Volume 45, Number 2 Special Issue on Braille
A magazine for parents and teachers of blind children published by
the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults in partnership
with the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children.
Deborah Kent Stein, Editor
ISSN-0883-3419
Copyright © 2026 American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults
For more information
about blindness and children contact:
National Organization of Parents of Blind Children
200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place, Baltimore, MD 21230 • 410-659-9314
https://nfb.org/nopbc • [email protected] • [email protected]
The National Federation of the Blind’s National Convention brings together blind people from across the country and around the globe. We come from all walks of life. Some of us have been blind all our lives, while others may be new to blindness. Some are young, some have been around the sun more than a few times. Some are convention first-timers, while others have been attending for decades. Our patchwork of individual experiences makes us stronger together, and it means that our National Conventions are a celebration of our diversity.
Over the course of eighty-five annual conventions, nearly three dozen cities reflecting similar diversity have played host to the NFB’s biggest event of the year. Yet, among this broad list of destinations, our convention has never come to the capital city of Texas to gather and celebrate. This will change in July when we head to the JW Marriott Austin for our annual National Convention July 3 through July 8!
Austin is widely known as the “Live Music Capital of the World,” having been home to the PBS program Austin City Limits for more than fifty years and host to the annual South by Southwest music and media festival. Austin also boasts a vibrant arts scene with many public art displays throughout the city. But Austin isn’t just fueled by creative energy. A strong technology sector thrives here, with many tech companies establishing headquarters in the city. Waymo and Tesla are two notable names, as both companies offer autonomous vehicle rides within Austin. The University of Texas at Austin, with over 50,000 students, sits just north of downtown. Visitors will notice an emphasis on local retailers over national chains. This broad and eclectic diversity perpetuates the popular “Keep Austin Weird” vibe and makes for a truly unique destination.
The upscale JW Marriott Austin will serve as our headquarters hotel, while the recently opened Austin Marriott Downtown, just a short walk away, will provide overflow space. All convention events will take place in the headquarters hotel this year. Both hotels offer a number of dining options, 24/7 fitness centers, and rooftop pools with cabana rentals. The hotels are in the heart of downtown Austin, surrounded by local restaurants and shops. A few blocks south, walking trails line the section of the Colorado River known as Lady Bird Lake.
Our 2026 convention hotel rate is $139 per night for singles and doubles. Triples and quads are available for $155 per night. Sales tax and a tourism fee total a combined 19 percent.
Beginning on January 1, you may call 800-627-7468 to book a room at either hotel. Specify our room block code, BL1, to ensure you receive our convention room rate. For each room you book, the hotel requires a deposit of the first night’s room rate, taxes, and fees, payable by credit card or a personal check. If you use a credit card, the deposit will be charged immediately. If a reservation is cancelled before Sunday, June 1, 2026, half of the deposit will be returned. Refunds will not be issued after that date.
The 2026 Convention of the National Federation of the Blind will be an exciting and memorable event, with an unparalleled program and renewed dedication to the goals and work of our movement.
A wide range of seminars for parents of blind children, technology enthusiasts, job seekers, and other groups will kick the week off on Friday, July 3. Convention registration and registration packet pick-up will also open on Friday.
Breakout sessions continue Saturday, July 4, along with committee meetings.
Sunday, July 5, begins with the annual meeting, open to all, of the Board of Directors of the National Federation of the Blind. National division meetings will follow that afternoon and evening.
General convention sessions will begin on Monday, July 6, and continue through the afternoon of Wednesday, July 8.
Convention ends on a high note with the banquet Wednesday evening, so be sure to pack your fancy clothes. The fall of the gavel at the close of banquet will signal convention’s adjournment.
Make plans to be a part of it. To ensure yourself a room in the headquarters hotel at convention rates, you should make reservations early. The hotels will be ready to take your call beginning January 1.
Remember that we need door prizes from state affiliates, local chapters, and individuals. Prizes should be small in size but significant in value. Cash, of course, is always appropriate and welcome. As a general rule, we ask that prizes have a value of at least $25 and do not include alcohol. Drawings take place throughout the convention sessions, and you can anticipate a grand prize of truly impressive proportions to be drawn at the banquet.
Important note for attendees: You must be registered to win a door prize! Registration opens in March.
If you or members of your chapter are first-time attendees, please learn about convention through the First-Timer’s Guide available at nfb.org/convention.
The best collection of exhibits featuring new technology; meetings of our special interest groups, committees, and divisions; the most stimulating and thought-provoking program items of any meeting of the blind in the world; the chance to renew friendships within our Federation family; and the unparalleled opportunity to be where the real action is and where decisions are made—all of these mean you will not want to miss being a part of the 2026 National Convention. To secure yourself a room in the headquarters hotel at convention rates, make your reservations early. We look forward to seeing you in Austin in July!
A LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
A Celebration of Braille
by Deborah Kent Stein
LIVING AND LEARNING
Our Family's Journey to Braille Literacy
by Cassie McKinney
Between the Dots and the Batter: Ingredients for Success
by Jennifer Dunnam
Braille Reflection
by Raquel Montoya
TEACHING
Beyond the Code: Teaching Braille as Literacy
by Casey L. Robertson
Braille Is Literacy: Putting Braille Back into the Literacy Curriculum
by Julie Majzel
Applying the Science of Reading to Braille
by Erin Zobell
Beyond Contractions: Teaching Braille as Literacy
by Rebecka Gullickson
Three Tips for Teaching Young Children with a Visual Impairment How to Become Strong Braille Readers
by Kristie Smith
TECHNOLOGY
The Information Age Braille Technology Timeline: 2026 Edition
compiled by Clara van Gervan, Anne Taylor, and Jonathan Mosen
ADVOCACY
Advocating for Braille Literacy in a Blind Child's IEP
by Sanho Steele-Louchart
What Fills the Void
by Kate Garcia
Braille Is the Default: Why the Education System Has It Backward
by Kimberly Christenson
VERSATILITY
How Does Braille Work in Languages Other Than English?
by Donald Winiecki
REVIEW
I Hear the Snow, I Smell the Sea
by Janice Milusich
Reviewed by Barbara Cheadle
NEWS AND MORE
Braille Readers Are Leaders: A Short History
by Lisamaria Martinez and Deborah Kent Stein
NFB BELL® Academy, A Summer of Learning, Friendship, and Independence
Braille Books for Children: Where to Find Them
You Gotta Have Braille
by Janiece Peterson Kent
Are you the parent of a blind/low-vision child? Don’t know where to turn? Have you ever wondered what your child will be capable of when he or she grows up? Are you concerned that your child’s future will be limited by blindness or low vision? Do you have questions about how to parent a blind child? We are here for you.
Founded in 1983, the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children (NOPBC), a proud division of the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), is a membership organization of families, friends, and educators of blind children. We have thousands of members in all fifty states plus Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico.
We have a very inclusive definition of blindness which includes children who have some usable vision. Instead of focusing on what the child can or cannot see, we focus on the child and what she or he wants to be.
NOPBC is for families, educators, and friends of blind children, including those who have some usable vision. We welcome all families of blind children, and many of our children have both blindness and other disabilities.
We help families and blind children themselves maximize the child’s abilities and opportunities; we hold high expectations for all of our children, regardless of any additional disabilities they may have.
As a division of the NFB, the largest and most influential organization of blind people in the world, the NOPBC is well informed about the societal, legislative, and technological issues that affect blind people. We enjoy the resources, support, and expertise of fifty thousand blind people who can serve as mentors and role models for us and our children. When we as parents join the NOPBC, our children belong to the Federation family.
The NOPBC:
Most states have an NOPBC affiliate chapter. You can find your state chapter at http://www.nopbc.org. If your state does not have a chapter and you would like to start one, please contact us. We may be able to offer training and other assistance to start a state NOPBC chapter.
We have been where you are, and we want to support you and your blind child. We know that blindness does not define your child's future. We can connect you with other families and blind adults who can serve as positive mentors and role models. They can teach you the attitudes and techniques that will enable your child to become independent and to succeed in life.
The NOPBC offers hope, encouragement, information, and resources for parents, families, and educators of blind children. NOPBC provides:
We offer a wide variety of programs, activities, and training to families, children, and youth. One of our most exciting activities is our annual conference. Every year since it was established, the NOPBC has conducted an annual conference for parents and teachers of blind children as part of the national convention of the NFB. This conference has grown to include five exciting days of workshops, training sessions, activities for all family members, including sighted siblings, and countless opportunities to meet blind adults and other families and children from around the country.
Contact Us:
National Organization of Parents of Blind Children
[email protected]
www.nopbc.org
A LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
by Deborah Kent Stein
I began to learn Braille when I wasn’t quite five years old. My teacher, Helen Campbell, didn’t read Braille tactually, but she was thoroughly versed in the code. She expected me and her other students to become fluent Braille readers, and we didn’t disappoint her.
I never learned Braille letter by letter and contraction by contraction. Our books were written in contracted Braille, and we learned to recognize whole words as they appeared on the page. I learned little as a pair of vertical lines of three dots each. Go was a tiny square. And was a vertical rectangle, open on the right. You was similar, but open on the left.
We read the same “Dick and Jane” books that were being used in classrooms across the United States. The Braille lines were widely spaced, with the text in print above each line. If I took a book home and got stuck on a word, my parents could help me, even though they didn’t yet know Braille themselves.
Bit by bit Miss Campbell introduced me to words written “the long way,” without contractions, so I could learn to spell. I don’t remember feeling daunted by the fact that there were two different ways to read little or mother or day. Rows of books stood on the library shelf, full of stories that I wanted to read. Braille allowed me to unlock the adventures they held among their pages.
In 2009 the world celebrated the two hundredth birthday of Louis Braille, the teenager who developed the reading method used by blind people to this day. In celebration, the United States minted a commemorative gold coin with readable Braille letters. It was the first commemorative coin that has honored a person who was born and lived outside the United States.
In its ongoing effort to promote the use of Braille, the National Federation of the Blind celebrated Louis Braille’s bicentennial with programs and events throughout the year. As part of this celebration, the NFB presented President Barack Obama with a book entitled Let Freedom Ring: Braille Letters to Barack Obama: https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/books/ltobama/letterstoobamatc.htm. The book is a collection of one hundred letters from Braille readers, explaining through their personal stories why Braille is important to them.
This issue of Future Reflections is a celebration of Braille from a wide variety of perspectives. Jennifer Dunnam weaves her love of Braille into an account of her adventures baking cakes. Cassie McKinney describes her shared journey of learning Braille with her son, Robert, and Raquel Montoya writes about the many ways Braille is part of her life.
Several teachers share their thoughts about the best ways to teach Braille to blind students. Erin Zobell applies the science of reading to Braille instruction, and Casey L. Robertson introduces the natural order of contractions.
Braille has come a long way since Louis Braille walked the streets of Paris. In this issue of Future Reflections, Jonathan Mosen traces the history of electronic Braille from 1971 to the multiline displays of today. Robert Winiecki explains how Braille codes have been developed for hundreds of the world’s languages.
Sadly, too many blind students today still struggle with inadequate Braille instruction, or with no Braille instruction at all. Sanho Steele-Louchart and Kimberly Christenson explain how the law protects the right to Braille instruction for blind students. Kate Garcia shares the story of her battle to get Braille instruction for her daughter and the happy outcome for everyone involved.
My Braille teacher, Helen Campbell, lived not far from the house where I grew up. Decades after I left her class, I went to visit her and thank her for the years she spent as my Braille teacher. “You gave me a great gift,” I told her. “I feel so fortunate, so grateful I had such an opportunity to learn.”
“I never thought I was giving anyone a gift,” she insisted. “I was teaching, like every other teacher. I taught my students what they needed to learn.”
Miss Campbell didn’t want me to thank her, but I’m thanking her now. And I’m thanking all the other dedicated teachers out there who make sure their blind students have the precious gift of literacy.
LIVING AND LEARNING
by Cassie McKinney
From the Editor: As president of the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children, Cassie McKinney is a tireless advocate for blind children across the country and in her native state of Tennessee. In this article she relates the journey to Braille literacy that she shares with her son Robert.
As a leader in the National Federation of the Blind and president of one of its divisions, the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children (NOPBC), I would love to write to you about my fluency and appreciation of Braille. As a blind adult, I would be thrilled if I could write an article full of the wonderful adventures that the code has taken me on. However, that is not my story. As a child with low vision, I was never given the opportunity to learn Braille. As an adult, I have struggled to learn even uncontracted Braille, despite my continued efforts. My story is the leading force that pushes me to be an advocate for Braille, not only for other blind children, but for my own son, Robert.
When I learned that my son was blind, I wanted all the best things for him. I wanted him to be literate and independent, and I wanted him to grow up with the philosophy of the Federation. I wanted him to be part of the Federation’s loving and empowering community.
Robert has always been a smart and outgoing child, but when he started school he had to overcome many challenges. Most of them arose because the people around him held misconceptions about children with low vision. Because Robert can read large print, the education system did not understand why we wanted him to learn Braille. As his mom, though, I notice the small things: how tired his eyes are at the end of the day, and the way he rubs his eyes during homework because everything looks blurry to him.
I wanted better for Robert, and so we pushed. The teachers said, “If you want him to learn Braille and really use it, he has to go to the School for the Blind.” My response was, “Absolutely not. We will work extra hard at home, and you all can work with him at school.”
The day the Braillewriter came home was like Christmas at our house. Everyone in the house wanted to see how it worked. Everyone wanted to try it out. Robert was excited to demonstrate.
Every night Robert and I do homework, and we learn and practice our Braille. We are learning Braille together, and it will be life-changing for both of us. Robert comes home with new contractions he has learned, and he teaches them to me.
The overwhelming part about this journey is that at his age, ten, Robert doesn’t fully understand the impact he is having on my Braille literacy. The more we work together, the better we both become. This increases his growth as a young man. It teaches him that hard work is worth it. It also teaches him that he has a role in promoting Braille literacy: to show its significance to his peers and to be able to encourage others who are learning.
Robert’s independence has increased as he has gotten older. He is a leader in his school, and he enjoys taking his turn to be line leader for his class. His peers don’t see him as the “blind kid.” They know him as Robert. He’s the first one to go down the biggest slide. He’s the one who loves telling stories about his adventures with his mom when they go to national convention with the NFB.
Robert has been surrounded by our Federation family since before he was even born. He cherishes the time he gets to spend with his NFB friends from all over the country. Each year he looks forward to the events that we will attend. He says, “It’s fun, because we don’t have to pretend to fit in with everyone around us. We just get to be who we are.” This is what I wanted for him, to know that he has a place of belonging, a place where he can be himself and find support unlike any other we have ever known.
This is a story about our family’s journey to Braille literacy. We aren’t fluent yet, but we work toward that goal every day. Some day, when Robert is asked to write an article like this, he will be able to talk about how it all started. It started because his mom wanted better for him than what she had when she was growing up. She gave him all the tools he needed: the support of his parents and the unwavering support of the National Federation of the Blind.
by Jennifer Dunnam
From the Editor: Jennifer Dunnam’s career has run the gamut from teaching Braille to adults and managing Braille production for the University of Minnesota, to administering the certification program for transcribers and proofreaders for the Library of Congress. She chairs the National Association to Promote the Use of Braille (NAPUB), and she is a leader in the National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota.
