by Catherine Skivers
On February 25th 2017, I was pleased to be invited to attend the Northern California Regional Braille Challenge, the National Program of the Braille Institute, that was held at the Lighthouse for the Blind in San Francisco. The new Lighthouse for the Blind location is wonderful, and they have many programs for the blind in the area. The Braille Challenge was sponsored in collaboration with the California School for the Blind, The Vista Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and many people from the area who served as volunteers and others who handled the various events taking place throughout the day.
Children from everywhere, from grades 1 through 12, came together to participate in the Braille Challenge. They competed in a contest that includes reading and comprehension, speed and accuracy, proofreading, spelling, and chart and graph reading. Some of the children received prizes for their efforts. In addition to this, some other events included workshops and panel discussions for parents and teachers. The program lasted all day and began in the morning with the students marching into a central meeting room. It was such a surprise to see so many young people using white canes—they start much younger than we did in my day!
Stuart Wittenstein, retired Superintendent of the California School for the Blind, led the children in the Braille Challenge. Caitlin Hernandez, a recent recipient of a Master's Degree in Special Education from San Francisco State University, was the keynote speaker. She currently works as a resource specialist for the San Francisco Unified School District. She pleased her young listeners by sharing with them that she had been a winner in the first Braille Challenge in 2009. She is very energetic and has a lot of musical talent. As an undergraduate at the University of California at Santa Cruz, Caitlin sang in and was the assistant director for an acapella group on campus. She was involved in many other student activities. She has written 3 plays, including a short musical in which she starred in a production in Los Angeles. She gave many words of encouragement to all her listeners.
I was pleased to be able to speak for a few minutes to the children and their parents. It was wonderful to see all the parents accompanying their children and offering so much support--that doesn't always happen. In my remarks to them, I congratulated everyone and told them about what braille meant to me. They seemed to enjoy my telling them that while they are blind children with mostly sighted parents, in my family it is different--I am the blind parent with sighted children. I did point out that this didn't mean that my kids got away with anything! I congratulated the parents for bringing their children, and the children for participating in the Braille Challenge. I ended my remarks by telling the children that everyone there that day would not win a prize, but that they did not need to worry about that because they are already learning braille and using it, and that, in itself, is a great prize to any blind person. Stuart came over to me and said he thought that was an important point to make. He had attended a Braille Challenge meeting where he saw a little girl crying in the dining room, so he went over to see if he could be of help to her and her father. The father told him that she was the only blind child in her class and had been used to being recognized a lot and was unhappy not to have won a prize. He asked me how I happened to think of telling the children this and, I told him that once upon a time I was a little girl who didn't win a prize.
It is a well known fact that the majority of blind people who are employed know braille. The Council currently has an affiliate—The Braille Revival League of California. In a recent BRLC meeting held to determine whether we wanted to merge with the Library Users of California, we learned that while many people use braille, they do not belong to the Revival League. As far as I am concerned, I think we can all agree that braille is currently under siege from many sources. We need to urge people to have their children taught braille, and I would urge those of you who know braille and simply haven't joined BRLC affiliate to do so. I think supporting the Braille Challenge is an excellent project for BRLC to support. I can't think of anything better for us to do. It would be time and energy well invested, and certainly in keeping with the fine work CCB has done throughout the years.
