- From: Jason White <jasonw@ariel.ucs.unimelb.EDU.AU>
- Date: Sun, 9 Nov 1997 10:44:35 +1100 (AEDT)
- To: WAI HC Working Group <w3c-wai-hc@w3.org>
When printed publications are transcribed into braille, it is often important that the original print page numbers be preserved in the braille copy so that braille and print readers can use a common standard of reference. Furthermore, the print page number is the standard, indeed often the mandatory form of reference in most educational and academic contexts. The exact mechanism by which the print page number is formatted on the braille page varies as a matter of stylistic preference. In British braille, the print page number is included in the running header, which appears only on right hand pages. In addition, at the exact point in the text at which a new print page begins, a new line is started in the braille, and the new print page number is centred on that line, preceded by dots 2-5 (a colon). By contrast, in North American braille, the print page numbers do not appear in the running header. The braille page number appears in the lower right corner of the page; the print page number in the upper right corner. At the transition from one print page to the next, a new line is commenced in the braille, which is filled by a series of hyphens, followed by the new print page number, which is placed at the end of the line (after the last hyphen). Other countries may have different conventions. This whole issue needs to be investigated further and incorporated into a comprehensive braille style sheet proposal. This task should be on the agenda for the Formats and Protocols working group. Daniel and myself have discussed in detail a scheme of HTML markup which would enable print page numbers to be indicated in an HTML document. See http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-wg/1997JulSep/0002.html and all of the follow-up messages in that thread. Another useful resource is my Braille CSS requirements document, which needs to be updated: http://www.w3.org/WAI/group/FP/braillecss.html I would encourage those who are interested in participating in the development of a braille style sheet system to read and comment upon this document.
Received on Saturday, 8 November 1997 18:45:08 UTC