Baking was never my forte. If you needed someone to work up your spreadsheet formulas or assemble your Ikea furniture, call on me any time. I’d enjoy every second of getting that task done. But if you wanted a cake, you could count on me to send you info on the closest bakery. Therefore, it surprises all who know me well that I have baked thirty-four cakes since last summer!
What happened? I ask myself. Perhaps a nudge came from a few difficult life events, increasing the appeal of a low-commitment, finite activity with clear directions. For whatever reason, in the middle of the summer I began to learn the finer points of baking, to acquire the equipment that makes it possible, and to gather friends around me who have been gracious enough (and perhaps even happy) to help relieve me of the “cake backlog.”
Born with no vision, I had wonderful parents who were determined that I would grow up like my sighted sisters, as a person who could take care of myself and handle whatever life threw my way. For much of my childhood and youth (all pre-internet), my parents were not acquainted with any blind adults. They did not always know the specifics of what independence for their blind child could look like. Nevertheless, they didn’t allow blindness to be an excuse for me to let things slide—an attitude for which I am forever grateful!
My mother taught me the basics of baking during my childhood. Without those vague and distant memories, there likely still would be no cakes coming out of my kitchen.
My mother’s father was a professional baker, but my mother is not much of a fan of cooking of any sort. She helped her working parents take care of her three much younger brothers, and then she managed her own household as a wife and the mother of three children in the 1970s and 1980s. She cooked three meals every day for decades.
I remember one night when I was very small. The family waited excitedly for a cake Mom had made to be done. When the oven timer went off and Mom placed the cake on the table to cool, the others exclaimed over how delicious it looked. Mom allowed that, if I washed my hands very clean, it would be okay for me to touch the cake very lightly. To me, it felt like a large, well-formed doughnut. I thought my mother must be some kind of genius to get it so perfectly round. Later she showed me the round tube pan with the hole in the middle so I could understand how it worked.
When I got a little older, Mom taught me the basics of making a cake. I learned to grease and flour the pan all up the sides so the cake can rise; to tap out the excess flour; to make sure the beaters lock into the electric mixer; and, of course, to taste the excess batter as a nice bonus! Incidentally, my mother works with families of blind children to this day, and I’m sure they realize how lucky they are to have her in their corner.
Because of Mom and other supportive people around me, I learned Braille early in life. Mom became a Braille transcriber to make sure I had Braille materials for my education. Braille has remained part of my daily life in countless ways, many of which have nothing to do with reading books. For example, clear adhesive labeling material, whether full-page format or in rolls of tape, is a staple in my house. After I buy groceries, the quick three minutes it takes to create and adhere Braille labels pays big dividends in efficiency. Later on, I can distinguish the cloves from the allspice from the pumpkin spice; the peppermint from the almond or vanilla extract; the cooking spray from the baking spray (it matters!). I can tell the two kinds of flour apart and identify the three kinds of sugar. For boxes of cake mix, which I still sometimes use as a base for a recipe, I place the box in a Zip-loc bag along with an index card Brailled with the name of the mix.
As “low-tech” as these methods are, advances in technology have made them even easier to implement. An AI app on a phone can read out the item for Brailling if the grocery run includes two different cake mixes.
So why don’t I just use the phone app and skip the Braille labels? Certainly, the phone camera method alone can be a workable identification tool. But for me there is an efficiency factor to simply skimming my fingers around the spice rack rather than taking out each of the thirty plus jars to show to the camera (and likely having to rotate the jar several times to capture the name of the item).
Likewise, it’s more efficient for me to Braille out my recipes on paper with an embosser instead of accessing them electronically. Having the instructions right there on one surface makes things easier. However, the phone camera does play its part. It has been amusing and even useful to photograph my cakes and get the AI’s unvarnished assessment of how they look before another human lays eyes on them.
Access to other blind adults through the National Federation of the Blind has been another crucial ingredient in my unexpected cake journey. When I was in my late teens, I heard blind adults talk about the things they did (such as cooking for their families, shoveling snow, mowing the lawn, and doing woodworking). Listening to them helped me understand that, if I wanted or needed to do those things, blindness would not stand in my way.
These role models moved through the world with grace and confidence. They were not like the shy, anxious person I was and thought I always would be due to my blindness. When they wanted some of the coffee at the back of the meeting room, they got up and got it. They didn’t wait awkwardly for the right time to ask someone to do it for them, as I did. They were adventurous and resourceful—not terrified of getting lost as I was. They didn’t tell me what I should do; rather, they showed me what I could do. Before I met them, I had no idea that I could even hope for such a level of confidence, much less actually achieve it myself.
One stand-out incident early in my acquaintance with the Federation took place at a state convention. On one of the panels, several people shared their perspectives on rehabilitation training. A cooking instructor at a state rehabilitation program mentioned her excitement over the success of a blind student who made brownies for the first time. “Of course,” she said, “they weren’t cut straight, but at least this was something he did all by himself.”
“This student’s progress absolutely should be celebrated,” another panelist commented, “but why should it be assumed that the brownies would be cut unevenly?”
The cooking instructor was nonplussed. I wondered why the other panelist was being so picky. Then I realized that the instructor’s comment was based on the belief that blind people could not cut brownies neatly. Maybe I held that belief myself, without giving it much thought.
“Why should it matter whether the brownies looked nice?” the cooking instructor asked. “They would taste the same, regardless of how they looked.” That conclusion is perfectly valid, I thought, but what if one wanted the brownies to look nice? I didn’t care about brownies specifically at that point, but I did care about appearance. I knew what a difference appearance makes in perception, whether or not it should.
As the panel conversation continued, it became clear that in this organization there were people who cared about such things as I did. They could enlighten me on techniques to help me make it happen.
Mastering skills such as reading and writing Braille or traveling comfortably with a long white cane takes practice and commitment, and the process can seem overwhelming in the beginning. All this baking reminds me vividly how much work it often takes before the dizzying array of steps and techniques becomes automatic. I review a checklist whenever I bake a cake to remind myself of the things that are not explicitly spelled out in the recipe. “Bring the eggs and butter to room temperature before mixing; toasting nuts ahead of time brings out their flavor; if using molasses, grease the measuring cup so it will pour out more easily; scrape the sides of the bowl when mixing; tap the batter-filled pan on the counter to remove air bubbles before putting it in the oven; adjust temperatures and cooking time if using a different type of pan than called for in the recipe…” I look forward to the day when these things come as easily as determining whether I should use the “th” or the “the” contraction when I Braille the word “them.”
To be sure, not all of my cakes have turned out delicious or beautiful. A couple stuck in the pan (no doubt to remind me that pride goeth before a fall). Still, many have turned out well. Perplexing as this baking obsession remains, the challenge brings much joy. Here’s to learning new things at any stage of life!
by Raquel Montoya
From the Editor: Raquel Montoya grew up in Escondido, California, and she serves as secretary of the NFB of California’s Escondido Chapter. She is a volunteer storyteller, and she plans to write a memoir.
My name is Raquel, and for nearly my entire life I have been using Braille. Braille has made a huge impact on my life. Reading Braille has taught me to be independent, confident, and ready for the real world.
When I started to learn Braille, it was very challenging. I struggled with the contractions. I had difficulty telling the difference between an M and a SH sign. I still have that problem sometimes, but I do the best I can. Braille has inspired me.
When I was in college, I wasn’t a good note-taker using Braille. I wasn’t a good note-taker until I became secretary of my local chapter of the National Federation of the Blind. The president of my chapter taught me to take notes in Braille before I wrote the minutes. I write down notes in Braille in case there are corrections that need to be addressed. I love being chapter secretary, and I have gotten much better at writing down notes in Braille.
Braille has taught me not to get caught up with too much high technology. We never know if the satellite will go out. Braille has prepared me to keep up with the basics of what I learned when I was in school. There was no high tech when I was in elementary school back in the 1980s. Even though I am thankful to have computers and cellphones, I try to stick to the basics, using my Perkins Braillewriter.
About six months ago, I ordered an NLS e-Reader through the Braille Institute in Los Angeles. This device is available for free through the National Library Service for the Blind and People with Disabilities, which is part of the Library of Congress. I am very grateful to have an e-reader.
I am a volunteer storyteller, reading to a blind third grader on Zoom. Since I want to work with children who are blind, I am starting off as a storyteller. Every week I download a children’s book on my e-reader from a list of titles the teacher emails me. The teacher needs to make sure I am reading books at the student’s level.
I take my display to church and my women’s Bible study every Thursday. I am getting more acquainted with the e-Reader, but I still need to become familiar with some more things. I will go over the book on the display and learn more about the machine.
I am deciding if I want to become a Braille transcriber or proofreader in the future. I have been talking to some people about how Braille transcribing works, as well as proofreading. I need to find out how Braille transcribers read their books in order to transcribe. I want to transcribe for school districts so blind students can have access to Braille books.
I believe Braille makes a huge difference for blind students. It helps them live the lives they want. We may be living in a world full of technology, but learning Braille is still important. It makes blind people more self-sufficient and prepares us for school and work. Braille should always be taught to blind students. That is what Braille means to me.
TEACHING
by Casey L. Robertson
From the Editor: Casey L. Robertson is a nationally recognized educator, leader, and advocate in the field of blindness education. She has more than a decade of experience preparing professionals, supporting families, and advancing literacy for blind students. She serves through the Professional Development and Research Institute on Blindness at Louisiana Tech University and has worked extensively as a teacher of students with visual impairments across multiple school districts. She also leads independent consulting and curriculum development work focused on blindness education. In 2025 she was the winner of a Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award.
No child should have to wait for years to become a reader!
All too often that is exactly what happens to children who are learning to read Braille. Children may spend months—or even longer—working through tracking, letter recognition, and isolated code exercises before they are finally given the words, sentences, and books that make reading meaningful. By the time they have the chance to begin real reading, their motivation may have faded. The student may feel disconnected from classmates and doubtful that Braille is truly a tool for learning and independence.
I often hear parents, and even teachers, insist that Braille is hard to learn. I hear them say that their child or student is not interested in learning it. I hear this complaint most often from the parents and teachers of dual-media learners.
When I hear these concerns, I usually respond with a few questions. How is Braille being taught? What do the lessons actually look like? And perhaps most importantly, are we teaching Braille, or are we teaching literacy?
Braille is not inherently hard to learn, and in many cases, students do not begin by seeing Braille as difficult. Often they learn that attitude from the adults around them. Children want to please teachers and parents, and they absorb the messages we send them. They also tend to mirror the attitudes we model. If Braille is presented as complicated, frustrating, or secondary, students may begin to see it that way, too. If Braille is presented as a natural and meaningful path to reading, students are far more likely to engage with it as readers.
The Natural Order of Contractions (NOC) offers a very different path. Developed within the Professional Development and Research Institute on Blindness at Louisiana Tech University, NOC teaches contractions as they naturally appear in the words and texts students need to read. Instead of delaying meaningful literacy until large portions of the Braille code are memorized in isolation, NOC helps students move quickly into authentic reading.
In the NOC approach, teachers begin with foundational skills, but they do not stop there. As students encounter high-frequency words, classroom materials, and connected text, contractions are taught in the order they naturally occur. Students learn Braille within the context of reading, not as a separate, disconnected skill.
Too often, students are pulled out of the mainstream classroom during reading instruction to be taught the Braille code. While code instruction matters, literacy is larger than the code itself. Students need opportunities to read stories, engage with language, build comprehension, and see themselves as readers. When Braille instruction is disconnected from meaningful reading, students miss the very experiences that make literacy so powerful.
This matters, because relevance matters. Many traditional Braille programs isolate students into a separate curriculum with activities that may feel slow, artificial, and unmotivating.
This problem is especially serious for older students who are transitioning from print to Braille. These learners already understand the mechanics of reading; what they lack is access to the Braille code. Giving them babyish materials to read and forcing them through disconnected drills can feel burdensome and discouraging. NOC addresses this challenge by using interesting, age-respectful text and teaching the contractions students need in order to read that text successfully.
The NOC approach aligns with longstanding reading research. Effective reading instruction includes phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, comprehension, and strong teaching. NOC explicitly connects Braille literacy to these essential components. With the NOC approach, Braille instruction supports the full reading process. It does not postpone meaningful literacy while students move through a rigid sequence of symbols.
NOC offers an encouraging message to families: Your child does not have to be trapped in a slow march through isolated code work before being treated as a real reader. Children need meaningful words and meaningful books that encourage them to read. They need instruction that builds confidence as well as competence. When students have access to authentic classroom reading and learn contractions in the words they actually encounter, Braille ceases to be a code to memorize. It becomes a literacy system they can use to unlock the mysteries and delights of words on the page.
For teachers of blind or low-vision students, NOC offers a practical, flexible framework. It begins with tracking and alphabet work, and then moves into word recognition (what print readers refer to as sight words). Teachers introduce Braille contractions as they appear naturally in the text.
NOC cautions teachers not to present words in their uncontracted form when those words normally contain contractions in standard Braille. The use of mainstream reading materials, explicit instruction on specific contractions, and read-aloud support are strongly encouraged. Braille-rich environments should connect literacy to real life.
Perhaps most importantly, NOC helps preserve high expectations. Too often, Braille readers are expected to advance more slowly than print readers. It is assumed that they will read less or accept a narrower curriculum. NOC pushes against that pattern. It keeps students connected to grade-level materials, interesting content, and the broader curriculum alongside their peers. The goal is not simply to teach contractions more quickly. The goal is to help students become readers sooner—readers who can participate, comprehend, write, study, and grow in independence.
This goal does not belong to teachers alone. Parents and paraprofessionals play an enormous role in determining whether Braille is reinforced consistently and positively in a child’s daily life. Families build literacy through routines, expectations, and encouragement. Paraprofessionals often support instruction under the guidance of the teacher of blind students. They can help create more opportunities for practice and access throughout the school day. When the adults around a child understand Braille, the child benefits.
To support these goals, I offer a Summer Braille Class for Parents and Paraprofessionals. This class is designed to give adults the confidence and knowledge they need to support a Braille learner more effectively. My course is intended for adults who currently work with a Braille learner, expect to support an incoming Braille student in fall 2026, or are the parents of a blind or low-vision child. The course is offered free of charge. It runs for sixteen weeks in an eighteen-week time frame. It requires participants to attend weekly virtual classes, complete homework, and participate actively. Participants need a Perkins Brailler and a copy of Ashcroft’s Programmed Instruction in Braille: Unified English Braille. The course does not provide college credit, and it does not certify participants as Teachers of Blind Students. However, participants may optionally pursue the National Certification in Unified English Braille (NCUEB).
