Title:
Braille users views on UEB
Author:
Mandy White
Publisher:
RNIB
Year of publication:
2011
Background:
This piece of research was commissioned by The UK Association of Accessible Formats (UKAAF), the independent standards organisation in the UK. They were considering the possibility of adopting the Unified English Braille code (UEB) in the UK and wanted to know more about the views of the 'silent majority' of braille users. An anthology of the winning essays from a Global braille essay competition was produced in UEB and sent to all the subscribers to an RNIB magazine. A week later the recipients were all contacted by phone and asked a number of questions about themselves, their braille use and what they thought of the UEB anthology.
Key findings:
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73 per cent of this cross section of regular braille readers had heard of UEB. 37.9 per cent could read it without any difficulty. A further 49.5 per cent could read it but more slowly than usual. 12.6 per cent could read it but found it difficult. No one said that they were unable to read it.
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67 per cent of the participants said that the braille coding didn't cause any problems or that they noticed some differences but soon got over them. Of those people who had problems with the coding the major issue was the removal of contractions followed by the changes in punctuation coding followed by the removal of sequencing.
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In answer to the qualitative questions, there was a range of comments from people both in support of UEB and those who didn't see the need to change. The main objection to UEB was the increased space that it took.
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