception may refer to themselves as totally blind although they can tell when the light is on in a room and startle the sighted partner by turning off the light. Mobility aids are common and the use of either audio or braille is essential.

Louis Braille: Louis Braille was the inventor of braille. As a child, he became blind due to an accident. As he grew and matured, he desired a written form of communication that would serve him as well as print for his friends and family.

Notetaker: First introduced by Blazie Engineering in the mid-1980’s, these easy-to-use personal organizers allow a person knowledgeable in Braille to create documents, read text, keep addresses and appointments, access a list of special utilities, and do so almost a decade before the sighted found similar convenience in the Palm Pilot and Pocket PC.

Ophthalmology: The branch of medicine concerned with eyes and diseases of the eye.

Optometry: The art or profession of examining the eye for defects and faults of refraction and prescribing correctional lenses or exercises.

Optical Character Recognition (OCR): The computerized process of identifying patterns of pixels in an electronic file as letters or other parts of language such as punctuation. Most advanced software performing this task can also maintain the format of the original page, if desired, through insertion of various codes in the “Save” or “Save As” process. OCR with any software package can make recognition errors. Powerful OCR programs will recognize potential errors and offer the operator the opportunity to edit the file on the fly.

Partially Sighted: The technical definition of “partially sighted” is that one’s best corrected visual acuity is no better than 20/70 in either eye, but better than mere perception of light.

Perkins Brailler: This machine is commonly known as a braille writer. Early in the 20th century braille writers were produced by Howe Press. They were expensive, noisy, heavy and needed frequent repair, however. The director of the Perkins School for the Blind in Massachusetts in the 1930s, Dr. Gabriel Farrell, wanted its printing department to produce a better machine. He found the man to do the job, David Abraham, teaching in their woodworking department. Abraham also had had training and experience as a mechanic and designing and building machines that manufactured stair railings. When Dr. Farrell learned of Abraham’s ability with machine design, he asked Abraham to design a new braille writer with the help of Dr. Edward Waterhouse, a math teacher. The three men developed the specifications for the new machine. The brailler prototype was completed in November 1939. After World War II, production of the braillers began. That machine has changed little over the years and is the same brailler known worldwide today.