ETEC540: Text Technologies

Introduction

Reading today is a silent and solitary activity, in the West its roots lay in the oral tradition. Saenger (1997), who has researched the spaces between words and punctuation extensively, notes that reading was originally an oral activity, and that the processes and tools that we use to make sense of the written word have not always been the same. The spaces between words, and indeed punctuation, are, in the history of reading/writing relatively new inventions and have evolved significantly over the past millennium. Manguel (1996) notes writers in antiquity made the assumption that readers (listeners) preferred to hear text, not read it, and furthers by noting that present-day sayings such as “This text doesn’t sound right”, speak to these origins. From the perspective of literacy, word dividers and punctuation are powerful inventions which “freed intellectual capacity of the reader to read silently.” (Saenger, 1997, p. 13) In this essay, the historical significance of the technological advent of word dividers and punctuation is explored alongside discussion on how literacy and education were impacted.

The World Without Word Dividers

The Rosetta Stone, which provided the key to understanding Egyptian hieroglyphics, is a clear example of three languages representing both graph- and letter- based writing systems in which word spaces and other modern tools such as capitalization and punctuation are not used. Languages that use logographic writing, in whole or in part, such as ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and contemporary Mandarin and Japanese are written without spaces between words. Japanese newspapers provide a good visual example as to how modern Japanese is rendered without spaces.

In the present day, one thing that many students of Japanese express discomfort with is the lack of separation between words (see note). At a rudimentary level, Japanese is written, as Saenger (1997) notes, in kana (syllabic Japanese script not dissimilar to the English alphabet). Students inevitably break words apart using spaces, because kana, like letters, do not have meaning per se in the way that Chinese characters do. While Saenger’s description of reading in Japanese is somewhat incorrect and lacks depth of understanding of how kana are used in conjunction with Chinese characters (e.g. verb infliction), he is correct in noting that characters themselves aren’t “read” in the Western sense. Rather, they intrinsically have and convey meaning whereas individual letters and kana do not. In other words, Chinese characters, by themselves or in combination, have meaning.

A useful analogy is reading math equations. The = sign has a meaning that we “read” as equals and it conveys a clear meaning/concept. Thus, a simple equation such as 12/7-4=0 requires no spaces for comprehension. doingthesamewithenglishtextisextremelydifficultespeciallyforlongpassagesoftext. Indeed, for a work of any length written without spaces between words, deciphering meaning and reading with any sense of flow is extremely difficult. In the West, it is difficult to imagine text without spaces, and yet, that is exactly how English and other languages were first written.

From Scriptura Continua to Spaces Between Words

As mentioned, manuscripts and other written works historically were written without spaces between words and punctuation, and text in scriptura continua (or scriptio continua) were long strings of uninterrupted and unpunctuated text. In antiquity, there was no need or desire to identify ways to make reading easier (Saenger, 1997). Literacy was not wide-spread, and the limited number of texts available were read aloud slowly. Reading was a very different process. In the first century, Quintilian stated that for orators in learning reading: “It is through the practice of reading that the child will learn where he should breathe, and where he should separate each line.” (Ponbo, 2002, p. 32) Given that it was oral, Ong (1982) suggests that reading in this sense was as much about listening as it was about reading. He furthers by suggesting that memorizing text helped those reading since “in highly oral manuscript cultures, the verbalization one encountered even in written texts often continued the oral mnemonic patterning that made for ready recall.” (Ong, 1982, p. 117)

Reading Latin and Greek text in scriptura continua, Saenger (1997) contends, was a difficult and mentally draining art, and the eyes need to be kept ahead of the text. He argues that it was the introduction of word separation around the seventh century that helped allow the development and advent of oral readings much quicker cousin, silent reading. The spaces between words had a clear impact on helping build and enable literacy, but associated with this growth is a loss of how learning and communication took place in oral cultures. The change to silent reading is described by Parkes (1993) as a shift to “conveying information directly to the mind through the eye.” (p. 1)

Punctuating Text

If the spaces between words are one piece, then how punctuation played into the change in the way text was written and rendered is another key development. Punctuation, from the Latin punctus (meaning point) was used by Roman teachers (grammatici) as a way for students to distinguish between words or phrases (Parkes, 1993). Adorno and Nicholsen (1990) suggest that one of the distinguishing features of (present day) punctuation is that more than anything else, punctuation marks are similar to music. One example they offer is that of the question mark and the accompanying rising intonation in interrogatives.

