[Nfbc-info] STUDENT QUALIFIES FOR BRAILLE COMPETITION

[Cricket X. Bidleman]

Hello,

I'm so glad I read this. Griffin is a wonderful person. I met him
through Braille Challenge, and he deserves recognition. I can't wait
to see him again (metaphorically) this year as we celebrate Braille
literacy! Congratulations Griffin and family!

Best,
Cricket X. Bidleman
NCS Pearson, Associate Quality Assurance Engineer

On 6/2/17, nancy Lynn via NFBC-Info <nfbc-info at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> I got this from another list and thought you'd like to see it.
> STUDENT QUALIFIES FOR BRAILLE COMPETITION
> By Sandy Trozzo
> Griffin Miller always does so well in the Braille Institute's annual
> Braille Challenge that his family doesn't make plans for summer until
> they know if he is going to the finals in Los Angeles.
> Sure enough, Griffin, 14, of Adams, a freshman at Mars Area High
> School, is a finalist in the 2017 challenge. He has competed for
> seven years and has placed four times.
> "It's kind of a big deal to go out there. Our whole summer revolves
> around it," said Rachel Miller, Griffin's mom.
> The academic competition is designed to motivate blind and visually
> impaired students to study Unified English Braille, the official
> Braille code of the U.S., and reward them for their successes.
> Griffin's blindness was diagnosed when he was 3 months old after his
> parents noticed that a friend's 3-month-old baby was turning to
> follow voices in the room, and Griffin was not. "That's all he has
> ever known," Mrs. Miller said.
> A researcher determined that his blindness was caused by a type of
> genetic mutation that does not run in the family.
> In his classes at Mars Area, Griffin uses a Braille computer - a
> computer he won for placing first in the Braille Challenge in sixth grade.
> "It can do pretty much everything you can do on a normal computer," he
> said.
> The computer automatically translates printed words into Braille and
> vice versa. "If somebody sends it to me as a Word file on a flash
> drive, it shows up in Braille," Griffin said.
> His does his work in Braille, "which probably most teachers won't be
> able to understand," he noted, but the computer translates it
> automatically into printed words.
> "They have nice prizes," his mother said of the Braille competition.
> "They're usually expensive pieces of equipment.
> This year's finals will be held June 16 and 17.
> "There are several different tests, all of them equal," Griffin
> explained. "If you do good on three of them and awful on one, you
> probably aren't going to win.
> The first test measures speed and accuracy. "You have to listen to
> some guy read a passage and then you have to type it in Braille
> exactly as he read it," Griffin said.
> The second test is for proofreading, requiring students to find any
> errors in a sentence. "Sometimes, there is more than one error.
> Sometimes, there are no errors," he said.
> "They try to trick you," Mrs. Miller said.
> The third test is reading comprehension, and the fourth involves
> reading charts, graphs and maps and then answering multiple-choice
> questions about them. Younger students in first through fourth grades
> do not take the speed and charts tests but have a spelling test
> instead, Griffin said.
> At school, Griffin also uses a computer and a smart phone with
> voice-over software. Since Mars Area has a bring-your-own-technology
> policy, he is able to use both items, his mom said.
> "They are coming up with so much stuff," she said. "Maybe someday,
> he'll be able to see.
> Sandy Trozzo, freelance writer: suburbanliving at post-gazette.com.
>
>
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