British Braille is the main publication of BAUK and sets out the rules of Standard English Braille as used in the United Kingdom. A new edition was published in 2004, incorporating ideas and suggestions of braille users and producers collected since the last update in 1992, as well as making corrections. Print and braille versions can be viewed or downloaded from the BAUK publications page. Hard copy versions in print or braille may be obtained from RNIB. Both a capitalized and a non-capitalized braille edition are available. Some minor corrections have since been made to the publication produced in 2004, and these are also listed on the BAUK publications page
A full list of rule changes is given in the document British Braille 2004: List of Changes. This is intended for transcribers, proofreaders and others who need detailed technical information. A shorter summary of the main changes is given in the document Main Changes to British Braille 2004. (The latter is largely based on the document circulated by BAUK when we asked for feedback on the proposals - thanks to all of you who responded.). These documents are available in other formats from the BAUK publications page.
It was anticipated that braille producers would be able to incorporate these changes into their transcriptions by the end of August 2005, and this may be regarded as the official implementation date.
BAUK has been participating in an international project under the International Council on English Braille (ICEB) to design a revision of Standard English Braille called the Unified English Braille Code. The code includes technical areas such as mathematics, computing and chemistry, without the need for special codes. This has been regarded by BAUK as a research project, and no committment was made to adopt the code.
The participating countries are: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Nigeria, South Africa, United Kingdom, United States. Other countries, though not directly participating, are following with interest.
The work of the project was divided into a number of committees engaged in different areas:
Following the ICEB Assembly in 2004, this committee structure was replaced by committees set up to handle the remaining work needed on the code, e.g. formatting, as well as an over-arching committee responsible for steering the implementation and maintenance of UEB.
The project is at a fairly advanced stage, with just a few aspects of the code design to be settled.
An early evaluation of the code was conducted in the UK and other participating countries in 1998, with mixed results. Some countries, such as Canada and New Zealand have been strongly in favour of the code, but major organisations of the blind in the US have declared themselves to be against the code in its current form. Resolutions about the future of the project were made at the ICEB Assembly in 2004. Following the Assembly, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa issued statements signaling their intention to move ahead with implementing the code in their countries. Since then, Australia have begun the transition to UEB, and New Zealand are following a similar course.
BAUK conducted further evaluations of UEB in the UK in 2007 and 2008, including making further samples available to the public, together with a questionnaire. See the item UEB Consultaion below for more information. As part of this public consultation process BAUK also held three short seminars on UEB at Sight Village 2007, in Birmingham, which provided us with some useful feedback.
Some other brief samples of UEB (not part of the UEB consultation samples) are available below to give an idea of what the code looks like. Note that these have been prepared on the basis both of definite UEB decisions, as well as in places some working assumptions based on current thinking within the project or else coming from a UK perspective, which should not be regarded as definitive.
UEB Guidelines for Technical Material have recently been approved by ICEB in December 2008, and are available in electronic form from the links below:
Further information can be found at the UEB web site: www.iceb.org/ubc.html.
In 2008 BAUK conducted a nationwide consultation exercise on Unified English Braille (UEB). It was hoped that as many people in the UK as possible who had any interest in braille would participate in this consultation so that BAUK had the best information when deciding what action to take, e.g. whether or not to recommend that UEB should be introduced in the UK.
As part of this process BAUK produced a booklet containing an introduction to UEB, samples of different types of material transcribed into UEB, and a questionnaire.
The results of this questionnaire are summarised below.
In the light of these results, BAUK came to the following conclusions at its meeting on 1 December 2008:
A total of 470 responses were analysed. Not everyone answered every question, so some of the totals do not add up to 470. Percentages have been rounded to the nearest whole number, and so may not sum to 100%.
