<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div></div><div>Greetings fellow Kansas federationistss,<br><br>I invite you to join me in giving a big enthusiastic cheerful send-off to our very own Luther Fuller Who will compete in a national braille reading and writing competition. Luther has done very well in previous competitions, and experience usually pays big dividends.<br><br>Congratulations lose their own qualifying for national competition and go get 'em!<br>Best regards,<br>Rob Tabor first vice president<br>National Federation of the blind of Kansas</div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div><br><br>Begin forwarded message:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><b>From:</b> "Tabor, Susan E" <<a href="mailto:stabor@ku.edu">stabor@ku.edu</a>><br><b>Date:</b> June 18, 2016 at 7:30:33 AM CDT<br><b>To:</b> "Home (<a href="mailto:rob.tabor@sbcglobal.net">rob.tabor@sbcglobal.net</a>)" <<a href="mailto:rob.tabor@sbcglobal.net">rob.tabor@sbcglobal.net</a>>, "Susan Tabor (<a href="mailto:souljourner@sbcglobal.net">souljourner@sbcglobal.net</a>)" <<a href="mailto:souljourner@sbcglobal.net">souljourner@sbcglobal.net</a>><br><b>Subject:</b> <b>Lawrence Journal-World: Lawrence High School Student to Compete in National Braille Contest</b><br><br></div></blockquote><div><span></span></div><blockquote type="cite"><div>
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<p class="MsoNormal">For posting on the Jayhawk-Chapter list.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p style="border:none;padding:0in"><span lang="EN"><a href="http://ljworld.com">LJWorld.com</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<h2><span lang="EN">Lawrence High School student to compete in national Braille contest
<o:p></o:p></span></h2>
<p class="date"><span lang="EN">June 18, 2016<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN">Lawrence High School junior Luther Fuller sets the metal Brailler on the table. Unlike the slim, electric Braille display and notetaker nearby, the Brailler does not have audio capability or shifting pins to display text. It cannot connect
wirelessly to a computer. Instead, Fuller cranks a piece of thick paper through the Brailler and keys in a message of raised dots.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN">He doesn’t use the Brailler often; the paper still has a message from the last time he demonstrated it. But such a Brailler is what he’ll use on Saturday as part of the national Braille Challenge, in which participants will use nothing but
their Braille reading and writing skills — no help from text-to-speech technology or the internet — as they compete in events such as comprehension, spelling and proofreading.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:13.5pt"><a href="http://www2.ljworld.com/photos/2016/jun/16/308376/" title=""Click to enlarge photo" "><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:blue;text-decoration:none"><img border="0" width="180" height="240" id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image001.jpg@01D1C933.4CAB12D0" alt="Luther Fuller, a soon-to-be junior at Lawrence High School, reads a message he typed in braille. Fuller will compete in the National Braille Challenge in Los Angeles on June 18, 2016. "></span></a><span lang="EN" style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="photo-byline"><span lang="EN">Photo by <a href="http://www2.ljworld.com/staff/rochelle-valverde/">
Rochelle Valverde</a> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="caption"><span lang="EN">Luther Fuller, a soon-to-be junior at Lawrence High School, reads a message he typed in braille. Fuller will compete in the National Braille Challenge in Los Angeles on June 18, 2016.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN">Fuller is among 50 students who qualified to participate in the 16th annual Braille Challenge, which will take place Saturday in Los Angeles. Though Fuller said he thinks new technology such as text-to-speech is a useful tool, being able
to read Braille remains as important for blind students as being able to read print is for sighted students.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN">“To be able to read what is actually there instead of having it read to you is valuable,” Fuller said, noting it is particularly important for technical subjects such as math and science. “Imagine a complex equation being read to you by a
computer. You have to be able to see where everything is.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN">Those skills have been something Fuller has been sharpening for some time. Fuller, who was blinded at a young age during surgery for an eye disease, began learning Braille at the Kansas State School for the Blind in Kansas City, Kan., when
he was in preschool. He attended the school through second grade before he began at Lawrence public schools.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN">After competing against more than 1,000 others in the regional competition in February, Fuller recently learned that he qualified for the national competition. He is one of 10 students in his age group to qualify for the national Braille
Challenge, which is sponsored by the Braille Institute. Four other students from Kansas were also among the qualifiers.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN">As part of the national contest, students will take part in an all-day academic competition spanning five categories: reading comprehension, spelling, proofreading, chart and graph reading, and speed and accuracy. Fuller has competed in the
regional competition every year since 2010, and this is the fifth time he has qualified for nationals. The highest he has ever placed is second, which he did in 2010.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN">For Fuller, the most difficult category is speed and accuracy, which involves transcribing two passages. He said the regional competition in February was actually the first time he’d finished transcribing both passages before time elapsed.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN">“The one that I practice for mainly is speed and accuracy because that’s most difficult for me, and I think most people would agree there,” Fuller said. “There’s just a lot of pressure because you’re trying to get all this stuff written and
you’re trying to be accurate at the same time.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN">Brendy Latare, Fuller’s mother, is accompanying him to the competition. Latare said one of the things she likes about the Braille Challenge is that it’s focused on literacy.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN">“It’s just more and more exposure to people and awareness that Braille reading is reading; it’s literacy,” Latare said. “It’s the same thing as print reading, really, and it leads to the same great results.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN">Those who do well in the national competition also have the chance to win a new electronic Braille display — Fuller’s is on loan to him from the school district — as well as cash awards. Although Fuller said he’d be happy to place in nationals
this year, he recognizes that the competition will be tough. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN">“We’ll just have to see,” Fuller said. “I hope to do well and place there, because it’s quite an achievement, and there’s a lot of rewards.”
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><b><span lang="EN">Originally published at:</span></b><span lang="EN"> <a href="http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2016/jun/18/lawrence-high-school-student-compete-national-brai/">http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2016/jun/18/lawrence-high-school-student-compete-national-brai/</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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