Research Summary
Blindness is usually caused at birth but it can occur later in life.   Braille was invented by Louis Braille and is a reading and writing system that the blind use.

Louis Braille

Louis Braille was born in 1809 and died in 1852, so he only lived about 43 years. He was born in Couvpray village in Paris.  Louis Braille became blind at the age of three.  He was playing around in his father’s shoe shop and got a shoe tool stuck in his eye. When he was growing up he learned to memorize his home after he become blind. He also taught himself to recognize things like when he could hear people calling “Bonjour Louis”?  When Louis turned the age of fifteen he gladly entered the royal institute.  At the age of fifteen Louis Braille invented the language that the blind use to read and write. After Louis invented the system of Braille he offered tutoring to a young boy 3 days a week. 

The blind can communicate with their ears, mouth and now they can also communicate with the Braille system.  Although Louis was completely blind (no sight at all,) he still had the talent to invent the Braille system. The sad day that Louis Braille died his body was transported to the capitol.  That exact day they renamed the town square in the Couvpray village of Paris “La Place Braille”. When they arrived at the capitol building Louis was reburied beside some magnificent people.

Helen Keller 

 Helen Keller was born on June 27, 1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama.  In February 1882 at 19 months old Helen Keller became completely blind.  She was also deaf.  She was an amazing person, who overcame her disabilities to become extremely successful. Although Helen Keller was completely blind, she stood up for the civil rights of the blind.  She also had amazing abilities to identify things with her three senses.  The day of June 20, 1952 she clearly said to all the people at the town square in the Couvpray village of Paris “We the blind are as in debt to Louis Braille as mankind is to Gutenberg.” Helen Keller peacefully died in her sleep on June 1, 1968.

The Human Eye

The human eye is somewhat like a camera.  They both have lenses, the cornea is like a clear lens protector.  The retina in the back of the eyeball is like the film.  The iris of the eye is like the diaphragm of a camera that controls the amount of light entering from outside.  The human eye is the entire sight system, but the brain controls the eye and makes sense of the images. Eyes pick up vision from the light that bounces off of objects.  This light enters the eye, is focused by the lens, and forms an image on the retina, which sends messages to the brain via nerves.  The right eye is hooked to the left side of the brain by a big optic nerve and the left eye is hooked to the right side of the brain.  The eye “sees”, but the brain makes sense of the information and “understands” what the image means.

Vision Disorders

Having good vision requires for all vision systems and parts to be properly working.  Eye doctors check eyes at different light levels and they check the eyes sensitively.  They are very careful when checking the eye with light because too bright light can cause them to possibly loose sight.  Eyes are so sensitive that when a human wakes up in the morning the eyes still have to “wake up” too.  If you were sitting in the dark for fifteen minutes and then turned on the lights, the eyes act up and start to sting a little. 

Vision disorders can be caused by lack of vision, eye diseases and cataracts.

Cataracts

Cataracts are a type of eye disease that can cause major vision disorders, blurred vision, and difficulties in distinguishing colors.  The vision disorders caused by cataracts can lead to blindness, or other serious eye diseases.  Most people who get a cataract get it removed by eye surgery, or by laser surgery.   The doctors can restore the lost vision with lenses that will correct the vision errors in the sight system.   

Glaucoma

Glaucoma may be caused by high blood pressure.  If your blood pressure is too high by just a little bit there is a fair chance that Glaucoma could be caused in your eyeball.  Glaucoma is when the pressure inside the eye is too high. 

Macular Degeneration

As the life spans of older people increase so do the chances of developing macular degeneration.   As anyone gets older the blood flow will decrease to the eye.  If the blood is not able to flow to the eye then it will not be able to function right.  The blood is the flow that secures the eye from developing macular degeneration.

Blindness

Blindness is usually not something that can hit you instantly.  It can occur at birth or blindness can occur later in life.  Blindness is not some kind of disease that you can all of a sudden pick up.  Blindness is usually caused by glaucoma, or macular degeneration.   You can’t take medicine to help it go away.  Although blindness is permanent you can make your eyes stronger instead of getting rid of it.   

Anatomy of the Eye

There are seven different parts of the eye.  The eyeball is the organ of seeing the world around us.  The sclera is a white layer that covers about five sixths of the eye.  The cornea is about one-sixth of the eyeball.  The cornea has no blood vessels and is normally dehydrated.  The cornea is a clear piece of the front of the eye that sticks out but you can’t see it.   The pupil is the black part of your eye.  The iris is the colored part of the eye.  The iris opens up for light.  It closes to protect from too much light.  The intra-orbital foramen is a tough tissue that makes up the outer layer that gives the eye strength.  The optic nerve is the tissue that carries messages to the brain.  Behind the pupil is the lens that focuses the image on the retina.  The retina has cells that are called rods and cones.  The retina absorbs light and changes it into electrical signals.  The vitreous humor is a jell-like substance that occupies 80 percent of the eyeball.  After crying you sometimes need to blow your nose because the tears leave your duct and go to your nose 

History

The history of the Braille system is based on Louis Braille.  Louis Braille was the fifteen year old boy who invented the reading and writing system for the blind.  He dedicated his hard work to all the blind in the world.  He spent day and night on the Braille machine.  There are six fingerings.  There is also a separate fingering for the letter “W” because in the Couvpray village (in Paris where he lived at the time) there wasn’t a letter “W” in the French alphabet.

