[access-uk] Re: RNIB, how inefficient are they?

  • From: "Iain Lackie" <ilackie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 17:27:42 -0000

Surely the bottom line is that Braille helps blind people to understand how 
written text works in a way that speech never can. This being the case, even a 
rudimentary knowledge of the beast is going to help literacy. I haven’t used an 
OPTACON for years, but learning how to use it has allowed me to understand how 
print text works in a way that knowing the theory never could do. If I were 
reading an instruction manual, I would certainly find a Braille version much 
easier to follow than audio just because of that feeling of being closer to the 
text.

Iain

From: Shaun O'Connor 
Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2015 5:13 PM
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
Subject: [access-uk] Re: RNIB, how inefficient are they?

i could not agree more. more and more I am coming to the conclusion that 
"charities" are nothing more then corporate entities in disguise.

As for Braille being regarded as "old tech" or nearly redundant. although not a 
Braille user myself it knocks spots off say. speech synthesis  or similar 
especially in an environment where note taking is required.

likewise with pocket recorders. can you imagine talking into a pocket recorder 
for later transcription? while your fellow people are trying to listen to a 
lecture?


On 22/01/2015 13:33, Mike Ray wrote:

The RNIB now seems to be run by suits with little or no grasp of what
the customers really need.

In a world where everything is being dumbed-down to a lowest common
denominator what we are now seeing is charity bosses who see little else
than the bottom line.  How they got to that bottom line is of little
importance to them.  Just making the expenditure smaller and the income
bigger seems to be an end in itself now.

And no doubt one of the things that is pared to the bone to make the
bottom line look better is training for customer facing staff and
expenditure on what is seen as old technology.  And sadly Braille is
perceived by sighted folks, and a lot of blind folks now too, as old
tech.  Although presumably sighted folks don't regard reading printed
words as old tech.




On 22/01/2015 13:16, Clive.Lever@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Hi Dave,

Don't get me on my soap box about this one. Cynically, I sometimes wonder 
whether the more they can dissuade congenitally blind people from blocking 
their resources with loads of braille, the more they can concentrate on their 
pet subject: "sight loss". If they tell customers as a matter of course that 
braille copies will cost loads, take ages or generate boatloads of paper, they 
will get the answer they nudged their customer to give: "Ok then, I'll have an 
audio version". Then they will say: "more and more people are using audio and 
fewer are reading braille, so Braille's on its way out". Whooppee! They won't 
have to devote resources to it. Is there such a thing as "Lowp! (the opposite 
of hype), or of demoting rather than promoting a service? I encountered similar 
problems when I was asking for computer manuals as far back as 1982, so sadly, 
your tale leads me to think nothing has changed, except that the Institute 
sometimes appears to be suffering from sight loss itself..
 .i
 t's lost sight of the ball! I've usually found that a rough equation stands me 
in good stead: Two-and-a-half to three braille pages for every a4 side of dense 
print in a pretty standard font size. So, when I read the original was 96 
pages, I thought "300's going to be nearer the mark. I read on, And surprise, 
surprise!

Best,
Clive  

-----Original Message-----
From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of 
Dave Sheridan
Sent: 22 January 2015 12:37
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [access-uk] RNIB, how inefficient are they?



I recently received a Plextalk pocket portable daisy player as a present. The 
kind person who gave me this enquired about braille instructions and was told 
that they could do this but they would be about 600 pages. The person accepted 
that audio instructions would suffice. After receipt of said player I rang to 
ask for braille instructions and was told the same thing. I asked for the 
braille copy. Interestingly the audio contents goes up to page 96 so I was a 
little confused why this would translate to 600 braille pages. I've just 
received the instructions in 3 volumes totalling just under 300 A4 pages. 
Clearly those people providing potential customers with information should be 
well informed and clearly they are not: 

To add to this a friend of mine who took out a subscription to the talking book 
service has been perplexed by RNIB sending books which don't appear on the list 
she supplied them with. This has occurred twice now within a short period of 
time, firstly with books she hadn't ordered appearing on a pen drive sent to 
her and since then having changed to disc she has been sent other titles not 
ordered by her. Having experienced this myself over some considerable time 
before I was blunt with them I I do wonder why their customer service is so 
poor. As you have to ask for braille instructions these days you would think 
they would give good information and not try to put you off getting them to do 
the job they are there to do. 

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