Braille and Blindness
Researched by Natalie S. 2003-04	RESEARCH REPORT  MY INTERVIEW  BIBLIOGRAPHY  ABOUT THE AUTHOR  DEDICATION  WHY I CHOSE THIS TOPIC  SELF-EVALUATION  THANK YOU

Braille is what children and adults who are blind read. Braille letters are made up of one through six bumps in one or two columns. The letters are put next to each other to form words that blind people run their fingers over. As their fingers move over the bumps, they are able to determine what the words are. 

When people are blind, they cannot see things. However, there are many different ways to help blind people.

People who are totally blind can’t see anything at all. People who are partially blind have some sight, but it can only be useful for some purposes. When people are born without sight, they are congenitally blind. If someone loses their sight because of an injury such as a disease or illness, the become victims of acquired blindness. 

Blindness can also be described depending on how it affects the person’s life. When someone can’t see well enough to have a job that requires sight, they are economically blind. People are vocationally blind if their loss of sight makes them unable to continue their present job. If someone is educationally blind, they can’t see well enough to be educated without special materials and/or methods. 

In the United States, someone who is legally blind has visually acuity (sharpness of vision) of 20/200 or worse with glasses or contacts. A person who has 20/200 vision sees from a distance of twenty feet what someone with normal vision (20/20) sees from 200 feet. People are also legally blind if they have an extremely limited field of vision. A person’s field of vision is what they are seeing (straight ahead AND all around) when looking at an object steadily. 

About 500,000 people in the United States of America are legally blind, almost half of them are 65 years or older. Diseases cause about 95 per cent of all blindness, and injuries cause the other 5 per cent. 

Some people only suffer from color blindness, which means they can’t determine all colors, but they can see fairly well otherwise. Other types of blindness include macular degeneration, which is a non-curable disease.

When children are blind, they go to a special boarding school. At Boarding school, they obtain their education, even though they are blind or near sighted. They learn Braille, their own language of reading. There are some advantages and some disadvantages of going to boarding school. The advantages are that even though you’re blind, you still get an education. However, the disadvantages are that you have to stay away from your families night and day. Even though it’s for a good cause, it’s still very hard to do!

The Washington State School for the Blind has a good education program. 

People who are blind find many different ways to do things, including identifying objects. They can identify money, clothes, and lots of other things! The way some blind people identify money is by using folds. They fold each bill a different way. For example, they might fold one-dollar bills in half and twenty-dollar bills in thirds. When they receive bills back, they ask which bill it is, then fold it. However some blind people just keep the different bills in different sections of their wallet, and then go to the correct section of their wallet when that bill is needed.

They also have a method for identifying coins. Coins are easier to identify, because they are different sizes unlike dollar bills. Also, quarters and dimes have ridges on the outer edges while pennies and nickels are smooth. 

People who are blind also have methods for identifying clothes. How? Well, most clothes have at least one distinct way of identifying them, whether it’s feeling snaps, buttons, bows, fabric texture, or other objects on the clothes. Also, skirts and dresses may have elastic and an open bottom instead of leg holes. Blind people can tell their clothes apart by touch. They can tell what clothes match by whether they feel alike or not. Some blind people like to label their clothes with special Braille tags that are sewn onto their clothes. Other blind people like to put buttons on the tag of one piece of clothing and clip the corners of another. When blind people get new clothes, they ask someone to describe them so that they can learn to identify them.

Did you know that some people who are blind could identify colors, too? Well, they can! Some blind people are actually able to see colors. Others can only see bright colors. Some people are color blind, which means they can see, but they can’t see colors. Some people have a hard time with telling blue apart from brown or black, and some people can’t tell pink from white.

Some animals can be identified, too. Blind people can sometimes see a picture in their head of what the animal looks like, even though they don’t know what it is. They can hold and/or touch the animal all over to figure out what it is like. Sometimes, people will smell the animal. Some times, they are able to identify the animal.

How does a blind person get around when they can’t even see? There are many different ways including Seeing Eye dogs, which are specially trained to guide blind people. Guide dogs have a harness on them that the blind person will hold onto with their hand. If the dog senses some kind of danger such as an oncoming car, he stops, and his owner stops as well. The owner will continue walking as soon as the dog starts moving again. At a cross walk, a seeing eye dog will stop and wait until it is safe to go across. This is a safe way for a blind person to get around.

Another way blind people get around is with a special cane. They call it “cane walk”. As their right foot goes forward, the cane goes to the left side to feel what is in front. This way, they can walk but also be able to feel what’s in front of them. If there is a wall or other object, the cane will bump into it and the person will know they need to turn a different direction.

Helen Keller was a famous blind and deaf person born in 1880. Her life was filled with many adventures; many of them were very challenging. Helen Keller was one of our greatest heroes. She contracted an illness when she was two years of age. The illness left two-year old Helen Keller unable to see or hear. She went on and developed excellent powers of emotional achievement. She traveled to the farthest reaches of the world and became a leading figure. She publicly campaigned on behalf of civil rights, human dignity, women’s suffrage (the right to vote), and world peace. Helen Keller met the most celebrated personalities of her time. She had many lasting friendships with people from Alexander Graham Bell to Mark Twain and Woodrow Wilson. She also served as spokesperson for the American Foundation for the Blind from 1824 to 1868 when she died. 

The American Foundation for the Blind headquarters in New York City contains Helen Keller’s old photographs, papers, artifacts, and books from her library. A unique collection of information about this extraordinary person can be found there. 

Today, Braille is used by blind people throughout the world, thanks to Louis Braille.