Similar to the way that spaces between words act as “guideposts” (Saenger, 1997, p. 15), punctuation has a clear role in serving to help readers make sense of text. Parkes (1993) argues that punctuation was originally an aid to reading aloud, and differed from its later uses. For example, the interpunct and slash in their earlier use, were used for word separation, not punctuation marks. In other words, they aided the reader (orally) in deciphering text, but did not offer the benefits that later developments did for the silent reader. The introduction of the printing press in the fifteenth century paved the way for more standardized use of punctuation and other refinements such as indented paragraphs in text that are common today (Parkes, 1993).

Implications on Literacy

Both punctuation and word dividers were powerful advances in text that provided critical tools for silent reading to develop and become widespread. Word separation enables readers to readily identify words and turn their attention to meaning (Saenger, 1997). By the time the printing press was invented, both word separation and punctuation were well-established, but standards were lacking, particularly in terms of punctuation (Parkes, 1993). As the printing press became more widely used, conventions began to take root and these further aided literacy. Standardization made it much easier for readers to silently decode text authored by a variety of individuals ( Saenger, 1997). Furthermore, the organization of text that occurred with these innovations made words, clauses, sentences and paragraphs easily distinguishable. Saenger (1997) adds that the act of silent reading, in particular, shifted the “neurological process of reading” (p. 13).

Conclusion

As illustrated, text without spaces between words and punctuation leaves contemporary readers of English lost trying to read text of any length with any degree of fluency. Even this sentence, the dependent clause with commas as bookmarks, offers a case in point as the punctuation makes deciphering the content much easier and avoids potential misunderstanding. In the evolution of writing, these inventions have played a critical role in advancing literacy and making text accessible for the average person. Even in the absence of v w ls, w c n d c ph r nd c mpr h nd t xt in many instances. The same text without spaces between words becomes increasingly incomprehensible (s m l tt rs, w c nd c ph r ndc mpr h ndt xt) as the spaces between works, a critical element of silent reading is removed. Scriptura continua still exists in languages that use letters, such as Thai, but most non-logographic languages use conventions such as spaces between words and punctuation. Of interest now is how digital media is beginning to challenge how we read and decipher mixed media messages online. It seems apparent that as renderings of text and information continue to change, our notions of literacy and reading will continue to evolve.

References

Adorno, T. & Nicholsen, S. (1990). Punctuation Marks. The Antioch Review, 48(3), 300-305. Retrieved from JSTOR database.

Manguel, A. (1996). “Chapter 2: The Silent Readers”. In A History of Reading. New York: Viking). Retrieved from http://www.stanford.edu/class/history34q/readings/Manguel/Silent_Readers.html

Ong, W. (1982). Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. London: Routledge.

Parkes, M. (1993). Pause and Effect: An Introduction to the History of Punctuation in the West. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Pombo, E. (2002). Visual Construction of Writing in the Medieval Book. Diogenes (International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies), 31-40. Retrieved from Humanities Full Text database.

Saenger, P. (1997). Space Between Words: The Origins of Silent Reading . Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Note: I have taught language, including Japanese, for a number of years at the post-secondary level in Canada, and comments on students of Japanese are based on observations from that experience.

