by Prof. Vileen Shah
(Editor’s Note: Professor Vileen Shah is the Director of Braille Education at the East Bay Center for the Blind in Berkeley, Calif.)
“If we should look for the greatest benefactor of the sightless — the individual who has given them a perpetual source of delight and profit, the choice would certainly fall upon Louis Braille. Braille has been a most precious aid to me in many ways. It made my going to college possible — it was the only method by which I could take notes of lectures.”
— Helen Keller, in “Braille, the Magic Wand of the Blind”
Deprivation of sight should not result into deprivation of literacy when there is an option available. Learning to read and write in braille is the most viable way of gaining literacy back for blind and visually impaired persons. Keeping this in mind, the East Bay Center for the Blind in Berkeley, California launched its “Learn-at-Home” braille initiative in 2021, allowing blind and visually impaired individuals to learn braille at home. The loss of sight comes with multiple challenges.
A number of blind and visually impaired individuals wish to learn braille, but cannot go to the location where this service is available. The “Learn-at-Home” braille project offers a solution to this problem. You can sit at home and teach yourself how to read and write braille by using our four braille courses. We provide audio instructions on a flash drive that walks you through several steps, allowing you to use braille workbooks and learn how to read braille slowly and gradually. Insert our flash drive into your computer or NLS Digital Talking Book device and listen to it. Follow its instructions and move your fingers on braille workbooks that we provide. You will soon learn how to read using your fingers. This magic touch method will, down the road, make you literate, allowing you to read the books, periodicals, manuals, and materials of your choice. It will also allow you to write notes, articles, shopping lists, recipes and more in braille, and the charm is that you can read them by yourself. You will feel a deep sense of greater independence once you start reading and writing in braille.
The four braille courses that the East Bay Center for the Blind offers are as follows:
- Braille 101 teaches you how to read uncontracted braille
- Braille 102 teaches you how to read contracted braille
- Braille 103 teaches you how to write in braille using a slate and stylus and/or braille writer. It covers writing words, sentences, paragraphs, articles, notes, shopping lists, recipes, drawings, and more.
- Braille 104 is a braille proficiency course that helps you enhance your proficiency in reading and writing in braille.
The Center provides this braille education tuition-free, and it’s available for all adults nationwide. Any adult interested in learning braille can fill out our online enrollment application and receive the course materials as “free matter for the blind.” Use this link to fill out our enrollment form: https://www.eastbaycenterfortheblind.org/braille-class-signup/.
If you know basic braille and would like to consolidate your contracted braille skills, you may want to sign up for Braille 102. As of now, we are able to offer Braille 101 and 102. It will be our sincere efforts to make Braille 103 available starting this December or January 2025. We will then design braille proficiency courses. We have received requests for such other courses as UEB braille math code, braille music and more. Once these four courses are ready to roll in, we will surely focus on preparing and offering more courses. The feedback we have received so far for Braille 101 and Braille 102 encourages us to work hard and design more braille courses.
Dr. Kathleen King says, “One of the several benefits of the East Bay Braille 101 curriculum is the very terminologies I am using. East Bay provides a full curriculum for Braille 101 which includes numbers and punctuation. The fact that Braille 101 with East Bay integrates this learning provides a more seamless instructional path for the learner, and it has been my experience that it led to being able to read more quickly. The quality of the printed manuals is quite different as well. The dots are clearly more sharp on the Braille 101 materials. They must be using a more high-end embosser which enables the beginner to differentiate among letters more easily, in my limited experience.
“Braille 101 also has integrated a great deal more repetition in each lesson book. Not only do you practice what you’re learning for that lesson, but at the beginning of the book, you also review what was previously presented. This repetition is essential for new braille learners, as we are learning to identify not only the shapes, but the individual dots of the letters.
“There are several instructional aids included in the Braille 101 material as well. These include the use of the dotted lines between words so that learners can identify the separation more easily. In addition, once words are presented, they have extra spacing between letters. This is enormously helpful for the beginner who, like myself, gets very confused when the letters start being ‘crunched’ together in words with regular spacing. Adult learners look for how they can use their learning in everyday life. Braille 101 is focusing on developing reading skills that can be used in elevators, on signs, and any other reading material that learners will encounter.