This kind of training fits beautifully with the spirit of NOC. If we believe children should have meaningful access to Braille literacy, then we also must equip the adults around them to support that literacy. A child’s progress is strengthened when the adults at home and at school understand how Braille works, value it as a true reading medium, and know how to reinforce learning in everyday settings.
Braille instruction is at its best when it leads quickly to purpose, confidence, and independence. The Natural Order of Contractions is one promising way to make that happen.
An upcoming book, expected to be published early in 2027, will guide parents and teachers in the use of NOC. If you or a parent or educator you know wants to join the free summer course, reach out to me at [email protected].
by Julie Majzel
From the Editor: Dr. Julie Majzel is a Curriculum Lead Teacher at Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. She is the primary author of The Sciences of Literacy for Teachers of Students Who Are Blind, Deafblind, or Have Low Vision. She is the mother of a deafblind teen, and she is a passionate advocate for literacy for all learners.
Early in the twentieth century, when Standard English Braille was officially adopted in the United States, blind students finally received reading and writing instruction in a consistent, fully accessible medium. It is easy to imagine that those children, their parents, and their teachers collectively breathed a sigh of relief. The “War of the Dots,” the conflict over competing tactile reading systems such as New York Point, Braille, and Boston Line Type, was finally at an end. Standard English Braille became part and parcel of literacy instruction for blind students, eliminating the need for students to learn multiple, competing tactile reading and writing systems. At last learners could focus on developing strong reading and writing skills.
However, somewhere along the way during the past century, Braille increasingly became relegated to the sidelines in schools across the United States. It was treated as a subject separate from comprehensive literacy instruction. “Braille literacy” took precedence, meaning rapid mastery of the “Braille code.” With the best intentions, teachers set about instructing students to recognize the dot patterns that form letters and contractions, often by memorizing dot numbers. This instruction primarily took place by pulling students from other classes in their daily schedules. The pull-out structure often led to missed classroom content, and inadvertently it treated Braille as a separate subject. This separation of Braille from comprehensive literacy (reading, writing, vocabulary, and reading fluency instruction and practice at all grade levels) may be a significant factor in current low Braille usage and literacy rates among students who are blind, deafblind, or have low vision.
Today a movement is emerging to reconnect Braille with the literacy curriculum, ensuring that teachers are equipped with a comprehensive literacy background and instructional knowledge. Braille is being integrated across all classes to improve literacy outcomes for students. As part of this movement, the Curriculum Department at Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired published The Sciences of Literacy for Teachers of Students Who Are Blind, Deafblind, or Have Low Vision. The authors are advocating for all educators, service providers, families, and community members to embrace their unique roles in removing barriers to literacy instruction in Braille to support reading and writing skill development. We encourage the reframing of “Braille literacy” to begin thinking about “literacy in Braille.”
Braille is literacy, and all individuals who are blind, deafblind, or have low vision have a fundamental and inalienable right to high-quality, research-based literacy instruction in Braille. Braille is not just a “code” to be memorized or a tool for access to materials typically written in print. It is a unique, native system for reading and writing, and it should be celebrated and taught as such! It is essential to understand that literacy and Braille cannot and should not be separated into individual subjects, just as print and reading have never been treated as separate subjects. Learners who are blind, deafblind, or have low vision benefit from instruction in Braille in ways that parallel the benefits that Deaf students gain from the use of natural sign languages.
Here are a few practical ways to support very young and emergent readers and writers (learners who aren’t yet reading and writing):
To support beginning through advanced readers and writers:
In summary, what we know about teaching literacy in Braille revolves around the idea that Braille and literacy cannot be separated. Therefore, learners benefit when educators receive substantial training in the sciences of human development, including learning and reading and writing acquisition. In addition, we must embrace Braille as an authentic, stand-alone system for reading and writing rather than a code for print. It takes a village to raise readers and writers. Let’s all do our part!
To dive deeper into these strategies and explore the research-based framework for this approach, you can order a copy of The Sciences of Literacy for Teachers of Students Who Are Blind, Deafblind, or Have Low Vision through the online store at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, https://www.tsbvi.edu/product/the-sciences-of-literacy-for-teachers-of-students-who-are-blind-deafblind-or-have-low-vision.
by Erin Zobell
From the Editor: Prior to becoming a teacher of blind students, Erin Zobell was certified as a classroom literacy teacher. While obtaining her graduate certificate to be a teacher of blind students, she was also completing a master’s in reading education. Her extensive knowledge of teaching print literacy drives her to want to find better ways to teach Braille literacy.
In the world of literacy, there is a major focus on the Science of Reading. In the late 1990s, the US Congress created a task force to comb through the existing research and find out which research-based strategies were most effective for teaching children to read. As the National Reading Panel worked to carry out its mission, it categorized five areas necessary for reading instruction—phonological awareness (including phonemic awareness), phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension.
Since the 2000 publication of the National Reading Panel’s report, continuing research has been conducted. Now, when referencing the Science of Reading, people are referring to the whole body of evidence-based instructional strategies that supports reading, usually with one of the five areas in mind.
I am a reading teacher. (Just ask the six books crammed into my backpack while I write this article.) I started as a certified reading teacher with a specific company. Life being life led me to a new state that required further reading courses. With only a few more classes, I gained my master’s degree as a reading specialist.
While I was working on my master’s, life stepped in again. I found myself gaining a graduate certificate to become a teacher of blind students. I discovered a stark dichotomy between what the Science of Reading was saying and the way blind children were being taught to read Braille. I asked myself, “If this method works for teaching print, why don’t we use it for teaching Braille as well?”
According to the Science of Reading, these are some methods that work for teaching print readers. I will suggest how teachers can adapt these ideas when teaching Braille.
This set of skills includes recognizing words that rhyme and words that start with the same letter. It also includes phonemic awareness, which requires students to hear and identify individual sounds within a word. For instance, the word cat, when spoken aloud, has three sounds or phonemes: /k/, /a/, and /t/, rather than one continuous sound. With this skill kids not only can identify phonemes, but also add, subtract, or substitute phonemes.
Strong phonemic awareness skills have a positive correlation with learning to read. However, it is important to note that struggles with phonemic awareness do not mean someone cannot learn to read eventually. Some elements of phonemic awareness are early literacy skills and do not require the ability to read any print or Braille.
Phonics is the skill of putting letters together to make words. In the early stages of learning to read English, learners discover that c-a-t spells cat. When they get into more complex multisyllabic words, they understand that the suffix -tion sounds like “shun.”
Phonics needs to be taught “explicitly and systematically” (National Reading Panel, 2-89). This means we are going to teach graphemes (the spellings for sounds) in an order that makes sense. For example, in kindergarten or first grade we teach that c-h says ch, as in chair. Later we teach the far less common sh sound of c-h, as in (chef). Eventually, to be an effective reader, students need to know both, as well as the c-h that says k, as in character. But students do not need to know these variations when they are first learning to read.
While there are a number of print phonics reading programs, there are not many phonics options for Braille. A phonics program geared for print will not lead to a knowledge of Grade 2 UEB Braille, due to the additional rules in the Braille code. The Natural Order of Contractions (https://naturalorderofcontractions.com/) is a great program that seeks to build the knowledge of the code once the basic alphabet is mastered. (See “Beyond the Code: Teaching Braille as Literacy,” by Casey L. Robertson, elsewhere in this issue.)
It is important to make sure students are not taught only Grade 1 Braille. Most Braille books and public signage use contracted Braille. Students also need to learn uncontracted Braille in order to master spelling so they can type on a computer.
Though students need explicit instruction, that instruction does not have to be boring. The following activities were meant to help build knowledge of contracted Braille.
1. Contraction Go Fish or Memory: Explicitly teach the child a contraction. If teaching the contraction for “and,” let the student feel the word on the page. Ask the student to tell you what they feel. Talk about the cell, and tell the student it stands for the letters a n d. Have the student think of words that might use the sign, and write them in Braille. Explicitly teach several signs before you play the game.
Make sure there are contracted and uncontracted cards for each sign you are working on. For “Go Fish,” the students ask each other for either the contracted or the uncontracted letters. For Memory, the kids turn over the cards.
This activity can be done with short form.
Make a sentence. Writing adds a dimension to reading that can be challenging. By providing the words pre-Braille, the students focus on decoding (reading) the words. Give the students words that use contractions and short form words they have been taught. Have them make their own sentences. For an added level of difficulty, have the students type each sentence. (When they type they need to know how to spell out words that contain contractions.)
To have a vocabulary is to know the meaning of words. Many times, a word may mean more than one thing. A child needs to know that the word cat means something, that it is not just noise when it is spoken. As a child grows, we expect them to know that cat could mean a house cat, but it also could mean the whole feline family, including tigers and lions. (Where I live, if someone says they see a cat, they could be talking about a giant piece of Caterpillar farm equipment!)
Sighted children learn a great deal visually, from seeing the world. Children who are blind need more explicit instruction. They may need more explaining or realia (real-life objects) to help them understand concepts.
Strategies here are the same as those for a sighted child. The difference is that sometimes blind students need a little more support when learning a word.
Fluency is the ability to read with “speed, accuracy, and proper expression” (National Reading Panel, 3-1). While expression is important for fluency, speed is often an area for concern when it comes to reading Braille. As print readers are learning to read, there are standards for how many words per minute a student should be reading. A similar word per minute scale does not exist for blind students. This lack becomes worrisome as children grow. They need to read words fast enough to hold them in their short-term memory and draw meaning from what they are reading. If a child’s reading rate is too slow, the child may forget words from the beginning of the text by the time they reach the end.
1. Read and Re-read. Record the student’s speed and accuracy, and celebrate the growth. By re-reading, a student builds what I call “instant recall words.” Instant recall words are words that a student knows automatically when they come across them.
2A. This activity exposes the child to the words on the page. Remember that they need to be exposed to a word many times before it becomes an “instant recall” word.
2B. Word list—Make games or silly sentences with words from word lists, such as a Fry’s word list that focuses on the most frequently occurring words. The more instant recall words a student has in their memory, the more words per minute they can read.
3. Word sorts based on patterns—Perhaps you are going to have word sorts with dot 5 contractions to see different words using those patterns. The kids can sort the words in whatever way makes sense to them. This game is great to help children focus on using the ending contractions as well.
The whole goal of every other part of reading is to comprehend. We can read the words, read them fluently, and know the vocabulary. But if we don’t understand what we read, it does us no good. Strategies for both print and Braille readers include:
Like any skill, reading gets better with practice. Find something that interests the reader, and let them read. Let them re-read. Let them find a love of reading. If they can find a love of reading, learning to read becomes easier. If your child is not yet of the age to read independently, you still can get Braille under their fingertips. It is okay for them to make up the words—sighted children do the same thing.
Read to your child. Build the love of reading into daily life.
National Reading Panel (2000). Teaching children to read: An evidence-based approach. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and US Department of Education. https://www.nichd.nih.gov/sites/default/files/publications/pubs/nrp/Documents/report.pdf
by Rebecka Gullickson
From the Editor: Rebecka Gullickson is currently the Literacy, Braille, and Assessment Teacher at the Washington State School for the Blind. This is her third year working as a teacher of blind students. She holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary education with a literacy emphasis and a master’s degree in special education with an emphasis in visual impairment. Altogether, she has been teaching for six years—first as a general education elementary teacher and now at the secondary level. Previously she served as a high school ELA (English Language Arts) teacher, and currently she works in a role similar to that of a literacy specialist.
During the 2023–2024 school year, I participated in the National Federation of the Blind’s program, Teachers of Tomorrow. I now continue to mentor teachers in the program. Through this experience, I learned several principles that deeply influence my teaching today: maintaining high expectations for blind students, staying informed about evidence-based practices, advocating for students, creating inclusive classrooms, and building strong professional networks.
Perhaps most importantly, the Teachers of Tomorrow program reinforced something that has become central to my teaching philosophy. I recognized that Braille literacy should not exist separately from the literacy instruction happening in the general education classroom. Braille is not an isolated skill. It is the access point that blind students use to participate in the same literacy development as their sighted peers. In this article I explore the connection between Braille and phonics, and I discuss ways educators and families can work together to support strong literacy development.
Often the teacher of blind students is not the teacher of record for reading goals in a student’s IEP. However, the teacher of blind students often is the teacher responsible for Braille goals. This places teachers of blind students in a critical position when it comes to developing foundational literacy skills such as decoding, phonemic awareness, word recognition, vocabulary, and morphology.
The key question becomes: How can Braille instruction support the same literacy development happening in the classroom rather than operating separately?
Research in the science of reading helps answer this question. Reading engages multiple regions of the brain, each contributing different skills. The frontal lobe supports language production and comprehension. The parietal lobe connects words to meaning. The temporal lobe is involved in phonemic awareness and decoding. The occipital lobe traditionally has been associated with visual recognition of letters and words.
For many years, researchers assumed that the occipital lobe was used only for visual processing. However, studies conducted by researchers such as Norihiro Sadato and later Joanna Siuda-Krzywicka found that the visual cortex becomes active during Braille reading. These studies demonstrated that this region of the brain can process tactile information as well as visual input. In other words, the brain does not fundamentally change the way it reads when a person reads Braille instead of print. The same reading system is activated; the only difference is the method of input. Braille is not a separate literacy system. It is a different pathway to the same end—reading.
When I plan Braille instruction, I often begin by asking three questions: What literacy skills is the student currently learning, and what skills will the student learn later this school year? Where do those skills fit within reading development? How can Braille instruction reinforce those same skills?
Alignment does not mean duplicating everything the classroom teacher is doing. Instead, it means ensuring that Braille instruction supports and mirrors the literacy development happening elsewhere. It also means teaching Braille and phonics simultaneously. For example, when students are learning letter-sound correspondence, Braille instruction can focus on identifying Braille letters, connecting them with sounds, blending those sounds, and forming simple words. When students begin to encounter digraphs and blends in phonics instruction—patterns such as sh, ch, or st—these patterns can appear naturally within Braille reading and writing practice as contractions.
Morphology can also become part of Braille instruction. When students begin learning why certain prefixes or suffixes, such as -tion or -ed, are added to words, Braille readers can explore those same patterns tactually. In this way, Braille instruction reinforces literacy concepts rather than existing as a separate system of symbols to memorize.
When Braille instruction is separated from classroom literacy, students may experience a dramatically reduced exposure to language.
Consider a typical first grader who is learning to read. During a single year, the student may encounter dozens of phonetic patterns and hundreds—sometimes more than a thousand—words. If a Braille reader’s goals focus only on reading specific contractions or group signs, the student may encounter only a handful of patterns and a small set of words. In some cases, Braille readers may be exposed to only a fraction of the linguistic input their sighted peers receive.
This limitation is not inherent to Braille itself. Rather, it occurs when Braille instruction becomes narrowly focused on symbol mastery rather than literacy development. Blind students deserve the same rich language exposure as their sighted peers.
I once worked with a student—let’s call them Student L—whose goal focused on identifying Braille letters in isolation and writing letters when verbally prompted. While these skills are important, I wanted the student to begin seeing letters within meaningful language. Instead of focusing exclusively on isolated letters, I revised the goal to include letters both in isolation and within context, using CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant words, such as cat and jet), and high-frequency words.
