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
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
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
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
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