I decided to present my research as a video. It’s a little outside the box… so any feedback would be very much appreciated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgfrMwW7RoQ

I apologize for the print being hard to read. When I uploaded the video to youtube the fonts became blurred. Any suggestions on how to maintain a little better video quality? Thanks,

Kirklan

World Web and Networking: Laying the Foundation
By Laura Bonnor, ETEC 540
New technology such as the World Wide Web and Social Networking have made dramatic changes within our society over the past few years, however I would posit that the seeds for our acceptance and willingness to embrace these technologies were sown thousands of years ago. Indeed, the web of roads and communication routes that were established by the Romans allowed the monastic orders, in particular the Benedictines, to develop their own social network to further the cause of Christianity and in so doing facilitated the development of the codex, the printing press, and laid the groundwork for the information highway that we so value today. Bolter refers to this evolution as “remediation”. (Bolter, 2009) Technological change does not arise or exist in a vacuum. Unique sets of social and economic conditions combine to form the catalyst and impetus that allows the technology to evolve. When Gutenberg finally succeeded in designing a printing press that was capable of reproducing books en masse, it was not solely due to his own genius but rather the culmination of a great many circumstances of a political, social and technological nature. In this paper I will examine a few of these to demonstrate the complex nature of how technological change occurs. Although one could unravel the connecting threads that lead inexorably to the design and development of the printing press ad infinitum, I will begin in the year 313 A.D.

Colosseum: Photo taken in Rome 2010

Emperor Constantine was the first Christian Emperor of Rome and was instrumental in Christianity becoming the official religion of the Roman Empire. (Nelson, 1999) Christianity quickly spread along the Roman byways that had already been laid out by centuries of successful Roman invasions and conquests, intermingling with and sometimes replacing altogether the pagan beliefs of the conquered citizens. (Nelson, 1999) It was at this time that the codex was gaining popularity as a more convenient and effective tool for delivering the Christian message. (Grout, 2002) The format was both portable and facilitated the teaching and learning of the biblical lessons much better than could be achieved by scrolls. (Clement, 1997) So when Rome was sacked in 410 and then eventually overrun by Germanic tribes, the tentacles of Christianity, painstakingly copied and distributed throughout Europe, became even more influential and pervasive. The Church remained a significant religious power but was not affiliated with any particular crown. In fact with the disintegration of one central Roman power, the Christian Church, still based on the Roman principles, became the one unifying force in Europe.
Christians attempted to rediscover their roots, to turn away from the decadence that had become Rome and to pursue more pure religious ideals, following in Jesus’ footsteps. (Nelson, 1999) Many became hermits, but Benedict of Narsia, himself of noble Roman heritage (Reinhart, 1977), founded a new order in the 5th century at Monte Casino. He developed The Rule for the order, based loosely on the Roman notion of justice and service. It was open to all, and although the Abbott was the leader of the order, each member, including the Abbott, had to follow the rule. At the same time, Pope Gregory was keen to encourage the monks to simplify their language so that the Christian teachings would be more accessible to the common man. Both the limiting of the power of the Abbot and the improved accessibility of the texts laid the foundation for future democratic reform that would become the driving force of the late Renaissance. In contrast, monasteries that developed after the fall of Rome in England and Ireland, especially the monastery of Lindisfarne, where the Lindisfarne Gospels where created, had no such rule and based their structure on the clan system (Knowles, 1950). In both cases, the Benedictines working their way North and West, and the monks of the British Isles working their way South and East, travelled and proselytized throughout Europe, transporting their message and the Rule with them in the form of books. In addition to copying the gospels, the monks as well as Roman noblemen, especially Cassiodorus, copied the ancient texts of Rome and Greece, realizing that the knowledge of antiquity could be lost in the state of turmoil. The monks perpetuated Greek and Latin knowledge and Roman ways of living and learning. So while Rome itself fell, Roman culture, with the help of Christian monasteries, continued to have a great influence on society.