“I especially appreciated introducing the number sequence right after the letter ‘J’ in the Braille 101 program. Logically it fits here, but also it integrates the learning so that it’s not a set of skills hanging out separately. Moreover, learning the numbers is useful in everyday life and introduced much sooner in Braille 101. At this point, I cannot overstate the value of having a tutor guide you through your lesson evaluation. Getting feedback on my performance is indispensable. Learning what I am doing wrong and being encouraged to adopt additional strategies and tips during such sessions brings the learning to a personal space of adoption.”
Yet another student, Bette Barford, writes, “Declining vision and the loss of the use and joy of print literacy is just that, a true loss. How fortunate that last fall a friend told me of a course in beginning Braille being launched by you and your colleagues at East Bay Center for the Blind: Learn at Home Braille 101. In a few short months this newbie senior learner progressed from ‘why do it?’ to ‘just do it’ to ‘I did it.’ The mass of white dots was decipherable. I was hooked. I eagerly awaited the brand-new Braille 102 Contracted Braille course which was nearing the end of its development.
“It was worth the wait! There is not enough praise for these two thick volumes of strange dots on white. In studying and reviewing and reviewing, I see that the Braille experts have created an incredibly well thought out and doable wealth of practice material. The many, many new symbols of this shorthand Braille are being gradually introduced so as not to be overwhelming.
“As a former teacher of reading, I see the adroitness and sometimes humor in the composition of our practice sentences and even the words within. The flash drive included gives both tutorial and valuable feedback on reading the practice material. As an added bonus, there’s the weekly I Learn Braille Zoom meeting. Here we get tips and tricks from Braille experts, share experiences with fellow student explorers, and play fun games that make us think in Braille.
“Oh, the homework ... its preparation and submitting is both lengthy and exacting. But how it prevents forging ahead with half-formed concepts and inadequate tactile experience!”
In addition to offering braille courses, we also run two weekly webinars promoting braille literacy, each on Thursdays and Fridays. Our Thursday webinar is called “I Love Braille,” in which participants discuss braille-related issues at all levels. Our Friday sessions, titled “I Learn Braille,” are geared to helping beginner learners. We allow participants to practice braille letters and words with lots of fun activities. We have received positive and encouraging feedback for these Zoom meetings. These webinars are available to all, blind or sighted, who would like to participate. Episodes of both webinars are archived on our web site, www.eastbaycenterfortheblind.org.
Here are the links to login:
Time: Thursdays, 12 p.m. ET, 9 a.m. PT
Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86887261556?pwd=ZmlHb1VJS1o5MXJQeTBBaUZNRUtYUT09
One tap mobile: +13126266799,,86887261556#,,,,*123456#
Phone: +13126266799
Meeting ID: 868 8726 1556
Passcode: 123456
Time: Fridays, 11:30am ET, 8:30am PT
Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89350428550?pwd=SWR0TnBzK3h6NFFxNUpvbjkzbHdCZz09
One tap mobile: +13126266799,,89350428550#,,,,*123456#
Phone: +13126266799
Meeting ID: 893 5042 8550
Passcode: 123456
Our entire “Learn-at-Home” braille project is financed by blind and visually impaired people and their well-wishers. Donations to this project can be made online using our PayPal service or by check to be mailed at 2928 Adeline St., Berkeley, CA 94703. For more information, the call (510) 843-6935 or send email to [email protected].
The East Bay Center for the Blind is a community-driven organization run by, for, and of the blind and visually impaired individuals. Some of its multiple activities include: meditation, exercise, technology classes, braille classes, Bingo games, book club, story writers’ group, speaker series, Arduino and more. Whereas the center focuses more on local activities, its “Learn-at-Home” braille project marks a departure from its routine focus and aspires to be international. It is our earnest hope that the blind and visually impaired community will support our miniature initiative to grow giant and continue to help promote braille literacy.