After this change, the student’s progress accelerated. Within a few months, letter recognition increased significantly by 50 percent, and the student began reading 50 percent more high-frequency words accurately. The shift demonstrated an important principle: literacy develops more efficiently when skills are connected to meaningful language.
When students begin working with multiple literacy skills at once, mistakes are inevitable. Rather than viewing errors as failures, we can treat them as valuable pieces of information.
A mistake might reveal that a student misunderstood a phonics pattern. It might show confusion between Braille symbols. In some cases, especially for multilingual learners, it may reveal a vocabulary gap.
Understanding the source of an error helps guide instruction. If we misinterpret the error, we may end up teaching the wrong solution. This is another reason collaboration between educators is so important.
Effective literacy instruction for blind students often involves several professionals working together: the classroom teacher, the reading specialist, and the teacher of blind students. Collaboration does not always require formal meetings. Sometimes it happens through quick conversations, shared documents, or brief email exchanges about what students are currently learning in phonics. Teachers can share reading samples, discuss patterns they are noticing, and identify areas where students may need additional practice. When educators approach literacy collaboratively, Braille instruction can reinforce classroom instruction and vice versa.
Most importantly, we must challenge the idea that literacy belongs only to one professional. Braille teachers are literacy teachers. Reading specialists are literacy teachers. Classroom teachers are literacy teachers. When these roles align, students benefit.
Families play an essential role in supporting literacy development. Fortunately, many of the strategies that support print readers also support Braille readers.
Creating a Braille-rich environment at home can encourage curiosity and exploration. Parents may choose to label common household items, such as doors, toy bins, or pantry shelves, in Braille so children encounter Braille naturally throughout the day.
Shared reading is another powerful tool. Families can read together, with a parent reading print and the child reading Braille. Conversations about the story—predicting what might happen next, discussing characters, or explaining unfamiliar vocabulary—help build comprehension and language development.
Word play can also strengthen phonemic awareness. Rhyming games, identifying beginning sounds, or blending sounds into words easily can be incorporated into everyday routines.
Parents can also help children practice high-frequency words through short activities such as using Braille flashcards, creating word scavenger hunts around the house, or writing simple messages using Braillewriter or slate and stylus.
Perhaps most importantly, families can encourage children to write. Children might create grocery lists, leave notes for family members, or keep short journals about their day. Writing reinforces reading skills and strengthens familiarity with Braille patterns.
These activities do not require specialized training. They simply require time, encouragement, and the belief that Braille readers can and should engage fully in literacy.
Braille instruction supports the same literacy goals as print instruction—it simply provides a different method of access. Braille is not a supplemental skill or a support tool. It is a complete literacy system that allows blind individuals to read, write, and engage fully with language.
When Braille instruction aligns with phonics and classroom literacy, blind students gain access to the same rich reading experiences as their peers. And when educators and families work together, Braille becomes what it was always meant to be: a powerful pathway to literacy, independence, and opportunity.
by Kristie Smith
Reprinted by permission from WonderBaby.org
From the Editor: This article offers suggestions to help parents introduce Braille and encourage reading at home. WonderBaby.org is a site teeming with resources for parents of blind children and blind children with additional disabilities.
The well-known children’s-book author Dr. Seuss once said, “The more you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you go.”
Dr. Seuss’s unforgettable quote makes me think of Braille readers. As an outspoken advocate for Braille, I feel that children who are strong Braille readers become independent adults who will go many places. While I love scanners, audiobooks, and other assistive technology for the blind, I don’t feel that this technology should ever take the place of Braille.
Learning how to read can be an exciting adventure for children when they are set up for success before reading begins. Here are some tips to help you help your child to become a strong Braille reader.
Since the emotional brain needs to relax and have fun before long-lasting learning can take place, stress before reading must be eliminated. There is actually a physical response and the release of a hormone when someone is under stress. Once stress enters the body, learning becomes minimal.
To assist your child’s brain to relax, find his likes and what makes him happy. Then create that environment before you engage him in a book. For instance, if your child enjoys movement, do some movement activities before you read your book. If you can use real items from the story in your activity, that’s even better. Using real objects from the story is an important factor in helping your child understand the book.
One of the most highly regarded professors for blind and visually-impaired young children is Dr. Virginia Bishop. Dr. Bishop once stated, “If you can’t bring the child to the world, bring the world to the child.”
Dr. Bishop teaches that in order for a child with a visual impairment to fully understand concepts within a book, real objects must be used during the story. For example, if a parent is reading a Braille book with a child who is blind or visually impaired, the child’s fingers will move across the lines of Braille while they are listening to the story, having already identified the objects from the book. Through repetition of favorite books, the little one will understand that the dots represent words with meaning in relationship to their world.
Another great idea for reinforcing Bishop’s methods is to create a story box. Story boxes are a fun way for a child who has a visual impairment to associate real objects with those from the book within one container. For instance, if you are reading a book about the beach, you could place a flip-flop inside the box, a beach towel, and a few other items from the story. Never make it hard on yourself, or you will rarely use the story box idea. Parents have told me for years that they use shoeboxes, nets, trays, and other creative ideas for story boxes so their child will become a strong reader who truly understands the concepts within the story. Continue to couple real objects during story time and the words become meaningful.
Another way to help your young child with vision issues to ingest the story is to use all of the senses, so the meaning is understood. If you are reading “Little Red Riding Hood,” for example, have your child feel a hood, smell rolls inside a basket, taste hot buttery rolls, and talk about Grandma before you actually read the book.
Dr. Seuss’s famous quote rings true today because the more you read, the more you know. For our children who are independent Braille readers, the more places they will go.
TECHNOLOGY
Compiled by Clara Van Gervan, Anne Taylor, and Jonathan Mosen
From the Editor: Jonathan Mosen serves as Executive Director of the Center for Accessibility Excellence at the NFB Jernigan Institute. His Access On podcast delves into every aspect of access technology.
Introduction by Jonathan Mosen: The Spring 2009 issue of Future Reflections celebrated the evolution of Braille in the two hundred years since Louis Braille’s birth. Anne Taylor and Clara Van Gervan, who at the time worked in the field of access technology for the National Federation of the Blind, compiled a timeline of Braille technology. Though some professionals in the field claimed that technology would make Braille obsolete, the reverse has occurred. Technology actually has made Braille more abundant and relevant, delivering new tools to ensure that Braille continues to thrive.
Plenty of technology has been developed in the seventeen years since that article was written. With abundant thanks to Anne and Clara for their original work, here is an update of their timeline. I cannot claim that it covers everything, because the pace of change and the number of products has increased dramatically. However, the timeline presents the incredible journey we have taken since Louis Braille devised his six-dot code.
For those unfamiliar with access technology, we added a short glossary to the timeline, explaining many of the most important terms. Here it is:
Braille translation software: The fastest Braille embosser available cannot produce even one dot of material unless a Braille translation program is installed on the computer. Three programs are most prevalent today: the Duxbury Braille Translator, Braille 2000, and MegaDots.
Embosser: A Braille embosser, also referred to as a Braille printer, is a piece of very specialized computer hardware. The embosser allows Braille files that have been created on the personal computer (PC) to be produced in hard-copy Braille.
Notetaker: First introduced by Blazie Engineering in the mid-1980s, these easy-to-use personal organizers allow a person knowledgeable in Braille to create documents, read text, keep addresses and appointments, and access a list of special utilities. These devices were available to Braille users almost a decade before the sighted population found similar convenience in the Palm Pilot and Pocket PC.
Refreshable Braille displays: These devices allow the user to interact with his or her computer using Braille. They are called refreshable because the unit is made up of a line of pins that move up and down to display the Braille dots. Braille displays also have navigation keys that allow users to move around the computer screen without taking their hands from the display to perform tasks. Recently, multiline Braille displays have become available.
1971: Triformation Systems, which later became Enabling Technologies, released their first embosser, the BD 3. In the late seventies came their popular LED 120 embosser.
Early 1970s: The six-dot Braille cell was extended to eight dots to meet the demands of computer access. Louis Braille’s original six-dot cell (two vertical columns of three dots each) yields only sixty-four possible combinations, fewer than the ninety-five printable characters in the ASCII character set used by computers. The solution was to add two more dots to the bottom of each cell, creating two four-dot columns with dots seven and eight in the lower positions. This configuration yields 256 possible combinations and can represent every character in the full eight-bit extended ASCII set. Triformation Systems produced the first Braille embossers capable of printing eight-dot computer Braille in the early 1970s, building in part on the Braille Mboss developed at MIT. On refreshable displays, the additional dots took on an equally important secondary function: dots seven and eight together are used to mark the cursor position. Individually they can indicate attributes such as capitalization, bold, or highlighting, without obscuring the underlying character. By the late 1980s, eight-dot cells had become standard on virtually all refreshable Braille displays.
1975: Papenmeier Reha undertook a development program with Dr. Werner Boldt of Dortmund University, Germany. In 1975 they produced the BRAILLEX, an electronic device with a refreshable Braille display. In the same year Klaus Peter Schönherr, working in Horb-Nordstetten, Germany, invented the first Braille module using piezo-electric technology, enabling the first dynamic tactile display of Braille. This foundational cell technology underpinned the entire refreshable Braille display industry until alternatives started to emerge forty years later.
1976: The first installation of the Duxbury Translator took place at the Canadian National Institute for the Blind in Toronto, Canada. Duxbury was the first commercial Braille translation package to be released.
1980: The original version of nfbtrans, a Braille translation package, was released. For a time, it sold for $350, but in the early 1990s Dr. Kenneth Jernigan felt it would better serve the needs of blind users if it were released to the public domain.
1980: Wolfgang Baum founded an engineering office in Wiesenbach, Germany, initially importing assistive technology products from the US. This enterprise evolved into BAUM Retec AG, which became one of the most significant European Braille display manufacturers. It was best known for the Vario line of displays. In the 2000s and 2010s, BAUM manufactured OEM versions of HumanWare’s Brailliant and BrailleConnect displays, ending that partnership in 2011. BAUM filed for bankruptcy protection in Germany in the summer of 2017. VisioBraille subsequently acquired the product lines and continued manufacture.
1982: The VersaBraille, by Telesensory Systems Incorporated (TSI), became the first refreshable Braille display available in the United States. It featured a twenty-cell refreshable Braille display and stored data on standard cassettes. It could function as a notetaker, reading machine, or computer terminal.
1987: The Braille ‘n Speak, the first portable notetaking device with a Braille keyboard, was launched at the NFB National Convention. Deane Blazie invested ten thousand dollars, built ten units, and brought them to the NFB convention in July 1987. He sold nine on the spot. The device weighed two pounds and sold for $895. It offered speech output with file storage, calendar, phone directory, calculator, and stopwatch. The success of this device opened the door to similar popular notetakers in use today.
1989: TSI released the Navigator, its first dedicated refreshable Braille display designed for PC access. Available in twenty-cell (six-dot desktop), forty-cell (eight-dot), and eighty-cell configurations, the Navigator attached to the bottom of a PC keyboard and provided cursor routing keys for screen navigation. The Navigator was succeeded in the mid-1990s by the PowerBraille line.
1990: Dr. Kenneth Jernigan opened the International Braille and Technology Center for the Blind (IBTC) at the NFB headquarters, a one-of-a-kind, comprehensive evaluation and demonstration facility. Today it contains 2.5 million dollars’ worth of nonvisual access technology, making the IBTC the largest evaluation center of its kind in the world.
1991: The US Patent for cursor routing was issued to Arend Arends and Jaap Breider, the president of Dutch Braille display manufacturer Alva B.V. The original Dutch patent was filed in 1987. Cursor routing quickly became an expected feature of refreshable Braille devices.
Summer 1993: Blazie Engineering released the Braille Lite. Adding a refreshable Braille display to the speech-only Braille ‘n Speak platform, the Braille Lite 18 featured an eighteen-cell refreshable display, a Braille keyboard, speech output, and an advance bar for panning. A forty-cell model followed. Together with the Braille ‘n Speak, the Blazie family of notetakers held the dominant share of the notetaker market for more than a decade.
1995: The first release of Duxbury for Windows brought Braille translation to the new operating system.
2000: Pulse Data International of Christchurch, New Zealand, released the first BrailleNote, the first notetaker built on the Windows CE operating system. With HumanWare as the North American subsidiary, the Classic BrailleNote was available with Braille and QWERTY keyboards, synthesized speech, and a refreshable Braille display. In 2005 the second generation mPower series followed. BrailleNote Apex was released in 2009, the BrailleNote Touch in 2016, and the BrailleNote Touch Plus in 2019. With the BrailleNote Touch, the BrailleNote moved from Windows CE to the Android platform.
2001: Papenmeier released its Elba notetaker, the first Linux-based notetaker, with Braille and QWERTY keyboard and a refreshable Braille display.
2001: ViewPlus Technologies announced the Tiger Advantage, the first of its Braille-capable tactile graphics printers.
2003: Freedom Scientific began shipping the PAC Mate notetaker, a Windows Mobile-based device available with Braille and QWERTY keyboards and running JAWS for Pocket PC. Twenty- and forty-cell Braille display versions followed at the end of 2003. The second-generation PAC Mate Omni was released in 2007.
2003: The Alva Mobile Phone Organizer was released, the first and only cell phone and notetaker hybrid. It featured a twenty-cell Braille display, a Braille keyboard, and a speech synthesizer.
2004: HIMS International of South Korea released the original BrailleSense notetaker. The BrailleSense featured refreshable Braille, synthesized speech output, a Braille keyboard, LCD window, MP3 player, DAISY player, and external monitor support. GW Micro of Fort Wayne, Indiana served as exclusive US distributor beginning around 2006. In 2008, HIMS enhanced the device as the BrailleSense Plus and added the Voice Sense (speech-only) model. The GW Micro distribution relationship ended in late 2010, when HIMS opened its own US office in Austin, Texas. Enhancements to BrailleSense have been released regularly, including a range of form factors and a move to the Android operating system.
2004: Freedom Scientific released the first Focus Braille display line. It was available in forty-four-cell, seventy-cell, and eighty-four-cell configurations. A second generation followed, offering forty-cell and eighty-cell models. Focus Blue added Bluetooth support. The Focus line became one of the most widely used Braille displays among JAWS users.
2004: At the NFB National Convention, HumanWare released the BrailleNote PK, the smallest notetaker available in the United States, with an eighteen-cell refreshable Braille display and speech synthesizer. The hardware was Baum’s Pronto.
2004: HumanWare launched the Brailliant 20 and 40, the first refreshable Braille displays with Bluetooth wireless connectivity. HumanWare has released various models of display under the Brailliant brand. Its latest model includes notetaker, book reading, and audio functions.
2010: iOS 4 introduced VoiceOver Braille display support on iPhone, making it the first mainstream smartphone platform to offer this capability. Braille support was also added to the new iPad tablet.
