[Menvi-discuss] Recently Certified Braille Transcriber Seeking Advice

Tue Oct 15 17:46:44 EDT 2024

Great.  It has taken me a huge lot of trial and error to work things out and it is a shame there isn’t any one place where this kind of info is readily available.  So, very happy to pass on what I can and save someone else some time and stress if I can.

Jeanie

From: Menvi-discuss <menvi-discuss-bounces+jeaniewillis=gmail.com at menvi.org> On Behalf Of Jessica Callahan via Menvi-discuss
Sent: Wednesday, 16 October 2024 10:38 am
To: This is for discussing music and braille literacy <menvi-discuss at menvi.org>
Cc: Jessica Callahan <decentsounds at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Menvi-discuss] Recently Certified Braille Transcriber Seeking Advice

Wow, this is incredibly helpful! Thank you!

Jessica Callahan 
Musician & Nationally Certified Literary Braille Transcriber

On Tue, Oct 15, 2024 at 4:11 PM Jeanie Willis via Menvi-discuss <menvi-discuss at menvi.org <mailto:menvi-discuss at menvi.org> > wrote:

Hi Jessica,

If this is of help I can outline the basic process I’m using for transcribing some piano method books with a lot of text.

First I scan the whole book into Open Book.  Although the Open Book software hasn’t been updated in a while it is the only one I’ve found that picks up italic, bold, underline, etc and is fairly accurate for text recognition.

If you then save the whole resulting document as a word document in Open Book it retains all the above mentioned formatting.

What it doesn’t handle well (which is a general issue) is stuff in random places on the page and sometimes things in multiple columns.  But there are settings for various types of lists and viewing in exact mode that can help.  This is where when you start editing the text in word you might also want to use Be My Eyes on your phone to take a picture of each page and then you can ask follow up questions of the AI to check things.  Others may know of other software that does OCR that is accessible that also has these sorts of features and I’d be interested to know also if there are newer options.  I wonder if there is a specific list anyone knows of for transcribers?

So, I then open the saved document in word and edit as much as possible.  I don’t use swift as I find it makes a mess of too many things that I then can’t seem to control, maybe I just didn’t know how to use it, but on initial trials I didn’t like it.  If you add heading 1 for anything you want centred and heading 2 & 3 for the indented on the left headings, etc they will come out correctly in the Braile anyway.  After I’ve done as much editing as I can I then have a sighted reader go through the book with me so I can add picture descriptions, check text and in my case get info on                                                                                                                       music specifics that I don’t know from working by ear.  At this point I add in any transcriber notes and just put them in parenthesis.

Then I open the word document in Duxbury and hit translate and do the rest in the Braille window.  Here I format everything those headings haven’t done and turn anything in parenthesis into TN notes, etc.  Obviously for the music I spend a lot of time here either adding in little bits of music in 6-key entry or if they are larger I will have created them in MuseScore first, converted to Braille in Sao Mai and cut and paste that across to the document in Duxbury for further editing as needed.

Hope this is of some help to you.  If you don’t have Duxbury then check out Sao Mai Braille as it is free and is a full Braille transcription suite for translating and editing Braille for literary also.  It might actually be easier to use than Duxbury as it is more like using a standard word processor like word than Duxbury with its styles and codes, etc.  I just haven’t investigated that side as I’m happily using Duxbury and the music transcriber who finishes and checks my work before it goes to production uses it also.

Jeanie

From: Menvi-discuss <menvi-discuss-bounces+jeaniewillis=gmail.com at menvi.org <mailto:gmail.com at menvi.org> > On Behalf Of Stephanie Pieck via Menvi-discuss
Sent: Wednesday, 16 October 2024 7:43 am
To: Jessica Callahan via Menvi-discuss <menvi-discuss at menvi.org <mailto:menvi-discuss at menvi.org> >
Cc: themusicsuite at verizon.net <mailto:themusicsuite at verizon.net> 
Subject: Re: [Menvi-discuss] Recently Certified Braille Transcriber Seeking Advice

Jessica,

You may find that local restaurants (and not necessarily national chains!) might be interested in having their menus in Braille. Local repertoire theatres may also be open to having Braille programs for some of their performances. You can also try setting up a business page and offer to transcribe greeting/holiday cards. Other interesting ideas may be to create Braille labels for local botanical gardens, museums, and other places where there are bits of printed text all over the place.

You can also contact Lions Clubs and/or the Chamber of Commerce in your area to see if other businesses have creative ways of adding Braille to their customer experiences.

As for acquiring information about attributes of printed documents, it's worth exploring what can be done with an iPhone using various visual assistance apps. I suspect that this method will have to be a bit of trial-and-error, and what works great for one person may not work at all for someone else.

Good luck with your new endeavor.

Stephanie Pieck

On Tuesday, October 15, 2024 at 01:45:10 PM EDT, Jessica Callahan via Menvi-discuss <menvi-discuss at menvi.org <mailto:menvi-discuss at menvi.org> > wrote: 

My name is Jessica Callahan. I have been a member of MENVI for the past thirty years or so, but I don’t recall ever participating in a discussion. That time is now over! Here I am!

I’ve been totally blind since birth, and started learning Braille music, piano, and voice around age nine.

A few years later, I started writing and recording music, and have since recorded and released several albums.

A move to Houston, TX, from my hometown near Los Angeles, CA, in 2011 had me searching for alternative possibilities for a career. I’d landed a job playing and singing at a restaurant but I knew it wasn’t going to last forever.

I began casually taking NFB’s certification course in Braille transcribing, not completely knowing what to expect. At the time, I had no education on the existence of translation software such as Duxbury, and the person grading my course didn’t clue me in, so a majority of it was completed on a manual Braille writer.

I am happy to say I am now a fully certified literary Braille transcriber. I am wondering if my fellow transcribers could pass along any advice on obtaining transcription work? If there are any other blind transcribers, can you share your methods for getting accurate information from print material? I have ideas on how to do these things, but would love to hear from all of you!

---------

Thank you for subscribing to MENVI.  Should you wish to unsubscribe, change your delivery, or set any other options available to you, please view the list information page below.  Should you have any questions, please contact the owner of the list.

_______________________________________________

Menvi-discuss mailing list

Menvi-discuss at menvi.org <mailto:Menvi-discuss at menvi.org> 

http://menvi.org/mailman/listinfo/menvi-discuss_menvi.org

---------

Thank you for subscribing to MENVI.  Should you wish to unsubscribe, change your delivery, or set any other options available to you, please view the list information page below.  Should you have any questions, please contact the owner of the list.
_______________________________________________
Menvi-discuss mailing list
Menvi-discuss at menvi.org <mailto:Menvi-discuss at menvi.org> 
http://menvi.org/mailman/listinfo/menvi-discuss_menvi.org

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://menvi.org/pipermail/menvi-discuss_menvi.org/attachments/20241016/3aa12c3d/attachment-0001.htm>