The retina is the light-sensitive layer of tissue that lines the inside of the eye and sends visual messages through the optic nerve to the brain. When the retina detaches, it is lifted or pulled from its normal position. If not promptly treated, retinal detachment can cause permanent vision loss. Symptoms include a sudden or […]
Retina
The light-sensitive membrane covering the back wall of the eyeball; it is continuous with the optic nerve.
Refreshable Braille Display
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 […]
Reasonable Accommodation
This term is a generic term as well as a specific legal concept within the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. The search for specifics on what constitutes reasonable accommodation can be confusing. In general, however, common wisdom holds that if it costs only a small portion of the […]
Realtime
This term most frequently refers to a protocol for digital recording. It generates large files usable by virtually any CD player; however, the size of file limits the amount of information contained on one CD.
Readers Notes
This term refers to inserted audio text. Reader’s notes come in two types: Explanations of deletions and explanation of content or layout. See also Transcriber’s Notes. For more information, see our article “An Overview of Audio Narration.”
Quark
Quark(tm) is a desktop publishing program used to a great extent in the book publishing industry. Files generated by Quark are incompatible with any of the current Braille Translation Software packages. Such files must be exported into another format before importation into the brailling software. That export process can leave a number of unwanted artifacts […]
Quality Assurance
Alternate format preparation is governed by many sets of rules and guidelines. Most guidelines are designed to take advantage of the available space most effectively. However, sometimes the print document presents challenges from a spatial arrangement perspective that force the transcriber to make several choices which are intended to make the document more user friendly. […]
Push Button Braille
Braille translation that is produced by using the keyboard of your computer and special software. This is the term that describes the function of a person who types data into a computer (words or numbers) and uses the power of the computer software to convert that information into braille. Many transcribers use the translation approach […]