Hi All,
I’ve tried on a couple of occasions to send the following to In Touch following their discussion of braille and it’s continued relevance. I haven’t had confirmation that this message has been received on either occasion, so thought I’d post it here so as not to waste it.
Regards,
Tim
*** Message to In Touch starts ***
Hi Peter and Team,
This is an edited version of a message I attempted to send to you a couple of weeks ago, but which it appears did not get through. Following your piece on braille and technology, can I suggest a review of developments in what used to be called the RNIB Braille Library, which is now no longer a library, as it doesn’t accept the return of books. These are instead supposed to be re-cycled. I find it difficult not to get uncomfortably hot under the collar about this, as on the face of it, it appears to be a shocking waste of paper. Re-use of resources should in my view always come before re-cycling, and the precedent set by this idea flies in the face of efforts to bring an end to the ‘throw-away society’.
There are a number of less obvious knock-on effects of this strategy, e.g. the psychological implications of knowing that you can’t request a book merely to see whether you like it, with the option of sending it straight back if you don’t. Once requested, the book is embossed, and if you don’t like it, the basic principle of the approach is that it goes straight in the bin (hopefully the re-cycling bin, but that is still a waste of high-quality paper and the resources involved in embossing and recycling it).
Another effect of the RNIB’s strategy, is that many of the books formerly in the library are now no longer available for loan. There were many books which were very seldom borrowed, e.g. the autobiography of Arthur Ransome which I borrowed on a number of occasions, but I’d guess was otherwise not very popular. Books of this type, as well as many by more modern authors such as Terry Pratchett are no longer in the catalogue, the only option for a person wishing to read them in hard-copy braille being to request that they are placed on a queue for future embossing.
The effect of this in my case, is to make me look more favourably on the use of braille display technology for recreational reading. However, there are several major drawbacks to digital braille, not least of these is that the reader will become reliant on a single device for their reading requirements. These are still costly compared to the costless option of hard-copy braille, are relatively noisy, are not always easy for those of a non-technical disposition to navigate. If the device fails, then the whole world of digital braille is at least temporarily barred to the reader.
Another aspect of the RNIB’s new service is that it can no longer respond directly to the requirements of its users. The way the old system worked was that when the user returned a book, this was usually assign that they required another book to be sent to them. A basic issue of the new system is that there is no such cue to trigger the sending of a new book. Instead, the RNIB has implemented an algorithm which estimates the likely period after which a particular user is likely to require a new book. In my case, this meant that books piled up remorselessly until I phoned the RNIB to suspend my membership of the library. Because books take several days to progress from request to being fully embossed, requesting a book from the catalogue can no longer be met as quickly as was the case when it could simply be taken off the shelves.
One obvious approach which can be taken by readers who wish to reduce the waste of paper, but still wish to use hard-copy braille, is to attempt to identify another reader to whom they can pass the book once they have finished with it, and in an attempt to facilitate this process, I have set up a mailing list, which is an entirely free service hosted by ‘groups.io’. To join this list, people can send a blank email message to brailleebooks...@groups.io. Once subscribed, they will receive messages from other members who have books they wish to pass on.
This approach is itself not perfect, as the re-packaging, labelling and posting of books by a totally blind person is a non-trivial task, but it might go some way to reducing the waste of paper.
In closing, I recognise that there are arguments in favour of the new strategy, which will increase as more books become available in the catalogue. The RNIB no longer needs the space to hold the old books which were rarely read, or the staff to manage them, but I will leave this side of the argument to someone else, as for my part, as a member of the braille library, and its predecessor the National Library for the Blind for nearly 60 years, I feel too strongly attached to the old system to make a decent job of defending the new one.
Regards,
Tim Pennick
Hi Tim
A good post and one that deserves Peter’s attention, I agree with you.
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Hi all,
I completely agree with Tim's sentiments.
Standalone refreshable braille displays are still a relatively new technology; few devices are available on the market and they aren't cheap. The technology may yet mature to the point where it is more widely available and at a cheaper price point for the average consumer, however I think that will not be for a while.
Contrast with hard-copy braille which is low cost or free for the consumer depending on where they source it from.
Disposing of embossed braille books after a single use, even if
100% recycled, seems highly wasteful especially for a service
which markets itself as a library.
Regarding Tim's second point, the availability of reading material in Braille appears to be an area where the UK is lagging behind.
The US Bookshare service has tens of thousands of titles available across multiple accessible formats. Those lucky enough to be eligible for access to the RNIB Bookshare service have access to only a fraction of the titles available on the US service. For everyone else who has only the RNIB Library Service to rely on, it becomes a fraction of a fraction.
I did reach out last year to the RNIB to offer my services so that they could get more content into the Library. My offer was declined.
How are we expected to reverse the decline in braille literacy when the RNIB refuses to accept the very valid criticisms of their current service offering?
Stay safe,
Mr
Richard Firth (he/him) Managing Director DaisyTouch Limited is a limited company registered in England and Wales. Registered number: 12847290
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