A Touch of Understanding

A Touch of Understanding

The Braille Monitor

July 2003

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A

Touch of Understanding

by

T. Keung Hui

From

the Editor: The following story appeared on May 23, 2003, in the Raleigh, North

Carolina, News and Observer. It reports on the positive things that can

happen when creative teachers make use of the NFB's Braille Is Beautiful curriculum.

Here it is:

Preston

Davis can shuffle and split a deck of UNO cards like a cardsharp. It wouldn't

be hard to overlook that Preston, eight, is visually impaired and relies on

Braille dots on the cards to see them. He was among a group visiting Davis Drive

Middle School on Thursday as part of an effort to help sixth-graders learn more

about the world of the visually impaired.

"Preston

is cool," said Kimmy Lockhart, eleven, who acted as one of Preston's guides.

"It's fun seeing things that are different from us."

The

visit by Preston and sixteen other students from the Governor Morehead School

for the Blind in Raleigh culminated two months of study by 130 students at Davis

Drive. Through the Braille Is Beautiful curriculum of the National Federation

of the Blind the sixth-graders have learned to read and write simple Braille

letters and numbers. Braille uses patterns of raised dots to represent characters;

the dots are felt with the fingers.

"This

is an opportunity for the students to work with kids they normally wouldn't

meet," said Marnie Utz, the Davis Drive sixth-grade teacher who involved

the school in the program. "This is a service opportunity."

One

of the Braille curriculum's main themes has been that blind people can do anything

sighted people can do. "It's cool seeing that people with eye disabilities

are no different than us," said Alex Morrison, twelve, as she played UNO

with Brandi Hunter, eleven, a visually impaired student. The Davis Drive students

visited Morehead in April and learned what it is like to walk with a cane, listen

to a computerized voice, and play a game of goal ball, where participants detect

the ball's presence through the ringing of a bell inside.

During

the reciprocal visit by Morehead students, the Davis Drive students showed how

they could spell their names in Braille and play UNO on specially modified cards.

For the Morehead students the visit was just as rewarding. "It's nice meeting

people who want to learn Braille," Brandi said. "It's fun because

in middle school you don't get to go out on field trips often."

Preston

said he enjoyed the change of pace from life at Morehead, a boarding school.

"It's good being around sighted people instead of blind people all the

time," Preston said.

Hazel

Staley, past president of the North Carolina chapter of the National Federation

of the Blind, said the activities build bonds between sighted and visually impaired

people like herself. "Blind people are out in society more and more,"

Staley said. "If they can communicate with us in a way we can read, it's

nice."

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