2012: Google released BrailleBack for Android. This separate accessibility service worked alongside TalkBack to provide the first native refreshable Braille display support on Android via Bluetooth.
2014: iOS 8 introduced Braille Screen Input (BSI). Apple’s BSI allowed VoiceOver users to type Braille directly on the iPhone touchscreen without any physical keyboard, in both tabletop and screen-away modes.
2016: Orbit Research announced Graphiti, described as “the world’s first affordable tactile graphics display,” featuring a 60x40 pin array (two thousand and four hundred pins) with variable-height pins using Orbit’s Tactuator technology.
2017: Orbit Reader 20 premieres at the NFB Convention. Limited units sold at the NFB National Convention in Orlando for $449, making it the first refreshable Braille display priced under $500. Co-developed by Orbit Research, APH, and the Transforming Braille Group, it used Orbit’s revolutionary electromechanical Tactuator cells. The 20-cell device served as a standalone book reader, basic notetaker, and Braille display terminal. It became the single best-selling Braille display in the world.
2017: Windows 10 Fall Creators Update added Braille display support to Narrator. For the first time, Windows’ built-in screen reader supported refreshable Braille displays natively, without requiring a third-party screen reader.
2017: Dot Watch began shipping commercially. The world’s first Braille smartwatch, developed by Seoul-based Dot Incorporated (founded 2015), features four refreshable Braille cells.
2018: HIMS QBraille XL was released, a forty-cell display featuring both Perkins-style and full QWERTY keyboards.
2018: USB-IF published HID Standard for Braille Displays. Developed collaboratively by Microsoft, Apple, Google, Orbit Research, HumanWare, Freedom Scientific, and NV Access, this standard enables plug-and-play Braille display connectivity across operating systems. Conforming displays are recognized like any keyboard or mouse, without custom drivers.
2020: NLS Braille eReader pilot was launched. The National Library Service began piloting free twenty-cell refreshable Braille displays for eligible patrons, funded by a five-million-dollar Congressional appropriation. Two models were selected: one manufactured by HumanWare (based on the Brailliant BI 20X platform) and one by Zoomax.
2020: APH Mantis Q40 and Chameleon 20 were released, developed in partnership with HumanWare. The Mantis Q40 is a combined QWERTY keyboard and forty-cell refreshable Braille display.
2020: Google launched the TalkBack Braille Keyboard for Android, allowing Braille input directly on the touchscreen, mirroring Apple’s Braille Screen Input introduced in iOS 8.
2020: Canute 360 began shipping. After fourteen prototypes and approximately seven years of development, Bristol Braille Technology’s multiline Braille e-reader reached consumers. Featuring nine lines x forty cells (three hundred and sixty cells total), it reads BRF and PEF files at under $2,900. A Canute Console variant followed, adding a retractable QWERTY keyboard and thirteen-inch monitor.
2021: Eurobraille b.note launched from the French manufacturer (founded 1980). It was available in twenty- and forty-cell variants, with Bluetooth file transfer, speech synthesis, USB-C Power Delivery, and support for DOCX, PDF, EPUB, and BRF files.
2021: Dot Pad was introduced by Dot Incorporated (Seoul, South Korea). Featuring two thousand and four hundred pins in a pixel-like grid, it was the world’s first tactile graphics display to ship commercially. In December 2021, Apple included tactile graphic API support in iOS 15.2.
2022: Google announced native TalkBack Braille display support built into Android 13, ending the need for the separate BrailleBack app that had served Android Braille users since 2012.
2022: Orbit Slate 340 and Orbit Slate 520 launched. The Orbit Slate 340 offers three lines of forty cells; the Orbit Slate 520 provides five lines of twenty cells.
2022: Orbit Research announced the Orbit Speak. Following the same philosophy of affordability that defined the Orbit Reader 20, the Orbit Speak is a speech-output Braille notetaker with a Perkins-style keyboard in a pocket-sized device weighing under eight ounces.
2023: APH and the DAISY Consortium began development of the eBraille file format, designed to merge tactile graphics and Braille text into a single navigable file, intended to become the global standard for digital Braille content.
2024: Blazie Technologies launched the BT Speak, a modern revival of the Braille ‘n Speak concept for the Linux era. In March 2026, they demonstrated the BT Braille, a modern take on the Braille Lite.
2024: HIMS/Selvas BLV Braille eMotion was released. It was a forty-cell multimedia Braille display with Wi-Fi, text-to-speech, five Bluetooth connections plus USB, and standalone apps including library access.
2024: Monarch began shipping. It is the most significant Braille technology product in a generation. The Monarch is a ten-line x thirty-two-cell multiline refreshable Braille and tactile graphics display with three thousand eight hundred and forty equidistant pins. It was developed as a fifty-fifty partnership between APH and HumanWare, with the NFB as advisor and Dot Inc. providing cell technology. It runs HumanWare’s KeySoft suite. Key applications include KeyWord (word processor with MathML), KeyMath (graphing calculator partnered with Desmos), Tactile Viewer (APH’s Tactile Graphics Image Library with two thousand plus graphics), and Victor Reader. It features Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, HDMI visual output, and twenty-four-hour plus battery life. It was named one of TIME Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2025. Software milestones include eBraille file format support (v1.2), multiline screen reader output via JAWS and NVDA (v1.3), and Google Drive access (v1.4).
2025: Apple introduced Braille Access, a new iOS mode allowing Braille display users to access features including notes, BRF files, and live captions directly from their display without interacting with the touchscreen.
2025: Orbit Reader Q40 was released. Orbit Research’s entry combined a full-sized QWERTY keyboard with a forty-cell Braille display, competing directly with APH’s Mantis Q40.
2025: HumanWare previewed BrailleNote Evolve. The Evolve represents a platform shift from Android to Windows 11 Pro, featuring an Intel Core Ultra 5 processor, 32 GB RAM, up to 512 GB SSD, KeySoft integrated with NVDA, a six-month trial of JAWS, Microsoft Office 365 with HumanWare add-ins, Thunderbolt and HDMI ports, and NFC. Initial models in twenty-cell and thirty-two-cell variants with Perkins keyboard; QWERTY and forty-cell models to follow.
2026: Selvas BLV unveiled BrailleSense 7. Available in twenty-cell, thirty-two-cell, and forty-cell models, the BrailleSense 7 runs Android 15 and marks a significant generational leap for the line. Features include touch-sensitive Braille cells, integrated Google Gemini AI, expanded Braille-first applications, a user-replaceable battery, and an included QWERTY keyboard case with a secondary battery.
You can read the Information Age Braille Technology Timeline compiled by Anne Taylor and Clara van Gervan at https://nfb.org/sites/default/files/images/nfb/publications/fr/fr28/fr280109.htm.
ADVOCACY
by Sanho Steele-Louchart
From the Editor: As readers will recognize from other articles in this issue of Future Reflections, many teachers of blind students are staunch champions of Braille, and they are working to ensure that Braille is taught effectively. However, as this article illustrates, too few blind students are learning Braille today, although the law firmly supports Braille instruction.
Sanho Steele-Louchart serves as Legal Program Coordinator for the National Federation of the Blind. In this article he discusses the hurdles that parents of blind students often face when they try to ensure that their child will learn Braille, and he explains how special-education law supports Braille as the first option for blind students.
Today Braille is more affordable to create and easier to access than ever before. With the advent of technologies such as electronic Braille displays, Braille books and worksheets can be downloaded in seconds. Using Zoom, teachers and students no longer need to be in the same physical location in order to work together. No longer can school districts argue, “We just don’t have anyone to teach it” as a pretext for denying services, even in the most rural locations.
Nevertheless, it is estimated that only ten percent of blind children are taught Braille today. Only ten percent of those students are taught Braille to age- and stage-appropriate fluency. Meanwhile, the unemployment and under-employment rates for blind people stand as high as sixty-two percent. Ninety percent of blind people who are fully employed say that Braille is fundamental to their success in the workplace.
Unfortunately, many teachers of the visually impaired (“TVI’s”) report that their university programs didn't teach them Braille at all or taught them only the basics. They were told that Braille can only be read at one-third to one-half the speed at which a sighted student reads print. Programs might acknowledge that some Braille readers reach reading speeds of 250 to 300 words per minute, but somehow it is assumed that those students are gifted or exceptional.
In the classroom TVI’s find themselves faced with the choice between teaching an unfamiliar medium that their colleagues and mentors find slow and unhelpful or offering a medium such as large print, synthesized speech, or a human reader (usually a classroom aide). Not surprisingly, the TVI is likely to choose the method that seems most practical and supported by their colleagues. This decision is further reinforced when they do attempt to teach students Braille, only to see them struggle, plateau, and fall behind.
It is here that two complimentary forces take hold. First, the TVI begins to believe that the problem is Braille, the student, or both. Second, this conclusion serves as proof positive for anyone already inclined to believe that large print, speech, and human readers are the practical path forward for this particular student at this particular time. This paradigm also conveniently allows teachers to claim that they are ardent supporters of Braille in theory if not always in practice.
It is important to note that countless teachers are doing an excellent job of teaching and providing Braille. However, many other teachers believe they are teaching and providing Braille, while in practice their students are standard deviations behind their sighted peers, and their materials aren't being delivered on time. Then there are the teachers who, in their heart of hearts, believe Braille is the medium of last resort. They believe that no one should learn or use Braille if any other medium is remotely viable.
This raises an interesting question: What is viability? Set aside the law for a second and think only in terms of practicality. Is it practical for a student who is using large print to experience eyestrain, tension headaches, back pain, or ocular migraines? If so, for how long? Is this situation sustainable, or will the student’s reading speed or comprehension drop over time? What happens if the student's vision changes from day to day or year to year?
Typically, the answer to this line of questioning is, “That’s why they have a human reader.” Such an answer exposes the implicit belief that a blind child doesn’t enjoy the right to be comfortable in their body, pain-free, and independent in work and in life. If it is true that every child deserves to read without pain, and every child deserves to read for themselves, on their own terms, and with their own minds, then it is also true that being forced to use large print, synthesized speech, or a human reader is neither viable nor practical in the long term.
Assume for a moment that you are the parent of a blind child, and you know all that is at stake. You’ve advocated for Braille instruction already. Perhaps your child’s TVI agreed, but your child isn’t making progress. Perhaps the TVI didn’t agree at all and gave you some version of, “I’m the expert. My expertise shows that large print, speech, or a human reader are best.” Perhaps the instructor is one of the great ones, but, for whatever reason, Braille just isn’t a priority for their district administrators. How do you advocate for Braille in a way that doesn’t make things more contentious than they are already?
The good news is that the law is clear. The effective communication and reasonable accommodation requirements under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 apply to children as well as adults. There’s also the Braille presumption in Section 300.324(a)(2)(iii) of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1975. “The IDEA” states that the IEP team must:
“In the case of a child who is blind or visually impaired, provide for instruction in Braille and the use of Braille unless the IEP Team determines, after an evaluation of the child’s reading and writing skills, needs, and appropriate reading and writing media (including an evaluation of the child’s future needs for instruction in Braille or the use of Braille), that instruction in Braille or the use of Braille is not appropriate for the child.”
Section 1414(3)(A)(iii-v) goes on to say, “Each local educational agency shall ensure that assessments and other evaluation materials used to assess a child under this section are used for purposes for which the assessments or measures are valid and reliable; are administered by trained and knowledgeable personnel; and are administered in accordance with any instructions provided by the producer of such assessments.”
TVI’s and district administrators may not understand at a glance how these laws are any different from what they’re doing already. A few notes may be helpful in highlighting the nuance.
The first point to recognize is that the Braille presumption doesn’t say to provide Braille and Braille instruction only if the IEP team agrees. On the contrary, it says that the district must provide Braille and Braille instruction unless the team agrees that Braille is not now, and never will be, appropriate for the student. It is an astoundingly confident district that is willing to risk significant legal exposure on its ability to predict the future.
Next, appreciate the scope of the words “appropriate reading and writing media.” The law does not consider speech output as reading. It does not consider dictation to be writing. Therefore, the only possible literacy media are Braille and print. If print is not appropriate generally, or is not appropriate for both reading and writing, or is not appropriate over time, then here again, it fails to comply with the statute.
Finally, consider the term “evaluation.” Virtually all blind and low-vision students are assessed using the Learning Media Assessment (“LMA.”) Most school districts assume that the LMA must be normed, validated, and reliable. Therefore, they assume that it meets the requirements set forth in Section 1414. However, it is not normed or validated and therefore does not meet the statutory requirements. The only normed, validated, and reliable reading and writing assessment tool for blind students is the National Reading Media Assessment (“NRMA”). Most TVI’s have never heard of it. Those who have heard of it rarely if ever have used it. Those who have used it may well reject it out of hand if its results contradict what they want it to say. Discussing this test is another opportunity to determine whether the district is following the law and the science, or if something else is guiding their decisions.
Let us hope that merely knowing the law is enough for a district to follow it. School districts understand the importance of Braille, they appreciate that Braille can be one of many tools, they support their actions using the NRMA, they hold their teachers of blind children to the same high standards they do teachers of fully sighted students. Yet, although the law is clear, legal arguments on their own are rarely productive.
The bad news is that the law does not change hearts and minds. It’s necessary, yes, but it is not sufficient. What changes hearts and minds are stories. Real, human stories about kids they know and love. You cannot “win” an IEP. You can’t scare people into caring. Their feelings will be hurt, their egos will be bruised, and their heels will dig in. You can’t make them care. You have to show them why.
Imagine for a moment that you’re a teacher. You genuinely care about your students, and you have the best of intentions. A parent comes in, angry, hurt, or confused, and implies or states outright that you don’t care and don’t know how to do your job. You’re going to be shocked. You’ll feel offended. You think of all the students you’ve done right by, all your success stories. You remember the kids you’ve helped when no one else would even try.
Suddenly, you and that parent are functioning from completely different places. Each of you gets defensive. Communication breaks down. Administrators circle the wagons. Maybe advocates or attorneys make things even worse.
So, where’s the child in all this? They’re still not learning Braille. They’re still behind, or struggling, or in pain. We would be no better off than we were before.
Now imagine the same meeting, with everyone focused on the student. Yes, the parents might be angry, the teachers might be defensive, but everyone is focused on the child. What are their reading rates compared to those of their sighted peers? Are they in pain or experiencing other challenges? Do sighted students experience those same challenges? Surely we don’t think they’re inherent to blindness. Does the blind student have everything their sighted peers have? If not, why not? What are the barriers? How can we create a system that will mitigate those barriers so that this child, about whom we all care deeply, is okay?
What we find, in all but the most political of cases, is that continuing to bring focus back to the child is enough to build a bridge.
As that bridge is being built, families and TVI’s sometimes wonder together how to help the blind child catch up to their sighted peers. One place to look is the educational standards for their grade, available on the website of the State Department of Education. Then you can look at their current levels and find where they should be to make a roadmap. As for Braille, set the bar higher than you think you should. Very young students might be working on the alphabet, alphabet words, punctuation, and whole-word contractions such as and, for, of, the, and with. You can build from there. It’s my experience that when taught with age-and-stage appropriate expectations, students whose primary disability is blindness can learn the code in six weeks and reach proficiency in six months. Then it’s just a matter of practicing to build speed.
