Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!yale!bunker!hcap!hnews!115!778.1!Eric.Bohlman
From: Eric.Bohlman@p1.f778.n115.z1.fidonet.org (Eric Bohlman)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: braille embosser
Message-ID: <13617@bunker.UUCP>
Date: 21 Aug 90 02:48:44 GMT
Sender: wtm@bunker.UUCP
Reply-To: Eric.Bohlman@p1.f778.n115.z1.fidonet.org
Distribution: misc
Organization: FidoNet node 1:115/778.1 - COPH-2 (BGMS), Chicago IL
Lines: 32
Approved: wtm@bunker.UUCP

Index Number: 9912

 FS> From: SIMMONSFD@VAX1.COMPUTER-CENTRE.BIRMINGHAM.AC.UK (Frank Simmons)
 FS> 
 FS> We are going to setup a braille embosser as a network printer on our
 FS> campus this fall. Have you an idea as to how the output can be delivered
 FS> to the correct destination without employing a braillist to read the 
 FS> header information on the output?

How about something similar to the old (maybe not so old) mainframe
practice of having a header page printed in big block letters?  If
the Braille printer has a mode where you can specify individual
dots (or even if you have to use patterns of standard cells), a
program could create a Braille page where the dots would spell out
an identifier in Roman letters and Arabic numbers.  Creating the
fonts would be trivial; the one thing I'm not so sure about would
be how to get the page into the stream.  If the network has a
facility for keeping two print jobs together, the user could submit
an "identifier page" followed by the bulk of the job.  Does the
network have a utility for logging printer access?  If so, just
follow the log.

On the other hand, there's a fairly obvious non-technical
solution:  it looks like someone needs to be around to do the
delivery from all the network printers anyway, so why not have that
person be someone who knows Braille?

 

--
Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!115!778.1!Eric.Bohlman
Internet: Eric.Bohlman@p1.f778.n115.z1.fidonet.org