Response Medium:
| Number | Percentage | |
|---|---|---|
| 111 | 24% | |
| Telephone | 135 | 29% |
| Braille | 119 | 25% |
| 105 | 22% | |
| 470 |
Question 1 - Age
| Age Category | Number | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Under 19 | 10 | 2% |
| 19 – 39 | 56 | 12% |
| 40 – 64 | 251 | 54% |
| Over 64 | 151 | 32% |
| 468 |
Question 2 – Age at which Braille was learnt
| Age Category | Number | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Under 19 | 346 | 74% |
| 19 – 39 | 67 | 14% |
| 40 – 64 | 47 | 10% |
| Over 64 | 9 | 2% |
| 469 |
Question 3 – How do you normally read Braille?
| Number | Percentage | |
|---|---|---|
| By touch | 402 | 86% |
| By Sight | 57 | 12% |
| Both | 7 | 2% |
| 466 |
Question 4 – For what purposes do you read Braille?
| Number | Percentage of total responses | |
|---|---|---|
| Education | 195 | 41% |
| Work | 203 | 43% |
| Leisure | 391 | 83% |
| Daily Living | 351 | 75% |
Question 5 – Which existing Braille codes can you read?
| Number | Percentage of total responses | |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 1 | 412 | 88% |
| British Literary Code (Grade 2) | 464 | 99% |
| British Maths Code | 168 | 36% |
| British Computer Code | 116 | 25% |
| British Scientific Code | 55 | 12% |
| American Literary Code | 201 | 43% |
| Nemeth Code | 21 | 4% |
Question 6 – Apart from using Braille for your own purposes, what is your interest in or involvement with Braille?
| Number | Percentage of total responses | |
|---|---|---|
| Teacher | 93 | 20% |
| Transcriber | 84 | 18% |
| Other | 70 | 15% |
Question 7 – Do you think the adoption of UEB as the standard Braille code in the UK would benefit future Braille readers in the UK and worldwide?
| Number | Percentage | |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | 153 | 33% |
| No | 305 | 66% |
| Don't Know | 1 | - |
| 459 |
Question 8 – Would you personally like UEB to be adopted as the standard Braille code in the UK?
| Number | Percentage | |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | 109 | 24% |
| No | 347 | 76% |
| Don't Know | 2 | - |
| 458 |
Question 9 – Comments
A total of 408 people left comments on the questionnaire. These varied from the brief ('leave my Braille alone' and 'I think it is a very good code') to the very detailed:
'In sample 1 I don't mind either way if it is dots or lower d used. In sample 2 I think the italised signs make it far too confusing and complicated. Far easier to have one sign at the beginning and one at the end of something needing italised. I think the fraction sign wastes a lot of space and think the original sign for half is much better. I see no reason why two characters need to be used to indicate brackets. Degree sign could easily be misread as two zeros when reading a number. Sample 3 I think the sign dots 2-3-4-6 is better for "at" than dot 4a. No need for Braille word indicator. Dash better as original two lower c. Decimal point easier as a dot. Would prefer to stick with the existing percent sign. Would prefer telephone number using lower c rather than dot-5 between characters. Sample 4 would prefer original astrix sign. No point in two characters for pound sign would prefer original. Sample 5 I don't even understand what a non-directional double quote means. Sample 7 I would prefer the original signs for plus, minus, multiply etc... I am very comfortable with maths and numbers but I find this far too over complicated to understand. It is very hard to work out all these extra signs like square root. I think this would make learning maths as a Braille reader very hard work. Sample 8: similar to sample 7. I would be comfortable reading this were it not for the overcomplicated and often unnecessary signs used. I think again this would make it very hard work for a beginner learning computer Braille. I feel very strongly that Standard English Braille should be left alone. If people in specific lines of work need change in, for example computer or maths Braille, then they could have specifications that suit them and leave Grade 2 as it is. [truncated]'.
Although the questionnaire is no longer current, the UEB sample pack used is still available from the links below for those who are interested:
The International Council on English Braille (ICEB), of which BAUK is a member, held its General Assembly on 6th - 10th April 2008, in Melbourne, Australia. BAUK sent three delegates. Much of the discussion related to UEB, e.g. with reports on how countries that are already using the code are getting on, activities in other countries, and reports from the various active UEB committees within ICEB.
The resolutions made at the Assembly may be read here.
A report, written by Bill Poole, on the prevous Assembly held in 2004 can be read here. The resolutions made by that Assembly may be read here.