One of the most common methods for writing braille is known as the slate and stylus. This way of writing is slower than the braille writer but, is much quiter and portable wich may seem more difficult to do but, makes it so you can take notes any time. After getting more familiar with this method of writing braille, you will have the ability to write things down at any place or any time. This is important to be able to do so that you can do things like take notes in school or at work without haveing any concern for low battery power on your devices.
One thing to know about this writing method is you will need to write from right to left. This is because you are pushing down into the paper ergo, the dots will be on the other side. With this in mind, you will need to also write from the right side at the top and then down to the bottom left. When you finnish and flip the paper over to read it, this will be read from top to bottom and left to right. This can seem difficult to learn but it can be learned in less time than you think. The easiest way to think is that the top right is dot 1 of the cell. The bottom right is dot 3. The top left is dot 4 and the bottom left dot 6. After learning this, you will be able to write with zero confusion on where the next dot to write is.
To put the paper in place open the slate so that it swings open to the right. The reason you open it like a book but backwards, is because you will be writing from right to left. You shall then push the edge of the paper into the fold of the slate. This is done to ensure that the paper is straight up and down rather than crooked. Once the paper is held here, close the top flap without allowing the paper to slide. If you do not keep the paper still, this could result in a crooked paper which also causes your writing to be likewise.
To actualy begin writing, you need to start at the rop right. This will be because you are pushing down so the dots will actualy be made on the other side. Furthere, you need to know that the letters themselves will be written backwards. For example, to write the letter A with dot 1, you will have to write this as dot 4. This will push it through to the other side and cause it to be at the top left of the letter when you flip the page over.
Something to note while writing, is to keep track of how many letters you can write on the line. If you do not do so, you may end up only being able to write halfe a word at the end of the line. This can be very difficult to correct because, when you take the paper out and try to scratch it down to erase the letters, there will still always be some texture left over.
After going over every line that you need to, you may now remove your paper by opening the top flap and pull it out. Flip it over because you pushed down to make the bumps so, the tops of these will be on the other side. Although you did write this from right to left, it will now be read from left to right. This is due to when you flipped it over, all of the letters you wrote backwardes are now going to be read forwards.
This is a great tool to be able to write down notes and be on the go. Although writing down these notes in your smartphone is a good option, writing things down on paper makes it so that you don’t have to keep up with battery. Further, you won’t have to use your talking devices. This is important to be able to do because you won’t cause disruptions wile others may be taking notes beside you. Overall, methods like this make you more self reliant because you no longer depend on outside systems like electricity or even other people