[gui-talk] Sighted "speed reading:" A little perspective

[Joel Deutsch]

Dear Allen,

I'm sorry, but what I've found over the time I've been subscribed to this 
list and a couple of others is that many attempts at explanations across the 
blind vs. sighted experiential chasm have turned out to be not just 
rigorously demanding to make but nearly impossible to find a way to 
translate. So I just don't venture into it any deeper than I've gone in the 
post of mine you're referring to. Even as I sometimes write and publish 
stories and essays about my experience of losing my vision, the description 
of the effect is mainly  for the benefit of the normally sighted reader who 
can then be forced,if my descriptive skill is adequate, into imagining 
imperfect or fading vision. My writing of that sort is usually effective for 
sighted readers and affecting for them, also, but of little use on the other 
side of the cultural and perceptual chasm that I've learned separates 
sightlings and blinks. I really can't help you, and also my best powers 
aren't of the scientifically analytical sort. I'm sorry. So at the level 
you're addressing it, this issue is beyond my reach or simply off my table.

I'm sincerely sorry not to be able to help.

Joel


my power culutral me,skill ifor sinnto son't no th4 th t
From: "Hoffman, Allen" <Allen.Hoffman at dhs.gov>
To: <gui-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, December 15, 2008 6:01 AM
Subject: [gui-talk] Sighted "speed reading:" A little perspective


Joel:

I suppose this is way off topic, but A nice thread anyway.

I'd like more specific differences between tactile reading and visual
reading experiences to be able to process your post more carefully.

As a high skill Braille reader, and a former very very low ability print
reader, I don't think I agree with the differences to the extent you
seem to be postulating.  Braille has far less 2-d formats, and no 3-d
formats.  Braille has no sizing for meaning, and does not contain
pictorial data "much".  but, once one learns how to rapidly skim in
Braille, one can zip through blocks of text, read by word sizes if not
sentences at a time, and in general lose oneself in the words, just as
is possible with visual reading.  the differences are less than you seem
to state.  Visual readers can lose themselves in the words, but do have
a greater set of variables to work with on the page in terms of
presentation and layout options, but truly, in a novel, little variation
of format and other visual layout factors are present in the vast bulk
of the material.

So, I'd like to hear the set of differences you believe exist.  it might
be a perseption from inexperience using either media at the same general
level of usability, not the medias themselves.



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