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Abstract:
Braille-reading mathematicians, scientists, and computer scientists were asked to examine the usability of the Unified English Braille Code (UEB) for technical materials. They had little knowledge of the code prior to the study. The research included two reading tasks, a short tutorial about UEB, and a focus group. The results indicated that the participants believed that UEB could be effectively used by people who are employed in technical fields.
Since 1992, a formal effort has been under way to unite English-speaking countries with one braille code that encompasses all codes (literary, science, mathematics, and computer science) with the exception of the braille music code (Bogart, Cranmer, & Sullivan, 2000), which has been accepted internationally for several decades and was further revised in the late 1990s (Miller, 2000). The Braille Authority of North America initiated the effort to develop a unified braille code for English-speaking countries and was later supported by the International Council on English Braille. In response to this effort, a unified code was developed by braille experts, spearheaded by individuals who were braille readers, transcribers, producers of tactile materials, and other related professionals (Bogart et al., 2000). The English-speaking countries that were included in this massive project were Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Nigeria, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The Unified English Braille (UEB) code contains no new literary contractions; the changes to the literary code involved the elimination of nine contractions and changes in spacing. The most significant change is that the UEB code incorporates literary, mathematics, computer science, and chemistry into a single code with new UEB symbols and rules for representing math and science notation (Australian Braille Authority, n.d.).
Research on the UEB code
The original braille codes that were used in literary, mathematics, science, and computer science were developed without a strong research base. Symbols were included largely on the basis of logic and sequence, rather than on empirical evidence. Many symbols that were used in the literary code were reassigned different meanings when they were encountered in codes for mathematics or computer science. Throughout the development of the UEB code, care was taken to eliminate ambiguity that was associated with the context in which braille symbols were used. Extensive consultation was conducted...