Though compensatory education and a full analysis of service minutes are beyond the scope of this article, I suggest that a good starting place is an hour a day of direct Braille instruction and daily reinforcement. Sighted students receive direct and indirect exposure to literacy all day, every day, from birth. If there are posters on the wall, textbooks in the classroom, and words on the board, the blind child deserves the same exposure. If those things aren’t actually important, why do they exist at all?
Please know that you are not in this alone. The NFB has a team of volunteer IEP advocates trained to assist families for this very reason. To learn more about our IEP Advocacy Academy or to be put in touch with one of our advocates, please email [email protected] or call me at 410-659-9314, Extension 2440.
by Kate García
From the Editor: Sometimes obtaining Braille instruction can be a challenge, especially when a blind child has additional disabilities. In this article Kate García shares her story of obtaining Braille instruction for her daughter. Kate García is the Director of Program Operations and Data Strategy at NYU’s Program for Inclusion and Neurodiversity Education. She is a speech-language pathologist and the proud mother of Elena.
There is a parable that gets passed around in advocacy circles. A town inspector visits a restaurant that does not have a ramp for people who use wheelchairs. The inspector says to the owner, “You know the building code. Why haven’t you installed a ramp?” The owner motions around the packed dining room and exclaims, “But none of my customers use wheelchairs!”
It is a small story that makes a large point. The customers who need the ramp are not there because the ramp was never built. But the owner, looking around at a full dining room, is convinced he has all the evidence he needs to confirm what he believed all along.
I think about this parable often. I thought about it while I sat in meeting after meeting, across tables from educators and administrators who had already decided what my daughter could and could not do. I think about it when I consider how we arrived here, and how far we have come.
My daughter Elena was diagnosed shortly after birth with Cohen Syndrome, an ultra-rare condition affecting an estimated five hundred to one thousand people worldwide. Cohen Syndrome inhibits the production of a critical protein that transports other proteins throughout the body, somewhat like a molecular Uber. Without that transport system, biological processes are disrupted in ways that affect development, vision, muscle tone, and cognition. Individuals with Cohen Syndrome often exhibit high myopia, retinal dystrophy, joint hypermobility, and a characteristically warm and friendly disposition.
Elena is highly curious, and she is an avid learner. She loves to learn about science, insects, animals, and nature. She can name all of the planets in order. She can tell you which one is the biggest, which is the coldest, and which one has rings. She is, as I often say, smart in unexpected ways.
What Elena loves most in this world are books. When she was a baby, if you offered her a choice between a book and a toy, she always chose the book. Still today, each morning she makes her way down the hall to the living room, arms full of her blankie, dollies, and a book. Sometimes she drops one or two items along the way, stopping to retrieve them without complaint, until she finds me already halfway through my second cup of coffee. She wants to read. She points to every word and waits for me to say it aloud, then moves her finger to the next one. She understands that words have meaning, and she wants to learn them, one by one.
Like many autistic kids, Elena processes the sounds, lights, and unpredictability of the world with heightened intensity. Reading is Elena’s connection to a world that can sometimes overwhelm her mind and body. Books meet her where she is. They ask nothing of her except attention, which she gives completely.
Elena’s vision loss is progressive. By the time she was in second grade, she had approximately five to ten degrees of vision remaining. The window for her to read print was narrowing. Braille was not optional; it was necessary. It was the bridge between Elena and everything she loves. I did not expect that Elena’s educational team would deny her Braille instruction when I requested it. What followed taught me something about the limits of my own expertise and the system I thought I understood.
I am an educator and speech-language pathologist. Currently I serve as director of a program that trains teachers across the country to build more inclusive classrooms for neurodivergent students. I share my professional background not to establish my credentials, but to make an important point. Even with all my years of training across three degree-bearing programs, I can recall only one reference to blindness in a special-education survey course.
That gap in my education and training was not unique. It reflects a systemic issue. Historically, blind children with additional disabilities have been underrepresented in research, absent from training programs for professionals, and largely invisible in broader society. Children such as Elena are rarely seen in the spaces where other children learn and play. The professionals who eventually encounter them arrive with very little knowledge and even less experience. And when knowledge and experience are absent, something else fills the gap.
As a speech-language pathologist, I was taught to ground decisions in three integrated components: best available research, professional expertise, and client values and preferences. This decision-making model is adopted across many disciplines, from nursing to physical therapy to education. Each component is essential. If any of the three cornerstones is missing or faulty, decision-making is compromised.
The research on Braille literacy for multiply disabled populations is woefully scarce. The information that does exist is largely buried in niche academic publications and specialized programs that most educators and clinicians will never encounter. Thus, the first cornerstone, best available research evidence, is compromised before a professional ever enters the room.
The second cornerstone, professional expertise, is informed by formal knowledge and real-world experience, both of which are difficult to develop in the area of multiply disabled blind education. This population is small and scattered. Decades of systemic exclusion from mainstream classrooms, recreational programs, camps, and other spaces means that most professionals have had limited, if any, direct experience with children such as Elena.
The lack of research and experience in training programs and real-life settings creates a massive void in the decision-making triad. This vacuum is exceptionally vulnerable to being filled with biases and preconceptions. Much like the rampless restaurant, these ideas become self-affirming. If a team decides to deny access to Braille instruction, a child will not learn Braille, which then affirms the initial decision to deny it. The absence of outcome becomes the evidence for the assumption, and the cycle continues to feed itself.
Bias does not often arrive announced. It arrives wearing the language of professional judgment. It is most dangerous precisely when it cannot be distinguished from professional expertise by the person exercising it or the parent sitting across the table.
This is the vulnerability I encountered on behalf of my daughter.
The arguments presented for withholding Braille instruction from Elena rested largely on a pre-Braille checklist. The checklist is a non-standardized tool used as a gatekeeping mechanism to determine readiness for Braille instruction. Elena did not meet certain criteria on this checklist, and those criteria were used to justify withholding Braille.
I pushed back. I pointed out that the criteria being applied to Elena (concepts such as directionality and left-right orientation) are not prerequisites we apply to sighted children learning print. Sighted children are saturated with print from infancy, long before they can reliably distinguish left from right. We read to babies. We label classrooms. We put name cards on desks. We do not withhold print literacy until children demonstrate readiness on a checklist! And Elena, for what it is worth, was already reading left to right in print. She was meeting print literacy goals in her IEP. The contradiction was plain.
I presented evidence. I asked questions. I documented everything. And I met with continued resistance. The team had already concluded what Elena was capable of achieving. The checklist did not create that conclusion; it affirmed the presumptions that already existed, much like the restaurant owner gesturing around his packed dining room.
Left on my own to figure out a way to provide Braille to Elena, I racked my brain for where to find Braille books. Books. Library. Libraries have books. I called my local branch and explained that my daughter was blind and that I was looking for Braille materials.
The woman on the phone told me that I was in luck. The library director’s daughter was blind. She would have the director call me.
That call from the director changed everything. She gave me a name: Carol Castellano. I did not know that Carol was, and remains, an integral part of the parent community of the National Federation of the Blind. I was desperate and exhausted from fighting alone. Carol listened, validated what I was experiencing, and quickly moved into action. She connected me with the people of the National Federation of the Blind (NFB).
The NFB filled the void. Research articles were placed directly in front of the people who needed to read them. Strategic guidance followed: what to document, what to request, and how to navigate the education system’s processes for appeal and accountability. Teachers of blind students and orientation and mobility specialists weighed in. And when it became clear that Elena’s access to education was being unjustly denied, the NFB provided the muscle of its legal team.
The NFB provided something that I could not have approximated on my own, no matter how many meetings I attended or documents I filed. I am sighted. However fiercely I advocated for Elena, I could not fully understand and represent the values and perspectives component of the evidence-based triad: the lived experience of a blind person who knows that Braille literacy is not only an outcome in an IEP, but a vehicle for independence, connection, and a full life. That perspective is irreplaceable. It could not be provided by a sighted, albeit determined, parent alone. It took blind people, and the organization built by and for blind people, to bring it into the room where decisions about my daughter were being made.
I felt the entirety of the Federation behind us. It was palpable. The National Organization of Parents of Blind Children (NOPBC) and the Federation connected me with advocates who knew the educational system inside and out. Orientation and mobility specialists and teachers of blind students came to assess and educate. The NFB’s legal team fought for Elena’s right to learn. And behind all of it are the Federationists whose donations make this work possible. Every person carried the same conviction: that blind people, including multiply disabled blind children, deserve to live the lives they want.
Elena is now in fourth grade. She is learning Braille, orientation and mobility skills, and assistive technology. She is thriving. When her TVI arrives for instruction, she smiles and giggles with excitement.
Elena’s fight for literacy changed more than her own education. Her school has since partnered with additional specialists to build best practices for working with blind and deafblind students. Her new TVI taught a Braille lesson to Elena’s entire class. Her paraprofessionals are learning Braille. Her speech-language pathologist joins her Braille lessons. The culture of the school shifted. And because Elena is not her team’s only student, that shift will reach other children for years to come. This is now what fills the void instead of biases and presumptions.
The answer is not cynicism about the professionals working with our blind children. Most of them are doing the best they can with what they have been given. The answer is more research, more training, and more inclusion. Every time a child like Elena is present in a classroom, a community, a story, the void is filled with the truth of what blind students can do. The answer is amplifying the perspective of blind people in every decision that affects blind people. And the answer is organizations like the NFB, which exist precisely to ensure that when a sighted mother calls a library in desperation, the right name is on the other end of the line.
Elena still ends every day with a book. She still begins every morning carrying a book down the hall, stopping to retrieve whatever she drops along the way, unhurried and determined. The world is full of things she will have to fight for. Reading will not be one of them.
by Kimberly Christenson
From the Editor: Kimberly Christenson is a special education advocate and disability consultant for blind and low-vision individuals. She is a graduate student in the Professional Development and Research Institute on Blindness at Louisiana Tech University and a longtime member of the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children (NOPBC). She lives in the Texas Hill Country.
There is a persistent, systemic problem in special education when it comes to blind and low-vision students. It shows up in IEP meetings across the country regardless of district size, staffing, or teacher experience. The issue is clarity.
The law is clear. Its application is not.
Federal law states:
“In the case of a child who is blind or has low vision, the IEP Team must provide for instruction in Braille and the use of Braille unless the Team determines, based on an evaluation of the child’s reading and writing skills, needs, and appropriate reading and writing media, including future needs, that instruction in Braille is not appropriate.” (34 CFR §300.324(a)(2)(iii))
Braille is literacy. Braille is access.
Under federal law, Braille must be considered first and ruled out only with data.
Too often, IEP teams apply the framework backwards. They treat Braille as something to offer instead of something they must justify denying.
The wrong question becomes:
Does this child need Braille?
The correct question is:
What data shows that Braille is not appropriate for this child?
That shift places responsibility where the law requires it to be.
When a student is identified as blind or low vision:
Evaluation supports decision-making. It does not justify unnecessary delays in providing literacy access.
For blind and low-vision students, Braille functions as print does for sighted students. It is a literacy system used throughout every area of life.
The breakdown often begins early.
Delaying Braille instruction when the need is evident conflicts with the law, delays literacy development, and limits future independence, education, and employment outcomes.
A common and harmful belief in the field is that Braille should be introduced only after a student’s vision declines significantly.
The law does not require delayed reaction. It requires consideration of both current and future literacy needs.
Literacy develops over time.
When Braille is introduced early, students build fluency, confidence, and independence. When it is delayed, gaps form that become increasingly difficult to close.
When Braille is treated as optional:
This is not an isolated issue. It is systemic.
Federal law already provides the correct framework:
This framework restores clarity, accountability, and access.
Braille is the default.
Braille is considered first and ruled out only with data.
Braille is not delayed when need is evident.
Braille is not earned through failure.
Braille is not optional when it cannot be clearly ruled out.
Until this framework is applied correctly, students will continue to lose access to literacy—not because the law is unclear, but because the law is being applied backwards.
Braille is the default.
VERSATILITY
by Donald Winiecki
From the Editor: Donald Winiecki, EdD PhD, is the founder of Handid Braille Services https://www.handid.org, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization specializing in the production of Braille in languages other than English. In addition to producing Braille, Don partners with multiple organizations to develop Braille codes for underrepresented languages and languages at risk of losing all of their speaking members. In recognition of his work, he was the recipient of a 2024 NFB Jacob Bolotin Award. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors for the National Braille Association (NBA, https://nationalbraille.org) and chairperson of NBA’s World Languages Braille Committee. He is the USA representative on the Committee for Maintaining Technical Braille Codes of the International Council on English Braille (ICEB) https://iceb.org. He is a member of NFB’s President’s Committee on the Advancement and Promotion of Braille (CAPB). In his day job, Don is a professor in the Organizational Performance and Workplace Learning (OPWL) program at Boise State University in Boise, Idaho, where he has taught for thirty years.
You all know about Braille. In its most common form, each Braille symbol is made up of six dots, with two columns of three dots in each one. The Braille code was first used in France somewhere around 1824; its originator, Louis Braille, was French.
By 2024, more than 150 languages had approved Braille codes, and the list is still growing. There are Braille codes for Arabic, Bengali, Chinese (both Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese), English, Farsi, Hawaiian, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, Navajo, and languages all the way down the alphabet to Zulu. Not surprisingly, there is a Braille code for the “universal language” called Esperanto, and there are even rumors of developments toward Klingon Braille!
Today there are active developments in the creation of an updated version of Braille for Yiddish, and there are efforts to develop Braille for languages of indigenous people in North America and Oceania. Navajo Braille is in active use to expand the number of speakers and readers of Navajo. It is becoming part of the curriculum recognized by the Navajo Nation Department of Diné Education (NNDODE).
Uniquely, Hebrew Braille as used in the USA and most of the world is different from Hebrew Braille as used in Israel and for Biblical Hebrew. Another even more detailed code for Hebrew Braille is used for Cantillation, the ritualistic chanting of Hebrew scripture used in Jewish worship. Similarly, Arabic Braille as used in secular documents such as newspapers, menus, and nonreligious books, is different from the Arabic Braille used in religious materials and for Qura’at, and in representing the different chanting styles used when reading the Holy Qur’an aloud. Across the Islamic world there are variations in how the Holy Qur’an is represented in Braille, and a group of scholars is working toward unification of all the Qur’anic Braille codes. All of this is to ensure that the contents are pronounced faithfully in their specific uses.
Today there are even Braille codes for Biblical languages no longer in common spoken use. These codes are used by linguists and historians to study and conserve these languages and particular kinds of content.
All of these codes use the standard six-dot Braille cell to represent symbols, punctuation, and accent marks. With the rise of electronic Braille devices, eight-dot Braille codes are becoming more common. In eight-dot Braille the Braille cell is made up of two columns of four dots each. The additional two dots are used to indicate capitalization, punctuation marks, numbers, and other features in a way that is more compact than is possible with six-dot Braille. However, eight-dot Braille is not yet in widespread use.