Charlemagne: Photo taken in Aachen, 2008

During this time monasteries flourished. The fact that many patrons of the church felt that giving money and land to the monasteries was a sure way to get into heaven also aided their cause, as did the growing exchange of information with other cultures. Essentially a massive European social network founded on the Christian faith flourished, and within that network, the continued development of the book. In year 800 A.D. Charlemagne was declared to be the Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III (Gelfand, 2003). The Carolingian Renaissance, built on Christian faith and Roman values, linked with increased literacy, which further contributed to book development. Charlemagne entreats the monasteries to improve the quality of the copies, through improved vigilance and editing. (Innes, 1998) Charlemagne calls on not only the clergy to become literate, but the “free sons and children too”. (McKitterick, 2009) He introduces punctuation and spaces between words so that others may read and interpret the works. Carolingian Minisucle (Gelfand, 2003), a smaller clearer font, is used to improve readability. While Charlemagne perpetuates the Roman habit of using Latin as the language of learning, in England King Alfred is translating text into Old English. (McKitterick, 2009) All of this serves to increase the access to books and literacy, not just among the clergy but among lay people who are now acting as scribes and notaries. (Knowles, 1950)
At the beginning of the 11th century, the Crusades usher in another chapter in the development of the book. Increased travel and trade resulted in an exchange of technology such as improved paper production as well as a variety of new technological and scientific information that was previously known only in the east. (Bolter, 2009) Techniques of travel, meteorology, the use of a compass all contribute to increased interest in science. At the same time, the Church is thrown into upheaval while secular kings vie for control and power. Monasteries where becoming far too rich and decadent. Universities were springing up all over Europe and power was shifting away from the traditional church and into the hands of rich merchants and city states. (Mundy, 1973) In fact, in “Germany centers of scribing and learning were one and the same”. (McKitterick, 2009)
The stage is set for Gutenberg. Christian and Roman ideals had spread throughout Europe. Power had shifted from entrenched monarchies and rich monasteries into the hands of city-dwelling merchants with a thirst for knowledge. Paper had become lighter and more uniform. Within this climate Gutenberg comes up with the idea of individual letters on moveable tiles that can be arranged to reproduce pages, but he alone cannot bring the project to fruition. Again, the network of power and money, now held by the German burghers, plays a key role. One rich family of merchants and bankers, the Fusts, step in to finance Gutenberg’s project. Johan Fust loans the money to Gutenberg, himself in debt at the time, so that he can complete the project. We also learn that Gutenberg had an excellent crew of skilled craftsmen, including Peter Schoeffer, who made the project possible. (Winship, 1926) The fact that skilled and literate labour was available to Gutenberg is in itself a testament to the long tradition of literacy and education which was the legacy of Rome, the web of transportation that the Romans had built and the network of communication established by the monks.
Great moments where technology seems to change the face of society are not really surprises so much as they are the inevitable result of combined social, economic and cultural changes that give rise to the need and the market where that technology can exist and flourish. In this sense the technology is not the determining factor and does not play a deterministic role in the society because the society was already driving towards it; the technology merely fits in to the niche that has been created. The Roman success which precipitated the vast network of communication and exchange, which became even more significant after the decline of Rome, provided the climate for the eventual creation of the printing press. Could it have been otherwise? Gutenberg had the idea but it was the social conditions in Mainz that allowed that idea to come to fruition. It was a bourgeois banker whose family had risen up from the merchant class and skilled workers who desired to read and clergy who wanted to reform the monasteries that created the centrifuge to create the press. It may be true of all technology. Technology does not suddenly appear out of thin air but it grows from seeds that happen to fall on fertile soil and through care and patience, and perhaps a certain amount of serendipity, bloom. Although we look at technology as something that springs up quickly, especially nowadays, we would do well to look back into the long history of the development, the links to our past history and social and economic realities that lead to it. Rome was not built in a day.

