[NABS-L] Learning Braille as a Young Adult

[Rahul Bajaj]

Hi Everyone,

I am a 24 year old lawyer who happens to be blind since birth. I did
not learn Braille in my younger years, due to lack of availability of
English language Braille tutors and a feeling that this would not have
much practical utility for me, given the advent of adaptive tech.

However, I have recently come to realize that Braille would be very
useful for me for the purpose of being able to read aloud something
verbatim. I find this to be virtually impossible with screen reading
software. Braille might also be useful for referring to my notes in
court as using a screen reader in that context pretty much prevents
you from listening to what's happening around you.

While I have started learning Braille, my reading speed is abysmally
slow, so much so that I doubt I'll ever be able to get to a point
where I'm able to use Braille on a realtime basis in the situations
that I've described above. I was wondering if those of you who are
late Braille learners could shed some light on how I might be able to
get to a point where I'm able to acquire a reasonable speed, apart
from practicing reading Braille regularly. Thank you.

Best,
Rahul