English - UEB (Unified English Braille)

English is the principal language of the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States. English is also the official language of Liberia, Namibia, Sierra Leone, and Zambia.

The Duxbury Braille Translator has a large number of templates for the English language.

Unified English Braille (UEB) is the standard in all English speaking countries. Accordingly, all the "English (UEB)" templates employ the same UEB braille translator. They may differ with respect to math translation and especially with respect to formatting. Therefore, different UEB templates may contain different DBT styles, and the effects of those styles may differ. The UEB templates use UEB math translation unless the template name specifies Nemeth.

• English (UEB) - Australian Formatting
• English (UEB) - BANA
• English (UEB) - BANA with Nemeth
• English (UEB) - Basic
• English (UEB) - New Zealand (including Maori)
• English (UEB) - UK Formatting
• English (UEB) - UK Formatting (UKAAF)

For the purpose of properly transcribing foreign language material within an English UEB document, DBT supports multiple methods of operation as described in the topic, English (UEB) - Foreign Language Material.

DBT still has the templates and translator tables for the braille codes used prior to the introduction of UEB. For more information on those templates, see English - Other.

Meeting Exacting Standards - BANA or UKAAF

The acronym, BANA, stands for the Braille Authority of North America. The DBT BANA templates are helpful if you are in the United States or Canada and trying to meet exacting standards for textbook production. The template English (UEB) - BANA uses UEB text translation and UEB math translation. The template English (UEB) - BANA with Nemeth uses UEB text translation but uses the Nemeth Code for math and technical notation.

Frequently, braille transcribers prepare their text in Microsoft Word. To promote seamless and efficient braille output, those files can use a BANA Word template, i.e., a custom Microsoft Word template that supports braille formatting. Click here to learn more about the Word template.

For users in the United Kingdom, the recommended DBT template is English (UEB) - UK formatting. This DBT template can also import Word documents that take advantage of the "BANA Word template".

Math Options in English

As of 2016, UEB has been adopted throughout the English-speaking world. In the United States (only), BANA has allowed the widespread continued use of Nemeth Code for technical notation.

The tools in the Duxbury Braille Translator for producing UEB according to BANA standards allow you to choose Nemeth Code or UEB math for technical notation. Your concerns as a transcriber differ depending on which math code you are using. When mixing Nemeth code with UEB text you need to attend to the transitions between passages of UEB and Nemeth. There are DBT styles designed to manage these transitions: math, math-TextInMath, and OneWordBridge. You will find these styles, defined appropriately, in many DBT templates, but they are particularly important in the "English (UEB) - BANA with Nemeth" template where they produce the required transitions.

The rules of UEB math allow some flexibility with respect to spacing around signs of comparison, like the equals sign, and signs of operation, like the plus or minus signs. Most users of UEB use spaces around signs of comparison. Signs of operation are usually not spaced, though some braille jurisdictions choose otherwise, as the case requires, to meet the educational needs of their readers, etc. The UEB translator does not automatically add spaces for either situation. However, in Global Settings - Import Options, there is a checkbox for adding spaces around signs of comparison when importing files with math. This option applies both for importing Word documents with MathType and for importing LaTeX files.

Contracted Braille

English is usually produced in contracted braille. This means that words are not produced in braille on a one-for-one basis. There are abbreviations or contractions in the text. If you have questions about how braille is produced, please contact a member of the relevant braille authority.

Sometimes, you may want to produce uncontracted braille. This is easy to do with DBT. The shortcut for this is to go to the top of the document and press Alt+1. When you translate into braille, the braille will be uncontracted.