References
Bolter, Jay David. (2001). Writing space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print [2nd edition]. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Clement, R.W. (1997). Medieval and renaissance book production: The manuscript book. In R. Clement (Ed.), Books and Universities. Retrieved, 10 June 2003, from: http://the-orb.net/encyclop/culture/books/medbook1.html
Gelfand, Dale Elwa, (2003) Charlemagne. Chelsea House Publishers http://books.google.ca/books?id=hbnY8GTet_kC&pg=PA77&dq=Charlemagne+%2B+punctuation&hl=en&ei=CU2_TJmaOdrmnQfrkeCJDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Charlemagne%20%2B%20punctuation&f=false
Grout, J. (Ed.). (2002). Scroll and codex. In Encyclopaedia Romana. Retrieved, 10 June 2003 from:http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/scroll/scrollcodex.html
Innes, Mathew, (Feb. 1998) Memory, orality and literacy in an early medieval society – 9th-century Carolingian society, St. Gallen abbey, monk Notker. Past and Present. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2279/is_n158/ai_20466709/
McKitterick, Rosamund, (1989) The Carolingians and the Written Word. Cambridge University Press. http://books.google.ca/books?id=cw3WXEqLpY8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=McKitterick&hl=en&ei=8EG_TKvsFsTMngfAwbW9Bw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CD4Q6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=false
Knowles, David. (1950) The Monastic Order in England. Cambridge, University Press.
Mckitterick, Rosamund, (2009) A Landmark Figure in the History of German? Charlemagne, Language and Literacy. In Landmarks in the History of the German Language, Geraldine Horan, Nils Langer, Sheila Watts, ed. http://books.google.ca/books?id=nGbkwIGWEPgC&pg=PA11&dq=Charlemagne+%2B+literacy&hl=en&ei=0ki_TPfdNcKVnAeGgMWJDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Charlemagne%20%2B%20literacy&f=false
Mundy, John H. (1973) Europe in the High Middle Ages 1150-1309. Hong Kong: Longman.
Nelson, Lynn H. (1999) Lectures for a Medival Survey; The Rise of Monasticism. http://www.the-orb.net/textbooks/nelson/monasticism.html
Ong, Walter. (1982.) Orality and literacy: The technologizing of the word. London: Methuen
Reinhardt, Kurt F.(1977) Germany:2000 Years. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing.
Winship, George Parker (1926) Gutenberg to Plantin: Printing and Typography. Cambridge, Harvard University Press. http://www.presscom.co.uk/print1.html

It is easy to notice the technological advancements that have occurred in theatre if we compare some of the first outdoor stages that were built by hand thousands of years ago to some of the most high-tech, multi-sensory cinemas that exist today. However, if we examine theatre purely as human performance and as a dramatic method to communicate meaning and emotion, we will notice that very little has actually changed. In 300 BC, Aristotle outlined the Six Elements of Drama: plot, theme, character, language/dialogue, music/rhythm and spectacle. These elements not only established the platform for Greek theatre, but also the framework of Shakespeare’s plays and the workings of modern movies.

It may be argued that technological advancements have actually harmed or distracted the audience from the true essence of drama and theatre. Although the six elements of drama existed successfully in many cultures for thousands of years, technology was necessary in order to help cinema rise to the giant media form it has become today. Technological advancements have allowed cinema to reach an infinitely large audience, much as in the same capacity that print forms allowed communication to spread across the globe centuries ago.

Religion and Performance

Performance in many cultures began with the need to communicate or celebrate religion or spirituality. According to Culturopedia, India has some of the earliest examples of dramatic performance with rituals that incorporated dance, mime and song before 2000 BC. In China, in 1000 BC, costumed shamans would sing and dance to dramatically call down spirits from heaven (Brandon). Indigenous African theatre, a combination of mime, speech, song and dance, was concerned with mirroring everyday life, but on a higher level, wanted to “perpetuate the virtues of society and purge all evil,” (Mabweazara). These early forms of performance may seem somewhat primitive by today’s standards, but modern stage and cinema perpetuate these very dramatic vocal and physical traits even if they are not directly associated with any religion.

Stage in Ancient Greece

Theatre is comprised of a surface or stage (including backstage) for performance and an area for spectators to view and listen to that performance. One of the earliest examples of staged theatre can be found in ancient Greece, 500 BC. Ancient Greek stages were originally designed and built for religious ceremonies and included an alter to the gods and an orchestra for religious chorus in the centre of the stage (Phillips). The Greek theatre was circular in shape, with the stage at the bottom or base and with the seats rising above the stage in a cone shape. This design allowed for the best sound conditions for large outdoor audiences. Masks worn by Greek actors also served audio assistance for large audiences, for inside these masks were “megaphones that improved the mechanical coupling between the voice-generating mechanism and the surrounding air,” (Lahanas). The masks also allowed better visual comprehension of emotions through the dramatically designed facial expressions. Although early Greek tragedies and Roman comedies may be considered melodramatic by today’s standards, exaggerations of these facial expressions and physical gestures were necessary in order to convey visual meaning easily to large audiences.

