<html class="apple-mail-supports-explicit-dark-mode"><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto">This is great! Congratulations McKenzie. Thanks for sharing.<br id="lineBreakAtBeginningOfSignature"><div dir="ltr">Annette Lutz<div>President</div><div>Capital Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Ohio</div><div>614-288-4323</div><div>President.capital.nfboh@gmail.com</div><div><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the characteristic that defines you or your future. Everyday we raise the expectations of blind people because we know that low expectations create obstacles between blind people and our dreams. You can live the life you want, blindness is not what holds you back. </span></div></div><div dir="ltr"><br>On May 6, 2026, at 10:43\u202fPM, Eric Duffy via CapChapOhio <capchapohio@nfbnet.org> wrote:<br><br></div><div dir="ltr">\ufeff<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">This article is well worth reading. I have pasted it into the body of this message to make it easier to read.Miami University student honored for winning national Braille Challenge<br>The Inclusive Education major uses braille every day in her studies<br>by Margo Rutledge Kissell \u2022 Published 5/06/26<br>SHARE:<br>First-year student MaKenzie Love, a member of the Honors College, stands beneath<br>Upham Arch (photo courtesy of MaKenzie Love).<br>MaKenzie Love was honored by the Ohio legislature recently for being the first Ohioan to<br>win the national Braille Challenge in 2025 as a high school senior.<br>Now a first-year student at Miami University, Love told lawmakers about the importance of<br>Braille, a system of writing that uses characters made up of raised dots. She uses braille<br>every day at Miami and has even read the \u201cHarry Potter\u201d series in Braille.<br>\u201cBraille literacy is absolutely crucial to the lives of blind and visually impaired students.<br>Over 90 percent of students that read braille are employed, but the startling statistic is that<br>only 10 percent of blind people in the United States read Braille,\u201d Love, of Commercial<br>Point, told lawmakers on the floor of the Ohio House of Representatives in late March.<br>\u201cWe need to get out there as a nation and as a community, and as Ohioans especially, to<br>encourage Braille literacy throughout the state and the nation.\u201d<br>Love, who was born blind, is in Miami\u2019s new Inclusive Education program. She wants to<br>teach PK-5 students with visual impairments.<br>Ashley Cartell Johnson, clinical professor of Educational Psychology and coordinator of<br>the Inclusive Education program, said, \u201cThe Inclusive Education major prepares teacher<br>candidates to teach all learners, including students with disabilities and multilingual<br>learners, in today's increasingly diverse classrooms. It is the first and only program in Ohio<br>to offer a comprehensive and integrated major that leads to blended licensure in primary<br>general education and K-12 special education (both mild/moderate and<br>moderate/intensive licenses) and to an endorsement in TESOL (Teaching English to<br>Speakers of Other Languages).\u201d<br>Cartell Johnson described Love as a \u201cdedicated and passionate inclusive education<br>teacher candidate. We are confident that MaKenzie will shape, lead, and define the<br>movement toward inclusive and accessible classrooms that support and honor all<br>learners."<br>Love said she plans to attend graduate school after earning her bachelor\u2019s degree.<br>\u2018I absolutely love it here\u2019<br>Love, who made President\u2019s List her first semester, said she\u2019s having a great experience at<br>Miami. \u201cI absolutely love it here. I love the friends that I\u2019ve made, and I have met so many<br>wonderful people.\u201d<br>She chose Miami because of the education program in the College of Education, Health,<br>and Society.<br>\u201cIt really stuck out to me. I loved campus when I first came to visit,\u201d she said, noting that<br>she enjoys being in the Honors College and living in an honors residence hall on Western<br>Campus.<br>Zeb Baker, dean of the Honors College, said Love is the embodiment of the \u2018citizen<br>scholars\u2019 the Honors College has taken as its mission to produce \u2014 those who use their<br>education to advance the common good.<br>\u201cMaKenzie is the kind of student who reminds all of us who are fortunate to work with her<br>why we entered this profession in the first place,\u201d he said. \u201cHer inexhaustible love of<br>learning and bottomless energy to do as much good as she possibly can through that<br>learning are an inspiration.\u201d<br>Love appreciates having the Center for Student Disability Services and the AccessMU<br>Center on campus for assistance when students need them. For her, that ranges from<br>getting materials in Braille and tactile graphics, using assistive technology, to meeting with<br>her professors in advance \u201cso they know how best to serve me in class.\u201d<br>She demonstrated how she uses the BrailleNote device (watch video below). She also uses<br>Job Access with Speech (JAWS), a screen reader designed for blind and visually impaired<br>users to navigate computers via text-to-speech or refreshable braille displays. It provides<br>full access to applications, websites, and documents.<br>Love is able to get around campus without the aid of a guide dog. She walked from a class<br>in Shideler Hall to the Armstrong Student Center\u2019s Shade Room for this interview.<br>\u201cI think the use of the white cane is absolutely crucial to mobility and to being able to get<br>around,\u201d she said. \u201cIt's so important to have those cane skills before you could<br>contemplate getting a guide dog.\u201d</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr">Charla<br>she, her<br>Visual Interpreter<br><br><span dir="ltr">1-800-835-1934</span></div></div></div><div dir="ltr">Sent from my iPhone</div><div dir="ltr"><br><blockquote type="cite">On May 6, 2026, at 9:12\u202fPM, Kinshuk Tella via Ohio-Talk <ohio-talk@nfbnet.org> wrote:<br><br></blockquote></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr">\ufeff<div dir="auto">Hi all, please check out the below link to an article featuring our very own, MaKenzie. As many of you know, Makenzie is an International Braille Challenge winner, and is now working hard to promote and teach braille literacy through her bachelors of education program at Miami University. This article is written by the flagship university newspaper. Let\u2019s all additionally congratulate her for being selected for the Blind Industries and Services of Maryland Internship program this summer!</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto"><div style="font-size:inherit"><a href="https://miamioh.edu/news/2026/05/miami-university-student-honored-for-winning-national-braille-challenge.html" style="font-size:inherit">https://miamioh.edu/news/2026/05/miami-university-student-honored-for-winning-national-braille-challenge.html</a></div><br clear="all"><br clear="all"><div dir="auto"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">Kinshuk Tella<br>He/Him/His<br>937-708-9930</div></div></div>
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