Louis Braille (pronounced Lewee Bri in French) was another great achiever during life. Born in Coupvray, France, a small town near Paris, on January 4, 1809, Louis Braille lived forty-three years. Louis’s father was a shoemaker and Louis loved playing in his workshop. One day, while playing in his father’s workshop, three year-old Louis accidentally punctured his eye with a sharp tool his father used for punching holes in the leather. The tool was called an awl. Infection eventually spread to his other eye leaving Louis completely blind. 

By the age of ten, Louis was able to earn a scholarship to the Royal Institution for Blind Youth in Paris, France. At the school, he learned to read letters, which were raised on a page. However, these letters were made by pressing shaped copper wire onto a page, so, it was impossible for blind people to write anything themselves. 

At age fifteen, Louis invented Braille. Now blind people all over the world enjoy this easy reading technique. Where did Louis get this creative idea? It was at the institute that he first got the idea. It was after he was introduced to the raised dots code system. In 1821, a French army captain, Captain Charles Barbier de la Serre visited the institute and introduced to the students his invention, “Night Writing”. He used it so that soldiers could communicate at night without speaking. He had a series of twelve raised dots used to form sounds, and when put together, would form words. But, it proved to be too complicated, and the army soon rejected it. Captain Barbier adapted his system for the blind to use, but, the twelve dot phonetic system still proved bothersome. Louis recognized how useful this system could be. So, he set out to experiment with a simpler version of the code. Eventually, he decided to stick with a six-dot alphabet: Braille. Louis Braille went on and became an inspired teacher at the institute. 

Louis Braille died of tuberculosis on January 6, 1852. In 1952, the accomplishments of Louis Braille were finally realized by the French government. One hundred years after Louis died and was buried, his body was exhumed and buried in the Pantheon in Paris to lie with France’s other heroes. 

Braille is a series of one to six raised dots that blind people run their fingers over. There are three rows of two dots. 

The same system is used with numbers: a series of one to six dots, three rows of two dots. Some numbers look the same as letters. Blind people can determine whether it is a number or a letter by the things around it. For example, if there is a bunch of numbers, then either a number or a letter, most likely, it would be a number, because there are numbers around it.

There are also sounds in Braille, like instead of writing out a two symbols for a sound, they could write one symbol, and it would be a sound, not a letter.

Blind people can transcribe Braille on a slate by using a stylus or a Braillewriter, which is like a typewriter.

Braille books are regular books with a special plastic covering that has Braille on it. This way, blind people can read the Braille, and sighted people can read the words under the plastic. People who transcribe Braille books are known as transcribers and are usually volunteers. Louis Braille published the first Braille book in 1829.

Braille calculators are also available to blind people. This specialized calculator has a Braille keyboard. It also has a raised display, so that people with impaired vision can read it easily.
 

The future for blind people will hopefully be getting meaningful information to them through a video camera hooked to a computer.

Also, The National Federation for the Blind works hard to see that Braille continues to be taught and never disappears. 

Careers

Some Braille careers include: teachers of the blind, transcribers transcribing books into Braille, typing the Braille books, and other careers. 
When you are a teacher of the blind, you help people who are blind learn to read Braille, and learn to live a meaningful life. Basically, they give blind people an education in a way that they can understand without needing to see. 

Did you know that blind children could play tag, too? Well, they can! How? They shout, “I’m it,” if they’re it, and “I’m here,” if they’re not it. Since they are blind, their hearing is very important. Once the person who was it has found the other person, they feel their face. 

How do blind people pour a glass of milk? Well, some people like to place their finger in the glass of milk and feel when the milk touches their finger. When they feel the milk with their finger, they know they need to stop pouring the milk. Pretty neat, huh? 

Can blind people play the piano or other instruments? Well, some can. All they have to do is use their fingers to feel which notes they’re playing.

Most people don’t get blisters when they read Braille, but some people might.
 
 
 

Who I Interviewed And What I Learned I interviewed Maria Bradford, a blind lady. My public librarian gave me her phone number. I called Maria, and she said she’d be glad to help me. I interviewed her by e-mail. She attended Central Washington University and Eastern Washington University. She e-mailed back to me on Tuesday, January 13, 2004. Some of the questions she did not have answers for, but others gave me lots of help. Since she is blind, she was able to answer many questions that would be hard for other people to answer. The questions I had about Louis Braille were hard for her to answer, but she told me there are many good biographies about him, I read some more, and she was right, they answered my questions. She also told me that during the early twentieth century, children were taught Braille even if they had a little sight. When she went to school, however, this method was discontinued for the visually impaired students and only the blind students were taught Braille. Maria also gave me other helpful information including: some good websites to go to (see bibliography). I’m very glad I was able to find her and interview her. She gave me lots of helpful information.

Bibliography Bergman, Thomas. Seeing in Special Ways, Children Living With Blindness. North America: Gareth Stevens, Incorporated, 1989. Bradford, Maria: Personal Interview  “Braille System.” Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe. 2001 edition. CD-ROM. Redmond, Washington: Microsoft Corporation, 2001. Bryant, Jennifer, Fisher. Great Achievers: Lives of the Physically Challenged LOUIS BRAILLE Teacher of the Blind. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1994. “Helen Keller: An Introduction.” November 25th, 2003. <http://www.ajkids.com>.  Hurwitz, Johanna. Helen Keller Courage in the Dark. United States: Random House, Incorporated, 1997.  “Questions From Kids About Blindness.” <http://www.nfb.org/kids.htm#top>.  Stuckley, Kenneth A. “Braille.” The World Book Encyclopedia. 2002.  The Canadian National Institute for the Blind. Louis Braille October 25, 2003. <http://www.ajkids.com>.

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