The Shakespearean Stage

Almost 2000 years after the establishment of ancient Greek theatre, Elizabethan stage in 16th century England began to make its scene with Shakespeare’s plays in round stage houses. Unlike earlier theatre which originated out of religion and which had stories that revolved around spirits and gods, Shakespearean stages, whether tragic or comedic, were not religious and were constantly being stopped by police for being taboo (Chapman). Elements of early performance such as that which occurred in ancient Greece and on the Shakespearean stage not only influenced the culture of the time, but can still be seen in modern theatre productions around the world today.

The Silent Film Era

Projections of images can be done by playing with light and shadows, such as natural sunlight and one’s hands, utilizing virtually no technology at all. With the invention of writing materials, drawn images could be created and even appear to move if flipped by hand or with other simple tools such as string or sticks. The Museum of American Heritage, Technology and Development, outlines that the projection of images took a big technological leap in the 1800s with the invention of a variety of tropes, scopes and manual cameras and projectors that allowed images to appear to move when projected in a sequential order. These machine-generated moving pictures can be considered the first examples of cinematography.

These first cinematographic films however, did not accompany synchronized sound until the 1900’s. In order to help viewers understand the meaning or storyline of the images, it was necessary to use inter-titles or captions (messages read between scenes), and later, subtitles (messages transferred onto stills, to be read simultaneously with the movement of images) to support the comprehension of situation or plot and substitute the lack of narration and/or audio dialogue between characters (Ivarsson).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ke25rh_8veM

Modern Cinema

Although modern movies can easily communicate a story line with a variety of audio and visual action, many movies continue to use subtitles for added stylistics. Subtitles used for translation allow foreign films to be appreciated around the world instead of being confined to their own language audience. Hearing impaired viewers may also benefit from closed captioning while enjoying a visual story. Although modern movies can communicate a story line with plain dialogue between characters or with background narration, sound effects and music are used to enhance tension and promote understanding of situations, such as classical music for a romantic scene or rock and roll for an action scene.

Unlike traditional stage, which is performed live, modern cinema is recorded, and so has the capabilities of having multiple takes on filmed scenes, editing to reach a desired level of perfection, and added visual and sound effects to ensure a certain sense of magic. Recordings, unlike a one-time, original live performance, may be distributed easily in a variety of formats or media so that there is no longer a need to follow a scheduled show time at a theatre. The audience, unlike when viewing a live stage performance, has the convenience of being able to stop, rewind and watch any part of a recorded film again. Wide distribution greatly reduces the cost and improves the convenience of viewing. Where staged performance was once reserved for nobility, elites or small social circles, modern cinema is now readily available in most parts of the world in a variety of formats. Unfortunately, technology has also made it easy to reproduce and distribute unauthorized copies of movies, so video piracy problems have become a major problem of the modern film industry.

The End?

Continued advancements in audiovisual technology have undoubtedly helped cinema rise dramatically in the past century. Advances in multi-sensory technology now allow the audience to feel as if they are physically involved or interacting with what they are watching. Looking at the design of even the most state of the art movie theatres however, one can notice that the stage is merely substituted for a screen and the voices of live actors substituted with stereo equipment. One element that has not changed is the audience, viewing from seats similar to the way audiences did 2000 years ago in ancient Greece.

The human need to tell stories, to watch and hear the stories of others and to think about religions and philosophies is evident in the continued development of technologies for stage and cinema throughout history. Technology helped make stories accessible to more people and allowed more people to share their stories. However, despite the explosion of modern cinema and its technologies, the art of the original stage has not actually suffered. Amongst all the technological innovations of modern cinema, there is still a human desire to experience live oral performance as can be seen with plays, musicals and comedy shows performed in person all over the globe. Perhaps, no matter how far technology can take the viewer in modern cinema, there will always remain a longing to experience the allure of the old fashioned stage with its immediate oral performance. So it seems that for now, there will be no end for the stage.