In most cases, Braille in other languages works much as it does in English. Specific symbols represent each letter in the alphabet. In the Romance languages (French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, and Spanish) the letters are mostly the same as those used in Unified English Braille (UEB). Additional Braille symbols represent letters that have diacritics or other markings. The same is true for other languages such as Vietnamese Braille.
Most Braille codes include both uncontracted (grade 1) and contracted (grade 2) forms, but some languages don’t use contractions much of the time. For example, while there is a contracted form of Spanish Braille, uncontracted Spanish is the norm. Russian Braille is only represented in uncontracted form. Uniquely, Vietnamese actually has a “grade 0” form that is analogous to uncontracted Braille in UEB. Grade 1 Vietnamese Braille contains some contractions, and grade 2 Vietnamese contains all of the available contractions. Speaking of contractions, you may be interested to know that Braille on pharmaceutical packaging is always written in the uncontracted form.
Many languages do not use the Latin alphabet with which we are familiar in the United States, but they have alphabets of their own. In such cases there are Braille symbols for each letter or symbol and additional Braille symbols for diacritics. In languages with an alphabet where, in print, consonants are represented with a letter-like symbol and vowels are represented with diacritics or markings above and/or below a letter, Braille works the same way. However, in Braille, while a diacritic is placed before the symbol it applies to in Romance languages, in Arabic the vowel is placed after the letter to which it applies.
You may know that Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew, and Urdu are languages that are written from right to left in print. However, no matter how a language is written in print, all Braille is written from left to right.
Some languages are written quite differently from English. In print the Korean language is represented in “blocks” of two, three, four, and sometimes more symbols, arranged in a small table with up to four cells. As a result, Korean is written in two-dimensional blocks rather than as a linear list of letters, with each block analogous to a syllable. However, Korean Braille symbols are written on the same line, the same way that UEB is written.
In print, Korean has fourteen consonants and ten vowels. Depending on its placement within a word, a consonant or vowel may be represented with a different Braille symbol. It may not be represented at all if it is a “silent letter.”
In print, Japanese uses at least three symbol systems. Kanji are Chinese symbols adapted for use in Japanese print. Hiragana symbols are used for indigenous Japanese words, and Katakana symbols are used for “loan words” or words derived from another language. Both Hiragana and Katakana are phonetic lettering systems. In fact, both Hiragana and Katakana contain the same sounds.
A reader of Japanese in print knows what sort of word they are reading by the symbols used. However, in Japanese Braille all words are represented in phonetic symbols. This makes it possible for a tactile reader to “read the sound” of the words, whether the words are written in print using Kanji, Hiragana, or Katakana. However, the Braille reader has to learn separately where a word comes from. Also, just as is the case in English, some Hiragana or Katakana symbols have different sounds, depending on where they appear in a word, and sometimes depending on the word itself (similar to the way the “c” in English sounds different in “cat” and “cyber”). This means that in Japanese Braille a word may be spelled differently in print and Braille, so the pronunciation is represented properly in Braille.
Simplified Chinese (Mandarin) and Traditional Chinese (Cantonese) are languages that are not written in alphabetic letters, so they presented a unique puzzle for transcription into Braille. In fact, the same puzzle had to be solved when figuring out how to type Chinese symbols—it would be impossible to have a keyboard with the thousands of symbols necessary!
The puzzle was solved for simplified Chinese with the development of Pinyin, a Romanized version of Chinese that approximates a phonetic spelling of Chinese words. In a computer word processor, the computer has been programmed to recognize Pinyin and automatically converts it to display the proper simplified Chinese symbol on the screen. Because Pinyin uses the same twenty-six letters as the English alphabet, it was a straightforward process to map those letters to represent a phonetic version of simplified Chinese script in Braille.
You may think that all we have to do is put text into Braille and we’re good to go! However, this isn’t the case. The formatting of Braille text to identify headings, body text, lists, and especially tables, is important in helping a reader understand the structure and organization of information on a page. In North America, the guidebook for formatting Braille textbooks is 672 pages long! You can learn more about it at https://www.brailleauthority.org/publications-area.
Even after a document is transcribed into Braille, it won’t be useful until it can be put into physical form. It can be embossed onto paper or saved digitally for display on a refreshable Braille device (RBD).
In North America, Braille is most commonly embossed onto 120# or heavier paper that is 11.5” wide and 11” tall. In other parts of the world it is common for Braille to be embossed into A4 size paper sheets.
The machines that create embossed Braille are called, surprisingly enough, embossers. These are fantastic machines (and fantastically loud!) and they cost a pretty penny. Even a basic embosser may cost three thousand dollars or more.
RBDs are devices that contain a six-key Perkins style keyboard and one row of Braille cells. Models are available with line lengths varying from twelve cells to eighty cells. Multi-line RBDs and RBDs specialized for displaying simple graphics are becoming available, but costs are still very high for the average user. We are optimistic that production costs can be reduced, and eventually these devices will become more affordable.
Because you are an active participant in the world of 2026, by now you’re probably thinking that, despite the differences between Braille codes, you can simply tell your AI tool to translate something into Braille and get a perfect result. However, you’d be wrong, for now at least.
As of April 2026, AI is still very unreliable when it comes to translating anything into proper Braille, and this is only for UEB (Unified English Braille)! My experiments with AI production of Braille for other languages show there is still a long way to go. This is due in part to the way AI “learns.” AI learns by consuming huge (that’s HUGE!) quantities of data and identifying patterns. Since there is not a huge amount of Braille online for AI to study, it hasn’t gotten very good yet.
While Louis Braille is known to have developed literary Braille for the French language, he also developed a music Braille code. In fact, some historians are convinced that his music Braille was the first Braille code officially recognized in France. The Braille music code used today has changed very little since Louis Braille’s day.
Mathematics is known by some to be a “universal language,” a form of expression that is the same no matter where you are on earth. However, you may be surprised to learn that there are dozens of different Braille codes for math, chemistry, and scientific notation. Nemeth Code Braille is perhaps the most widely used Braille code for math and science in the United States. The UEB technical code is growing in use and is the standard in the UK, Canada, Australia, and other countries that use UEB. Adopted in 2016, UEB includes its own symbols and formatting rules for mathematics and science, from arithmetic to very advanced machine learning. There are also mathematical Braille codes specialized for Arabic, Russian, and other languages.
Across all languages, the same Braille system is used to represent Arabic numerals. Some languages have additional Braille symbols to represent when print numbers are written in non-Roman symbols.
Finally, while punctuation marks are fairly consistent across all languages in print (and all Romance languages use the same punctuation symbols), Braille punctuation differs across different languages. Commas, periods, parentheses, and other marks of punctuation are represented differently, depending upon the language. There is even a Braille code for IPA, the International Phonetic Alphabet, which is used by linguists to represent the sonic quality of languages.
Braille has come a long way since Louis Braille’s first attempts in the early 1800s. The simple six-dot cell that Louis Braille devised as a teenager in Paris has proved to be remarkably versatile, adapting to myriad human needs and cultures through the years.
REVIEW
by Janice Milusich
Illustrated by Chris Raschka
Reviewed by Barbara Cheadle
From the Editor: After stepping down as founding president of the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children (NOPBC) and founding editor of Future Reflections, Barbara Cheadle launched a new career as a librarian. She has a special interest in children’s books that depict blind characters.
I Hear the Snow, I Smell the Sea
by Janice Milusich
Illustrated by Chris Raschka
Penguin/Random House, 2025
ISBN: 9780593308172
I love children’s books. A well written, beautifully and appropriately illustrated book is a joy for both a child and the lucky adult or older sibling who gets to introduce the book to a child. Occasionally I am asked to review a storybook that portrays blindness or low vision. Each time I agree, I find myself needing first to go back and review the basic elements that answer the question: What should a children’s storybook do?
Should a storybook be entertaining? Always. A book that does not capture the imagination or spark curiosity will not be read. Should it educate? Nice, but not wholly necessary. There’s nothing wrong with a book that simply sparks delight. Should the book entice children to be curious about the world around them? Children are born with an inherent curiosity. Well written books will channel, reward, and nurture that innate drive to discover, to explore, to ask “Why?” Should a storybook promote an interest in literacy? This will naturally be a side benefit of the book that entertains, delights, rewards, and nurtures curiosity, and perhaps educates as well.
Beyond these basics, the storybook that portrays a character with a disability such as blindness has at least the obligation to “do no harm.” That is, it must not perpetuate inaccurate, damaging stereotypes. Preferably, it should advance knowledge and acceptance of the character with the disability as part of the human family spectrum—neither superior nor inferior to others, and certainly neither to be pitied nor excessively admired.
This lovely book, illustrated by Caldecott Award-winning artist Chris Raschka, hits the mark on all the basic elements of a good, even outstanding, storybook featuring a character with a disability (blindness). Named in 2025 as a Schneider Award Honor Book, author and teacher of visually-impaired preschoolers Janice Milusich takes the reader on a sensory journey through the four seasons.
The journey is narrated in the first person by Neveah, who begins by explaining to the reader that “Where I live, seasons change. I know because my fingers and toes, my ears, my mouth and nose all tell me so.” (This is the first subtle clue in the text that Neveah is blind. The text never states it directly.) Accompanied by Mommy, Ney-Ney describes the “Scruunnch!” of snow under her boots in winter and the smell of hyacinths in spring. The “warm hug” of the sun and the feel of sand under her toes tell her that summer has come. The seasons come full cycle when she describes the joy of raking dried autumn leaves into piles to dive into with a “Plop!” and the anticipation she feels, “Mmmmmm!” when she catches “a whiff of something sweet” that her neighbor, Mr. Martin, must be baking.
The lyrical text and stunning illustrations work together seamlessly to celebrate the senses, even those not immediately accessible. The illustrations have the appearance of crayon on a textured surface. My fingers itched with the desire to run them across the surface and feel the slightly bumpy, waxy, crumbling texture of crayon. The subtle use of vibrant colors conveys the chill of winter (blue), the fresh newness of spring (pink), the heat of summer (yellow), and the mellow smells of apple and cinnamon of autumn (orange).
I do need to warn the reader that the particularly observant child may well ask you why, despite the title of the book, Neveah never actually says anything about smelling the sea. I don’t know where or how this disconnect between title and text occurred, but a blind friend (an adult, not a child) with whom I shared the book, noticed it immediately. So, to be forewarned is to be prepared.
Although Mommy seems a bit more omnipresent than I think necessary, neither does she hover. The illustrations and text show Neveah working independently as she rolls big balls in the snow to create the snowman. She rakes up the fallen autumn leaves into a pile and, despite Mommy’s caution, shows no fear, only curiosity, about a buzzing bee.
I do think the author missed both an opportunity to educate about blindness and to further celebrate the senses in the spring scenario. Instead of holding Mommy’s hand, I imagine the sounds and textures Neveah would experience if she were wielding her long white cane as she walks side by side with Mommy down the gravel path to find the hyacinths. Nevertheless, this is an outstanding storybook, and it deserves a place on library shelves everywhere.
NEWS AND MORE
by Lisamaria Martinez and Deborah Kent Stein
When Barbara Cheadle and a dedicated group of parents founded the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children (NOPBC) in 1982, one of their most pressing missions was to boost Braille literacy among blind children and youth. As parents, they well knew that a bit of healthy competition can be a great motivator. With that in mind, they launched the first Braille Readers Are Leaders Contest (BRAL) in 1984.
Teachers and parents learned about the contest through a modest insert in Future Reflections. The idea was clear and simple. For six weeks blind students in Grades K-12 would log the number of Braille pages they read. Students would compete with readers in their grade category (K-1, 2-4, 5-6, 7-8, and 9-12) to find who could read the most Braille pages. When the page counts were tallied, the top three winners in each grade category received cash prizes. Every child who entered the contest received a ribbon and a certificate of participation.
Braille Readers Are Leaders quickly grew into much more than an annual contest. It became a source of empowerment for blind children. Some students entered year after year, competing with their peers and striving to outdo their own past records. Teachers and parents were thrilled. “My son can’t wait for the contest to begin,” one mother reported. “He starts gathering Braille books weeks in advance, so he’ll be all ready to go.”
Year by year the contest received wider attention. Many of the contest winners got special recognition at school assemblies. Small-town newspapers carried stories about local contest winners, praising their achievements, explaining how Braille works, and pointing out the need for more Braille books to be made available.
In 2009, as people around the world celebrated the two hundredth anniversary of Louis Braille’s birth, the Braille Readers Are Leaders contest added a category for adult Braille readers. This expansion reflected a deeper truth—Braille literacy is lifelong. With the introduction of adult categories, the contest became more representative of the broader blind community. Braille readers at every level could now participate together, reinforcing the idea that literacy is both personal and collective. The contest motivated new Braille learners to spend time reading each day, and it encouraged lifelong Braille readers to challenge themselves and one another to read more.
Reviewing and tabulating hundreds of reading logs, contacting the winners in each category, sending out ribbons and certificates to all the participants, and mailing prizes to the winners devoured hundreds of hours of staff and volunteer time. Ultimately, the Braille Readers Are Leaders Contest became a victim of its own success. In 2012, without fanfare, the NOPBC and the NFB decided to discontinue the contest, after twenty-six years.
Braille readers were disappointed, but they did their best to look on the bright side. The contest had a good long run, they reminded themselves. Nothing lasts forever. And nothing will stop us from reading.
But Braille Readers Are Leaders had not been laid to rest after all. In 2013 a group of Braille readers in the NFB Illinois affiliate decided to organize a statewide contest for K-12 readers. It was called Illinois Braille Readers Are Leaders, or IBRAL. To the delight of the organizers, the contest was a great success, with thirty-four children taking part.
In 2015 the NFB of Minnesota joined forces with Illinois. That year the contest was renamed Braille Readers Are Leaders LOL 2, for the state nicknames Land of Lincoln and Land of Lakes.
The contest continued to widen and grow. In 2016 Braille readers from the eight states bordering the Great Lakes took part in Great Lakes Braille Readers Are Leaders.
By this time the contest that refused to go peaceably had won the renewed support of NAPUB, the National Association to Promote the Use of Braille. In 2017 NAPUB sponsored the Nationwide Braille Readers Are Leaders Contest. Each NFB affiliate that wished to participate contributed one hundred dollars toward contest expenses, which included prizes and mailings. Eighteen NFB affiliates signed on, and eighty-one Braille readers took part, diligently counting up the Braille pages they read.
Finally, in 2018, Braille Readers Are Leaders returned in full force under the auspices of the National Federation of the Blind and the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults. Instead of counting pages, participants now keep track of the number of minutes they read Braille each day during the contest period. They use the online platform Beanstack to register for the contest and log their minutes of reading. Blind adults can participate as well as blind children, and there is a new category for teachers of blind students. The winners are celebrated at a virtual ceremony in early March.
