Re: Braille and web orientation

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