|
The
Benefits of Braille
After losing my sight over forty years ago at the age of
thirteen, I had to go away to a school for the blind at Bristol.
The first thing I had to do before carrying on my general education
was to learn Braille. Being totally
blind, Braille was the only way I could read books, write essays, do maths and all the other subjects. Even the partially sighted children who
had enough sight to read print still had to learn Braille.
The only thing I can remember about learning Braille was
that I spent a lot of time in a class room with a teacher, a Perkins braillor and some books. It felt as if I was learning to read and
write all over again.
I don’t remember how long it took me before I was
competent in reading grade two Braille, but I seemed to muddle through
reading books within a term.
There were no talking computers at that time or any other
means of reading or writing. Louis
Braille’s invention was a real life saver for blind children’s
education. After two years at Bristol, I moved on to Birmingham until I was sixteen when I left and
came home before
taking a placement at an assessment centre in Surrey.
Whilst I was waiting to go away for my assessment I was
asked if I would like to go to the local secondary modern school to fill
the time. I went there for about four terms. The teachers were great they
would set me separate work if they thought I couldn’t follow what the
other children were doing. The children treated me like an ordinary class
mate, they were all impressed with how I would read and write Braille. I
left after six months of what should have been a twelve month course in Surrey because I was offered a job.
In 1972 I was home again working in a Bodmin factory as a
machine operator, and using a Braille micrometer and vernear
gauge, this is where I stayed for thirty three years until the factory
closed in October 2005. It didn’t come as a big surprise to the
workers as over the years, work began to be sent to other countries to be
done. I prepared myself before I left by starting
a computer course run by the W.E.A. at the Sight Centre in Truro.
After leaving my job in the factory I wanted to try my
hand at something different. So I
put some of my computer skills into practise by
searching the web where I found some articles from elderly blind people who
had learnt Braille. This sowed a
seed of an idea; I asked family and friends to act as guinea-pigs to see
whether I could teach people how to read and write Braille, they all gave
me the thumbs up. So with lots of help from Alison Griffin and the W.E.A. a
Braille class for beginners was set up in February. It was a ten week
course, and each lesson lasted for two hours.
Coming in to the 21st century with the
technical advances of text readers and audio books, Braille is still used in conjunction
with a computer. You can have a Braille embosser, so that you can print any
files or information from the web in to Braille.
Sadly the older person doesn’t have much
encouragement to learn Braille because they are told that they don’t
have such a sensitive touch in their fingers as do children and the younger
adults. Everyone should be given the opportunity to learn Braille. Age should be no barrier to learning
Braille, with a little patience and help if only to learn a few letters of
the alphabet would make their lives easier.
By learning grade two Braille you can read books,
magazines and even the radio and TV guides and to reach that standard would
be a great aim for most people. By
learning the first ten letters of the alphabet and a numeral sign to enable
those letters to be used as numbers you could keep telephone numbers or
account details at the tips of your fingers.
How ever little Braille you learn you can always use it
in a practical way in the home. Braille can be printed on sticky back plastic so it can be stuck on any
surfaces such as cookers, washing machines, the covers of dvd’s, cd’s and
tapes. There are a few manufactures that put Braille on their products,
such as frozen foods and wines. Utility
servers will send bills in Braille if asked. More importantly some medicines are labelled with Braille telling you the name of the drug,
plus the dosage of each tablet. We will never see a great percentage of
foods and medicines being labelled in Braille by
companies. But, with a little learning in how to use a dymo
tape gun, hand frame or a braillor, you can label
your own products and equipment.
After the success of the first course, I will be starting
another course in September. So if anyone is interested in learning Braille
or they need to brush up on certain letters or contractions, or they are
just wanting to chat about what the class entails, contact me on Bodmin
01208 75291.
Phil
Harper, Bodmin
|