“All the world’s a stage.” ~ William Shakespeare

References

“Aristotle’s Six Elements of Drama.” Retrieved on October 21, 2010: http://www.kyshakes.org/Resources/Aristotle.html

Brandon, J.R. “Chinese Performing Arts. ” Retrieved on October 18, 2010: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1497494/Chinese-performing-arts

Chapman, J. “The Greek Stage and Shakespeare.” Retrieved on October 17, 2010: http://www.theatredatabase.com/16th_century/william_shakespeare_002.html

Ivarsson, J. “A Short Technical History of Subtitles in Europe.” Retrieved on October 17, 2010: http://www.transedit.se/history.htm#intertitles

Lahanas, M. “Ancient Greece Theater Masks, Actors.” Retrieved on October 17, 2010: http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Arts/TheaterArt.htm

Mabweazara, H. “Present day African theatre forms have filtered through from the past.” Retrieved on October 18, 2010: http://www.postcolonialweb.org/africa/mabweazara1.html

Museum of American Heritage, Technology and Development, “The Mechanics of Moving Images.” Retrieved on October 21, 2010: http://www.moah.org/exhibits/archives/movies/technology_development.html

Phillips, K. “Ancient Greek Stage.” Retrieved on October 17, 2010: http://www.richeast.org/htwm/Greeks/theatre/stage.html

“Theatre in India.” Retrieved on October 18, 2010: http://www.culturopedia.com/Theatre/theatre_intro.html

An example of braille integrated into another assistive device, in this case a handrail at a Japanese train station (photo taken by Brian Farrell in Tokyo, Japan, October 17, 2010).

In a society that places a high value on the ability to read and write, those with visual disabilities were once at a tremendous educational loss and not able to participate fully in society. The current technology available to those with physical disabilities today is extensive, and now means that many more people are now able to access, read, and author written texts. In the course of our history though, this is a change that has only occurred recently, and assistive technologies such as the braille system have been incredibly important in driving this change.

Braille is a standardized and tactile system that was developed by a blind man faced with the inability to view, and therefore read standard texts. In 1829, Louis Braille codified and developed a system of raised dots that would allow blind readers to use touch to discover texts, and while some modifications and additions have occurred, this same system largely remains in use today. Braille was inspired to create his system after learning about a military system using raised dots that would allow soldiers to communicate in the dark and without speaking aloud (Canadian National Institute for the Blind, 2010).

Rather than a distinct language, braille is a system of writing, reading, and transferring knowledge. Based upon the standard roman alphabet, braille also incorporates other written symbology such as punctuation and letter accents, without which the organization of written texts could prove difficult. This is an important distinction of braille from other reading technologies for the visually impaired, as it places an emphasis on the written word as it would be viewed by a sighted person. Where an audio recording may also serve to deliver a written body of work, its absence of explicit punctuation means that this technology may limit the listener’s understanding of standard grammatical structure used in writing.

Braille is but one example of raised print used to express meaning to a reader (photo by Brian Farrell of Menena Cottin's "The Black Book of Colors", Groundwood Books, Toronto, 2009).

Similar to learners of other languages, learners of braille may gain an ability to read and access texts at differing levels. Like any other learners, “…findings show that braille patterns are processed in a variety of different ways by different people and in different conditions” (Millar, 1997, p. 249). It is certainly possible for one to have a learning or other disability in addition to a visual impairment, and so the education of a braille reader needs to be differentiated much in the same way that it may be for a fully sighted learner.

