NUBS Tips

                                                                                               Good News

    NUBS, Nemeth Uniform Braille System, is ready for you to try out. Try reading one of the books waiting for you in our library. You will soon realize that there is very little you need to learn about NUBS before you can easily read a literary text. You will find that, with just two exceptions, the contractions are all the same as you have been using in EBAE all along. The two exceptions are "ation" and "ally"; see numbers 6 and 7 below the table.

For books transcribed in the Nemeth Uniform Braille System, NUBS, the following items provide information about symbols that may have new meanings for the reader. Here is a summary of the characters needed to readily read in NUBS.

NUBS Character Dots                          MEANING
 -----------------------------  ------------------------------
(56)                            Notational indicator
(56,12356) 987 (23456)          Notational parentheses with numbers
(456,12356) my car (456,23456)  Narrative parentheses with words
(12456)                         Notational period
(256)                           Narrative period
(156)                           Notational colon
(2)                             Narrative comma
(16)                            Notational comma
(6,236)Hello(6,356)             Quotation marks with greeting

1. In NUBS there are two modes for text: "narrative" for most   literary material and "notational" for numeric and scientific material.
2. All numbers are formed from lower cell dots, (2356) The parentheses used around numbers are notational because they are associated with numerals. The dots 56)start such material to indicate the notational mode.
3. When used in narrative material, parentheses are started with dots(456).
4. Narrative Periods are the same as in EBAE and are used with literary material. When a period is in contact with numerals, scientific material, and a few other special cases, they are formed with dots (12456)
5. Commas also have two modes;dot(2)for narrative and dots (16)for notational.
6. The contraction for "ation" has been replaced with the letter "a" and the contraction for "tion".
7. "ally" is not contracted
8. If you can read EBAE, you will be able to read a NUBS book quite easily. For more information about NUBS, go to the web site for the Alliance For Braille Literacy, all4braille.com.
9. If you are interested in learning how to transcribe in NUBS, we have a manual ready that covers everything needed to transcribe literary material and simple mathematical material. If you are already a transcriber, you will find that most of what is presented you already know. Also, Braille 2000 provides transcription that is getting very close to perfect transcription from print to braille.