Braille Readers Are Leaders has had a long and inspiring history. As the name promises, many past contestants have become prominent in the Federation and in the wider community. Braille readers truly are leaders!
Adult Expert
Shane Popplestone, OH - 25,900 minutes
Mary Hu, CA - 25,503 minutes
Anna Trotman - 20,140 minutes
Adult Intermediate
Dawn Chambers, IL - 9,195 minutes
Emily Boney, LA - 9,185 minutes
Karen Larson, SD - 7,623 minutes
Adult Novice
BJ Snyder, NY - 6,464 minutes
Ezzie Davis, CA - 5,773 minutes
Marsha Summers, FL - 2,223 minutes
Teachers
Sharon Clark, NJ - 4,725 minutes
Alyson Romine, TX - 3,721 minutes
Krystal Guillory, LA - 1,815 minutes
Grades 9-12
Nadiya Albrecht, OH - 3,350 minutes
Mae Lane-Karnas, VT - 2,116 minutes
Jasmine Eiland, WA - 2,018 minutes
Grades 6-8
Narjis Karimipour, LA - 7,551 minutes
Gabriel Wahlberg, FL - 7,380 minutes
Zora Wing, NY - 3,091 minutes
Grades 4-5
Juniper Eisenberg, NY - 3,727 minutes
Elizabeth Cibuzar, MN - 3,504 minutes
Mila Chow, CA - 2,746 minutes
Grades 2-3
Sawyer Smith, GA - 2,815 minutes
Mayeson Gardner, IL - 1,310 minutes
Charity Boney, LA - 934 minutes
Grades K-1
Sophia Schuttler, LA - 499 minutes
Beau Bardhoshi, VA - 161 minutes
Ariana Velasquez Barrios, DE - 60 minutes
Summer is right around the corner, and the 2026 NFB BELL Academy is preparing for another unforgettable season. If you haven’t registered your student or child yet, now is a great time—programs across the nation are filling quickly.
Families often tell us that NFB BELL is one of the most joyful and empowering experiences their children have all year.
NFB BELL helps children grow academically, socially, and emotionally, all while having fun.
Register now at nfb.org/bell. We look forward to an amazing summer of growth and community!
NFB STEM2U teaches blind youth accessible nonvisual STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) to improve their STEM proficiency. NFB STEM2U brings a full day of accessible STEM lessons and activities to blind youth, providing nonvisual techniques that help blind students from across the country explore and pursue STEM education and careers.
This program is designed for blind and low-vision students, grades K-12. It’s great for students who:
A mystery needs solving, and it’s up to you to crack the case!
Students will rotate through hands-on evidence stations, practice accessible science techniques, and work in teams to present their findings. From impressions and materials testing to DNA patterns and problem solving, participants will discover how engaging and inclusive forensic science can be.
The NFB affiliates listed below are planning to host an NFB STEM2U program this summer.
Alabama
Arizona
Illinois
Michigan
Missouri
New Mexico
Oregon
South Dakota
If you can’t attend in person, prefer learning from home, or are a teacher of blind students looking to explore the activities with your class, check out STEM2U Online. Our eLearning page features engaging lessons from our program curriculums.
Through support from a generous donation from General Motors (GM), blind students across the country will learn fundamental nonvisual tools and techniques they can use to pursue further education and careers in STEM. The members of the NFB are extremely grateful for this gift from General Motors (GM), which will truly help blind students live the lives they want.
If you have questions, please email [email protected], or call 410-659-9314, extension 2418.
For many families, story time is a simple, everyday ritual. But for families with blind children or blind parents, access to Braille books can transform that moment into something extraordinary.
Across the country, families are experiencing the joy of reading together through the Braille Books Program from the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults. A package in the mail quickly becomes something more: a shared experience filled with curiosity, laughter, and connection.
Each year the Braille Books Program provides thousands of free Braille books to blind children and parents throughout the country. Participants receive a new book every month—a book that they can keep, revisit, and build into their own personal libraries. Since its launch, the program has distributed tens of thousands of Braille books, helping ensure that blind children can read the same popular titles as their sighted peers.
The impact of this program reaches far beyond literacy. Families often describe the excitement that builds when a new book arrives in the mail. Children gather around to open the package together, eager to discover the next story. Laughter pulls in siblings from other rooms. What begins as reading becomes a shared family ritual—one that builds confidence, strengthens relationships, and reinforces a sense of belonging.
For blind parents, the Braille Books Program is especially meaningful. Having access to Braille books allows parents to read independently with their children, creating a more inclusive and empowering home environment. Reading becomes an experience in which everyone participates equally.
In 2026 the Braille Books Program continues to grow, offering a thoughtfully curated lineup that reflects a wide range of interests, from sports and history to mystery and adventure. The selections also connect young readers to major cultural moments, including the global excitement surrounding the World Cup Soccer Tournament.
The 2026 Braille Books Program selections include:
January: Jo Jo Makoons: The Super-Scary Sleepover by Dawn Quigley
February: Who Was Jackie Robinson? by Gail Herman
March: Who Is Simone Biles? by Stefanie Loh
April: What Is the World Cup? by Bonnie Bader
May: What Is the Women’s World Cup? by Gina Shaw
June: Ballpark Mysteries: The Fenway Foul-up by David A. Kelly
July: Ballpark Mysteries: The L.A. Dodger by David A. Kelly
August: Ballpark Mysteries: The Sausage Race Chase by David A. Kelly
September: Who Was Roberto Clemente? by Buckley James Jr.
October: Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Marshmallow Tower by Eric Sobol
November: Zayd Saleem, Chasing the Dream: Power Forward by Hena Khan
December: My Fox Helps Santa Claus by David Blaze
Your support helps keep our resources free for blind children and adults. You can contribute to the Action Fund in three easy ways.
Make a gift online by visiting https://actionfund.org/donate.
Give over the phone by calling 410-659-9315.
Send a check made out to “American Action Fund” to 1800 Johnson Street, Baltimore, MD 21230.
Often the simplest and most significant way to make a charitable contribution is to plan a legacy gift. Creating a lasting impact is easier than you might think. Choose an option that works best for your circumstances.
You can plan to give all or part of a bank account, insurance proceeds, investment assets, real estate, or a retirement account. You can even give a required minimum distribution from your IRA directly to charity and avoid taxes on the distribution. After taking care of your loved ones, you could bequeath a specific dollar amount or a percentage of your estate to an organization whose mission is important to you.
The American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults Legacy Society recognizes and honors the generosity of friends of the Action Fund who have chosen to leave a legacy through a will or other planned giving option.
If you wish to give part or all of an account, simply fill out a POD (payable on death) or TOD (transfer on death) form. For pensions and insurance assets, you can designate a charity as a beneficiary. If you would like to leave a legacy to the Action Fund in your will, please include the following language:
I give, devise, and bequeath unto the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults, 1800 Johnson Street, Suite 100, Baltimore, Maryland 21230, (EIN# 52-1192529) the sum of $______________ (or) _________ “percent of my net estate” or “the following stocks and bonds”: ____________________, to be used for its worthy purposes on behalf of blind persons.
If you have questions or would like more information, please reach out to Patti Chang at 410-659-9315 or [email protected]. If you have included the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults in your will or have made some other provision for a future gift, please contact Patti so we can recognize you as a member of our Legacy Society.
Legacy gifts carry the values and ideals that have been important to you throughout your lifetime and provide for generations of blind children and adults. Please consider the American Action Fund in your future plans.
American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults
1800 Johnson Street
Baltimore, MD 21230
[email protected]
Each year the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults provides an extensive collection of Braille and Twin Vision® books to the Braille Book Fair, conducted at the national convention of the National Federation of the Blind. Braille readers from across the country also donate their gently used books to be enjoyed by others. This unique event provides hundreds of Braille readers of all ages the rare opportunity to build their own collection of Braille books free of charge. Action Fund volunteers, including many board members, sort and set out the books, assist browsers as they look for titles, and work with volunteers from UPS to pack and ship the books for the guests.
The Braille Book Fair welcomes donations of gently used Braille books for readers of all ages. The Book Fair is unable to accept textbooks, Bibles, or magazines.
https://www.loc.gov/nls/services-and-resources/braille-on-demand
Contact: [email protected]
If you’re an NLS patron and Braille reader, NLS can help you have your favorite books at your fingertips. Through the Braille on Demand program, you can request up to five books a month in hardcopy Braille to keep indefinitely for your personal use. Choose from any of the tens of thousands of Braille titles available on BARD, the NLS Audio and Braille Reading website. To request a Braille on Demand book, use the Braille on Demand request form.
https://www.seedlings.org/
PO Box 51924
Livonia, MI 48151-5924
734-427-8552 or 800-777-8552
Seedlings Braille Books for Children is dedicated to increasing the opportunity for literacy and education for blind children by providing high quality free and low-cost Braille books for children. Seedlings also has Braille alphabet cards, Braille blocks, and Braille gifts.
https://www.nbp.org/
Children’s Braille Book Club
The Children’s Braille Book Club is the only book club featuring a new print/Braille title every month. Each month NBP’s editors choose a popular, classic, and/or seasonally appropriate children’s book in print. The production staff cuts the books apart at the spine and inserts the identical text in Braille on transparent plastic sheets. The books are rebound in a print/Braille format to be enjoyed by the whole family. Free annual memberships are awarded on a first-come, first-served basis each year.
https://www.beulahreimerlegacy.com
Contact: April Enderton, [email protected]
Beulah Reimer Legacy sells new and gently used print/Braille children’s books at affordable prices. They also offer other learning materials, such as flashcards, puzzles, games, and more.
Computers for the Blind
https://www.computersfortheblind.org
Contact: [email protected]
Computers for the Blind offers affordable refurbished laptop technology with accessible software including JAWS, ZoomText, and Fusion. Clients are eligible for free training focused on keyboard skills and JAWS proficiency. Computers for the Blind also is now selling refurbished iPads.
Perkins Braille Bloom
https://www.perkins.org/perkins-brailler/perkins-braille-bloom
Perkins School for the Blind announces the release of Perkins Braille Bloom®. The Perkins Braille Bloom is a new device that can bring Braille to life on any screen. With the Bloom, any Perkins Classic Brailler connects to the internet, becoming a modern, plug-and-play Braille keyboard for computers, tablets, and mobile devices. It’s real-time communication without barriers; instant Braille-to-text translation for teachers conducting virtual lessons, for parents staying close to their child’s learning, for kids who want to text with their friends, and more. The Bloom clicks into the Brailler and connects via Bluetooth or USB.
Perkins 2026 CVI Conference: The Collective Power of Us
Dates: July 19-21, 2026
Registration Deadline: July 6, 2026
Location: Hyatt Regency Boston
https://www.perkins.org/event/2026-cvi-conference/
Cortical Visual Impairment (CVI) is the leading cause of blindness in children. Explore assessment tools, the latest research, and resources for families, individuals with CVI, and service providers. The conference brings together leading experts, groundbreaking research, and individuals living with CVI to leverage the power of collective expertise and community.
Word Learning and Vocabulary Development in Blind Children
Contact: Lindsay Harris
309-338-3716
[email protected]
The NIH (National Institutes of Health) is funding this research because kids who are blind have been ignored by language development researchers. Nearly all theories of language development claim that vision is central to children’s language development, yet tens of thousands of blind children learn words perfectly well. This research hopes to shed light on the strategies blind children use to build an English vocabulary and looks at which words they know at different ages.
There are two stages to the study. First a parent or guardian will fill out a survey with demographic questions, questions about the child’s visual impairment, their language use, and their outdoor activities. After the survey, the child will have a virtual session with a member of the research team. The team session will last about an hour and will focus on the child’s vocabulary and experiences. Participants will receive an Amazon gift card worth $250.
Wellbeing and Health among Low-vision and Blind Youth
https://www.youthviewresearch.org
Contact: Arianna Albertorio, 806-742-3769
[email protected]
Conducted by the NIH/National Eye Institute, this study seeks to examine the impact that positive and negative social interactions have on the physical and mental health of blind and low-vision children and teens. This virtual study conducted across the United States seeks to identify the driving factors of the physical and mental health inequities in blind and visually-impaired children. Participants will complete two testing sessions, including interviews about mental-health symptoms. Participants’ physical activity and sleep data may be assessed via an activity-monitoring watch which the participant will wear for fourteen days. Participants who complete the study will receive a gift card valued at $150.
Educational Technology Survey
https://nfb.org/legal/surveys
The NFB is gathering information regarding the accessibility of educational technology used in our nation’s schools (kindergarten through graduate level). If you are a student, parent, teacher, or administrator who uses screen access software or other accommodations to participate nonvisually in educational programs or services, or if you are the parent, teacher, or administrator of someone who does, please complete the Education Technology Survey once a semester and contribute to this important research.
by Janiece Peterson Kent
From the Editor: In 2009 my sister-in-law, Janiece Peterson Kent, composed a set of lyrics about Braille in honor of Louis Braille’s birthday. The melody came from the song “You Gotta Have Heart” from the Broadway musical Damn Yankees. Before she passed away in 2013, Janiece told me the lyrics were mine, to share anywhere I wished. This special issue of Future Reflections feels like the right place. Enjoy!
If you don’t know the tune, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry8CpIg2fvU.
You gotta have Braille;
Louis’ system blazed the trail.
When your eyes don’t work, and print’s not a read,
Then what you need is Braille.
You gotta have dots;
You can read with zero watts;
Two across and either three or four tall,
You’ve got it all with dots.
Two hundred eighty-nine contractions
Promote our speed and fluency;
If it’s calculus or fractions,
There’s Nemeth code for clarity.
You can do great tricks with this matrix!
You gotta have Braille;
Mark CDs and label mail.
You may listen to memoirs or romance,
But if there’s a chance to miss detail,
Then you’ve gotta have Braille.
Other languages too
Use this system tried and true.
With a symbol set of just sixty-three,
Context is key, it’s true.
There’s Braille music by touch;
Every dot conveys so much.
When you learn each note and nuance of Bach,
Chopin or Bloch, it’s touch.
Louis Braille, as a musician,
Conceived the music code as well,
To read and write each composition
With great precision cell by cell.
Harmony, rhythm, and what goes with ‘em!
And we have computer code;
Put your mind in eight-dot mode.
When we’re switching codes, the signs make it clear
So we can shift gears along the road,
And we won’t overload.
[8 rest]
You’ve gotta have Braille,
Different ways to access Braille:
Slates and styli in their various forms,
Braillers in swarms expand the tale.
Notetakers and Braille displays,
Hooked up to internet highways,
Help us carry books—ten volumes or more,
A hymnal or Shakespeare’s plays.
No more floor-to-ceiling storage,
Unless hard-copy is your thing.
Through WebBraille and Bookshare we’ll forage,
For more than ever choice is king.
It can be pivotal if it’s digital.
Such new options as these
End up saving lots of trees.
Still, here’s to Louis for the systems he wrought,
The battles he fought—
He did prevail.
We salute Louis Braille.
Yes you’ve gotta have Braille.
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