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What
Are Those Dots?
by Donna Wood, Rehabilitation Teacher, Wichita |
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The Wichita
Area Rehabilitation Teacher tries to answer the question, "What
are those dots?" every first and third Monday of each month.
Since August of 2000, Donna Wood, Rehabilitation Teacher for the Blind
in Wichita, has held a Braille class for those clients interested
in learning more about "those dots." The classes have grown
to include both a beginning and advanced class with 4-6 people attending
each class. Since most of the original students have graduated from the class and are now using Braille on a regular basis the class format has changed over the past year. The first hour of class is for the beginning student who is learning the un-contracted Braille. In this class they get a lot of one on one tutoring from the teacher. Many of the graduates help with the beginning students too and this reinforces what they have already learned and encourages the new Braille readers to keep practicing. The second hour of class is for the student who has advanced to learning contracted Braille. Here again many of the graduates stay to tutor and mentor fellow students. Four of the classmates have formed a reading club. They are all reading the same book and they meet together and take turns reading to each other. This helps to improve speed and accuracy. One of the graduates won the 2003 NFBK Braille Scholarship for new adult Braille readers. He read over 1100 pages of Braille in one year. With his new skills he has now returned to college to pursue his Master's Degree. He is using his Braille skills to take his own notes in class and his typelite to down- load text books to read and study at his convenience. As long as people ask ,"What are those dots?" I'll keep teaching the braille. It is such a joy to see my adult clients move past the struggle of learning the alphabet and on to reading a book of their choice. Most never thought they would be able to enjoy reading again once they experienced their vision loss. What fun to prove them wrong in such a positive way. |
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