[Colorado-Talk] News article from our past.

Tue Aug 17 22:20:51 UTC 2021

It's cool to read about how it all began.

Jo Elizabeth Pinto

Check out my author Web site at
http://www.brightsideauthor.com.

From: Colorado-Talk <colorado-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Peggy Chong via Colorado-Talk
Sent: Tuesday, August 17, 2021 11:11 AM
To: 'NFB of Colorado Discussion List' <colorado-talk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Peggy Chong <chongpeggy10 at gmail.com>
Subject: [Colorado-Talk] News article from our past.

Hello All:

In June Julie Hunter received the Minoru Yasui Community Service award for all the work she is doing on our PHD project.  We learned about the award from old records in the files when Elsie Cowen won the award in the first year it was established.  Elsie was recognized for being a braille proof reader.  Julie and her crew of volunteers just finished an article about Elsie that is undated, but most likely from the late 1940's.  It describes the process of putting a braille book together, not just brailling the pages, but, proofing, shellacking, and sewing.  Below is the text of the article.

Happy Reading, Peggy Chong, The Blind History Lady

[Newspaper article:  Source and date unknown]

Denver's Red Cross volunteers transcribe everything from recipes to Yogi textbooks into Braille

[Photo: Two woman are sitting at a desk.  One woman is pointing at the open book in front of her.  The woman on her right is working with a slate and stylus.]
[Photo caption:] Mrs. Nan McGhee teaches Braille to Red Cross volunteers.  Mrs. Harry Youngman, group chairman, shows how students learn to use a stylus and slate.

[Two photos side by side:  In the photo on the left a woman is sitting with an open book in her lap and her fingers placed on the page.  In the photo on the right the same woman is standing at a kitchen counter pouring an ingredient into a bowl while one hand is placed on a piece of paper.]
[Photo caption:] Blind Mrs. Elsie Cowan proofreads all Braille transcriptions.  At home she uses recipes, can labels and other items turned out by volunteers.

[Photo: A woman standing in a room with a variety of pieces of equipment around her.  She is busy operating a machine.]
[Photo caption:] Mrs. Iler Watson produces Braille tape measures and yard-sticks with gadget she made from an old hand-turned wringer.

            When a blind person wants to read a specialized book, something not of general interest, what does he do?  He can get someone to read it for him, or he can ask the Denver Red Cross to have it transcribed into Braille.  And, thanks to a corps of volunteers, he'll get his book after a reasonable wait.
            In the last 22 years, Red Cross volunteers have transcribed recipe books, hymnals, a manual on Yogi, language lessons, labels for canned goods, and many other uncommon items into Braille.
            The Braille service was started 22 years ago to provide reading material not in sufficient demand by the blind to justify commercial publication.  Mrs. W. W. Williams, who knew nothing about Braille except the tremendous need for it, was appointed to set up the program.  She located a Brailling slate and Miss Mary Bushinger, now an occupational therapist at Colorado General hospital, offered to teach volunteers how to use it.
            Sunday school groups and members of service clubs enrolled in the first classes.  Brailled Christmas cards, the first project, were so successful, that the program was soon expanded.  From that halting start, the Braille service has grown until now there are 20 to 30 Braille workers handling the requests for special materials.  Many persons who moved away after working with the Denver Red Cross group have continued their efforts and now Braillers are scattered through Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Iowa and Colorado.
            [Words obscured by fold in the paper.]  Sixteen volunteers spent 1,864 hours transcribing 2,000 pages of Braille.  There is no charge to the blind persons requesting the material.  Red Cross funds pay for all the equipment used in the transcriptions.
            It takes about nine months to learn Braille well enough to become a certified transcriber.  The 16-lesson course, conducted by Mrs. Burt H. McGhee, begins with the alphabet and punctuation of simple sentences.  Common word and letter combinations which have special "shorthand" symbols in Braille have to be learned.
            When a student has completed the course, she chooses 50 pages of her Braille transcriptions for submission to the Library of Congress.  If it measures up to the required level of accuracy, the student is certified to transcribe Braille.  If not, she may submit a second sample.  Few persons are skilled enough to pass the first time.
            Most volunteers do their Braillling at home.  Some have special Braille typewriters, others use slate and stylus.  In the latter process a piece of heavy paper, 11"x11½" is placed in the slate and Braille symbols are punched from below with a stylus which forces the pattern up so the fingers of the blind may "read" the message.
            The finished page is proofread by Mrs. William E. Cowan, who is blind.  If it is acceptable, it is shellacked.  This preserves the Brailled pattern through repeated use.  The pages are sewed together with heavy carpet thread, the end is glued and a cardboard cover attached.  The Braille book is then ready to be sent to the blind person who requested it, or to the Denver Public library.
            Mrs. Iler Watson, who does the binding, also makes plastic tape measures and aluminum topped yardsticks for the blind on a Rube Goldberg gadget in her basement.  She rigged the ruler-maker from an old hand-turned clothes wringer.  The tape measures and yardsticks are given free to any blind person who requests them.
            The Denver Red Cross Braille service has a mailing list of approximately 200 blind persons from all over the United States and abroad.  Each blind person receives Brailled greeting cards on holidays and Brailled calendars at the beginning of the year.
            In 22 years of service, the Braille staff has had many unusual requests.  A gift shop operator in South Dakota sends her invoices for transcription so she can handle her business independently.  A sales man in Oklahoma requested a Brailled edition of his insurance manual.  A blind amateur radio operator learned Spanish from Braille tests prepared by the Red Cross volunteers.  Now he can talk with fellow wireless fans south of the border.
            Although Braille is important to many sightless persons, its greatest value is in the lives of those who can neither see nor hear.  Talking books and oral assistance from others cannot help them.  This was the case with a deaf-blind student at Mt. Union college in Ohio.  But thanks to the Denver organization which transcribed his lessons and other materials into Braille, he was graduated at the top of his class - the third deaf-blind person in history to complete college.

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