Learning Braille

Learning Braille, a photo by Cobra_11 on Flickr.

About two weeks ago, after seenig a TV documentary on blind people and literature, I became interested in Braille. When I studied it more closely, I came to the conclusion that it's a genius way of writing information: computers complicate with a bunch of zeroes and ones: when I wrote my name that way, I used up 2 pages. Braille, however, only takes a few dots. I therefore decided to learn Braille. I looked up a tutorial on the internet and went to work. I memorized the alphabet, the numbers and a few symbols in a couple of hours. I also practiced reading and writing by drawing the dots on paper. A couple of days ago I went to Ljubljana and bought a Braille slate (it's the silver plate on the photo), which is used to write proper Braille as little bumps on paper. Before, I learnt Braille visually by looking at the dots, but now I'm learning it properly: blind writing and reading by touch. The writing must be done in the negative: you have to write from right to left and mirror the letters, so that when you turn the page over everything is written correctly and you can read from left to right. I'm pretty good at writing already and I actually find it easier to write with my eyes closed, just feeling the cells and the dots. Reading, however, is trickier, mainly due to the fact that my feeling of touch is not particularly sharp yet, but I can recognize the letters and words by feeling the bumps already. Practice makes perfect, right? ;-)

I intend to introduce as many people as I can to Braille. This way, people will get to know each other better and start living together, not just existing side by side. The world will be a better place then, I believe... :-)