Who I Interviewed And What I Learned I interviewed Maria Bradford on Thursday, December 23, 2004 at her mother’s house.  I chose to interview Maria because she has been blind since birth and I thought her information would be especially interesting.  Maria has been using Braille since she was able to read and write.  Maria went to school at a public school because her parents wanted her to grow up like a regular child.  At school she made friends and she also has some friends that have some sight but not total sight.  One of her friends has half of her sight, so she can kind of read the alphabet in print.  But her parents taught her to read in Braille.  So when she reads print she gets frustrated because she can hardly see it.  So she mostly reads Braille.  If there is enough money available then schools can hire enough teachers aids so children can learn something instead of sitting there doing nothing.       Maria told me that being blind isn’t a big tragedy for the blind.  People need to learn to accept their disabilities and if they accept their disabilities then we have to accept it too.  There needs to be a lot of work done in society because Maria thinks that they don’t treat the blind fairly.  The society also needs to encourage the blind to keep looking for a job.  I asked Maria if she had any techniques to identify things like clothes and foods.  She puts pins and buttons in her clothing.  If she were to prepare a big dinner she takes someone to the store with her to get the ingredients.  Then when she gets home she makes labels and when she goes to prepare it she reads the labels.      There is not enough money available then there won’t be enough teachers’ aids to help children that have disabilities and so kids will lose.  The disabled children will be sitting in their classrooms not getting any work done.  There are a lot of things that can change if there is enough money available.  There can be a lot of teacher’s aids for the disabled children. Louis Braille was the 15 year old boy who invented the raised alphabet reading and writing system for the blind.  Louis Braille was born with sight.  His dad made shoes and one day his dad said to stay out of his shoe shop.  Louis was about 3 and he disobeyed.   He went in there and started playing around with a tool and got it stuck in his eye.  This was in the 1800’s and they didn’t have any way to cure it so he then lost the sight in his other eye.  When Louis went to school he had to go to Paris.  Louis didn’t live very long.  Sadly he died at the age of 43.  The alphabet he designed has 6 fingerings.  He named the system after himself “Braille”.  Now there are foreign languages in Braille like African.  Maria thinks that even the people in Africa need to learn to read and write too.  Along with Braille in Africa there is now Braille in math and algebra. Maria works for the N.F.B. (National Federation of the Blind) She proofreads books in Braille to make sure that they follow the code.  The books written in the alphabet are scanned on to a computer and there is a program that translates into Braille.  So Maria proofreads the book for the company.  At the end of my personal interview with Maria I thanked and her mother for letting come and talk to Maria.  I thanked Maria for her time to answer my questions.  I also thanked her for letting me take a picture with her. My second interview was over the phone with Dr. Noble.  I thought that he would be a good choice because he’ s an eye doctor.  I interviewed him on January 13, 2005. Dr. Nobel is an eye doctor and has been for 22 years.  He helps improve vision and solves problems with vision.  He said that he wanted to work in the health care field but when he went to college he thought that eye and vision field looked more interesting.  I asked him what kind of college he went to and he replied that he went to college for four years and a special eye college for four more years.  In college he earned his doctor of optometry degree. It took a total of eight years of college to become an eye doctor.  After those college years he enjoys helping people with their eye problems. Today there are many medicines for the human eye.  There are also modern medicines for eye diseases. Most are drops, shots, or pills.  Lenses were invented around 500 years ago.  In the last 200 years different people studied different diseases.  He told me that cataracts and glaucoma are treated with different kinds of lasers that is how most eye diseases are treated.  The biggest problem today in the field of eye health care is doing all the paper work with insurance regulations.  Some insurance won’t pay for the treatment of patients with eye/vision problems.  He thinks that in the future they will replace some medicines with the ones they have now. He says nothing stays the same with the way that eye care is delivered to patients. The parts of the outer eye are the cornea and the conjunctiva.  There are two main problems that can damage the cornea and the conjunctiva.  Number one; people are not taking care of their eyes the way they should be.  Number two; people are living longer and the older you are there are more chances being taken and so people can become blind easier.  These are the main ways to become blind; injuries, developmental problems, disabilities, and macular degeneration problems.  At the end of my phone interview I thanked him for his time to answer my questions.

Bibliography Bradford, Maria.  Personal Interview. December 23, 2004. Bryant, Jennifer Louis Braille-Inventor New York Chelsea House Publishers 13-40 Hobart, Sally Mom Can’t See Me New York Publisher Group 1-23 Nobel, Michael.  Personal Interview January 13, 2005. Viegas, Jennifer  The Eye Learning How We See The Rosen Publishing Group 7-35

Menu of 2005 SOAR Projects

Back to the Selah Homepage