Unfortunately, the adoption of braille has not been incredibly widespread. Other assistive technologies such as audio recordings of written texts are often preferred, as they do not require the listener to have any special knowledge of the unique braille reading system. Braille requires an upfront commitment to learn and understand a formulaic system of communication, and in the case of someone who is born blind, this development occurs when a learner is also trying to gain a grasp of a language in its audio or spoken form. While this is realistically similar to the effort required of a sighted learner who is first learning to decode our written structures, the fact that there are other audio alternatives available for visually impaired learners can often mean that braille is not fully pursued. Indeed it has been estimated that braille readers constitute, “…fewer than 10 percent of the estimated number of persons who are legally blind in the United States and slightly fewer than 40 percent of the estimated number who are ‘functionally blind’ (defined as those whose ability to see is light perception or less).” (National Federation of the Blind, n.d.) This can easily create a vicious cycle, as fewer users of an assistive technology such as braille mean a corresponding decrease in those able to teach and transfer this knowledge to a new generation.

Braille incorporated alongside typed text (photo by Brian Farrell of Eric Hill's "Where's Spot", Ventura Publishing Ltd., London, 1988).

Like other writing systems, braille does have its limitations in functionality. Legibility can often become a problem, as a text can easily become altered by a reader who presses too hard on the pages on which it is transcribed, creating changes in the level of braille dots on the page (Millar, 1997, p. 138). Similar alterations can occur if a braille text becomes worn or otherwise damaged, and these frustrations are compounded by the fact that a blind reader, obviously unable to visually inspect a paper book, will not discover these deficiencies until he or she attempts to access the text.

Further, the requirement to indicate each letter of a word separately can mean that braille texts are many pages longer than their roman alphabet written counterparts. This challenge has meant that several systems, or ‘grades’ of braille have emerged, each with different characteristics. Grade one braille is a system that replicates only the 26 letters of the alphabet and punctuation, grade two braille, the most common system in use, incorporates contractions to shorten words, and grade three braille goes even further in shortening entire words to serve as a sort of shorthand (Omniglot, 2010).

Due to its historical era of creation, braille has been a pioneer system in advancing the abilities and education of previously disadvantaged and disabled people. While many more advanced and technical systems have emerged since the advent of braille, the idea of creating a system that would allow the blind to read the same texts as sighted people meant that an enormous gap in understanding and education for the blind could be bridged. Of course, the functionality of such a system can often depend on the assistance of those without a visual disability, and the limited portability of large braille texts has meant that digital audio solutions for the blind have thrived as an alternative.

The implementation of braille has meant a heightened awareness of the needs of those with disabilities, and the system has served as a model for further developments. The very idea of non verbal communicating by touch and feel has been applied to a variety of applications. Sidewalk strips using raised plastic guides of different levels that can be felt underfoot, braille-like dots on paper currency, and employing a variety of different edging, shapes, and sizes of coins are all similar applications. While many of these advancements are primarily intended to benefit the visually impaired, they can often prove useful to a sighted individual, and they do serve to heighten an awareness of the needs of others.

The future of printed text appears to be in flux with the advent of more and more advanced digital technologies, and braille is undergoing a similar period of questioning and transition. Still, braille remains an incredible enabler in breaking down traditional barriers, and its highly codified and touch-based foundations have served to expand the possibilities of non verbal communication for us all.

Highly visible and physically raised plastic panels along a walkway (photo taken by Brian Farrell in Yokohama, Japan, October 17, 2010).

Bibliography

Canadian Braille Authority. (2010). About Braille. Retrieved October 16, 2010, from http://www.canadianbrailleauthority.ca/en/about_braille.php

Canadian National Institute for the Blind. (2010). Biography of Louis Braille. Retrieved October 14, 2010 from http://www.cnib.ca/en/living/braille/louis-braille/

Canadian National Institute for the Blind. (2010). Braille Literacy. Retrieved October 14, 2010, from http://www.cnib.ca/en/living/braille/literacy/

Millar, S. (1997). Reading by Touch. London, UK: Routledge.

National Federation of the Blind. (n.d.). Estimated Number of Adult Braille Readers in the United States. Retrieved October 14, 2010, from http://www.braille.org/papers/jvib0696/vb960329.htm

Omniglot. (2010). Braille. Retrieved October 16, 2010, from http://www.omniglot.com/writing/braille.htm

Brian Farrell