Braille Transcription Services Offered at New Mexico State University

Students at New Mexico State University NMSU who use braille as their reading medium can receive course materials in accessible format from Mathematics Accessible to Visually Impaired Students (MAVIS.) MAVIS produces braille materials for students at NMSU with the support of a staff person from Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD.) These course materials include syllabi, homework assignments and other handouts, exams and even parts of textbooks in some cases. Since the ultimate goal is to provide the student with information in accessible format at the same time that other students receive it, giving the student the opportunity to fully participate in class discussion or group projects and equal time to complete assignments, communication between MAVIS, the student and / or the professor is encouraged.

Generally, it is requested that professors let MAVIS know about work which needs to be transcribed into braille at least two weeks in advance of the student's need for the work. Though it is possible for MAVIS to take work with less than two weeks notice, the quality or the timeliness of the braille transcription can not be as assured as it would have been had the work been delivered to MAVIS on time.

There are a few ways in which MAVIS finds out about and receives the work to be transcribed. The student, the professor, and if necessary, MAVIS and / or SSD determine the method of delivery of materials for transcription. The fastest delivery method is by e-mail to chrweave@nmsu.edu or keburma@nmsu.edu. The material to be transcribed can be brought to the MAVIS production lab located in room 64a of Walden Hall. The work may also be delivered by interdepartmental mail to this address.

Mathematics Accessible to Visually Impaired Students

Department of Mathematical Sciences

New Mexico State University

P.O. Box 30001

MSC 3MB

Las Cruces, NM 88003

Inter-departmental mail is not recommended for sending exams. It is important to note that more timely and quality production of braille materials can take place if the documents are in electronic formats such as HTML, WordPerfect, Microsoft Word or Scientific Notebook. If it is impossible to make the material available in electronic format, a scanner housed in the MAVIS lab is then used and the result of the optical character recognition (OCR) is proofread and errors are corrected.

After a document has been sent by e-mail or a disk or the print copy on paper has been delivered to the MAVIS office, it is evaluated to make sure that the job can be done by MAVIS. In some cases, the job can not be done on site, so it must be outsourced. MAVIS maintains a list of braille transcribers who do quality work in the shortest turn-around times possible. If it is determined that the material can not be transcribed at MAVIS, then it is sent to one of the transcribers on the list who can meet the need at the most reasonable price.

Most jobs can be done on site. When the electronic copy is received or the paper copy has been scanned and proofread, the text is marked up to prepare it for conversion to braille by braille translation software. One of the most important things that happens during braille translation is that commonly used combinations of letters and words are abbreviated by one to three characters. These symbols which represent combinations of letters and words are known as contraction. This abbreviated braille is known as grade 2 braille and is the standard for reading and writing English braille.

To be sure that the braille copy coincides with the print and grade 2 braille and formatting rules have been followed, the result of the braille translation is printed using a braille embosser and proofread. After all errors have been corrected in the braille file, the final copy is then embossed. Depending on the arrangements between the student and the instructor, and MAVIS and SSD if asked to assist in the arrangements, the braille copy can be picked up at MAVIS, delivered to the SSD office or to the office of the professor.

Types of courses for which materials have been transcribed into braille in the past three years are English, social science, criminal justice, journalism, mathematics and engineering. If you have any questions about braille transcription services at MAVIS, please do not hesitate to call 646-2664, or send e-mail to keburma@nusu.edu or chrweave@nmsu.edu. You are also welcome to visit the MAVIS production lab in room 64A of Walden Hall. Just come to room 64 and ring the door bell.