Arabic Braille Translator    

FUNCTIONAL SUMMARY

The Arabic tables support print-to-braille translation of Arabic-language literary text in contracted or uncontracted Arabic braille. English text may also be processed as a sub-language, and converted to contracted or uncontracted English braille (following British conventions). The American Computer Braille Code (CBC) is also supported.

Normally, the text is first prepared on Microsoft Word (possibly Arabic version, but any version can be used as long as the Arabic is prepared in a Unicode font [e.g. the default "Times Roman"]) and imported to DBT prior to translation.

REFERENCES, HISTORY AND CREDITS

The rules for contracted Arabic were originally specified by the former Middle East Committee for the Welfare of the Blind (now under the auspices of the Department of Education) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Working from that specification, Duxbury Systems developed an automated braille translation system for Arabic, believed to be the first anywhere, which was installed at MECWB in 1982. That original form of the system, designed for DBT as it ran on minicomputers of the early 1980s, was used with only minor updates until the late 1990s. The present tables have been updated to work with the much more advanced Windows version of DBT, to incorporate facilities for embedded English as well as Arabic, and quite possibly to reflect feedback from more recent users.

The rules for contracted literary English generally follow British practice, but embedded "computer braille", if used, follows the American code -- a combination that is common in many places, e.g. Australia and South Africa.

(Documentation reviewed: May 2006.)

Duxbury DBT: Braille Translation in Many Languages.