[stylist] reading braille

[Judith Bron]

Donna, The book produced by your brother sounds like what the doctor 
ordered.  I started teaching my grandchildren English by stringing together 
words like cat, bat fat etc.  It's old phonetic reading which is still the 
best way to learn English.  Do you have an address where I can order the 
book?  Do you have contact information for where I can get the booklet you 
got from NLS?  Thanks, Judith
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Donna Hill" <penatwork at epix.net>
To: "Writer's Division Mailing List" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 17, 2009 12:15 PM
Subject: Re: [stylist] reading braille


> Judith,
> I was 21 when a fellow student at the Guide Dog Foundation gave me a 
> Braille alphabet. I also got a little booklet from NLS which had the 
> contractions and punctuation. In that booklet they employ the use of a 
> full Braille cell -- all six dots, the word "for" -- before or after the 
> symbol, so you have something right there to compare the symbol with. 
> Otherwise, you can get things like the 'e (dots 1 & 5) confused with the 
> symbol for 'en (dots 2 and 6). It was very difficult at first. My fingers 
> would go numb and I got a terrible pain from my shoulder through my arm --  
> due to the unusual motion I suppose. There are still times after over 35 
> years when my index finger will numb out on me. I think that other than 
> just plain studying the symbols, the thing that helped was making Braille 
> dymo tape labels for things I wanted to use but couldn't tell from other 
> things in any other way. Spices, and recordings -- cassettes and LPs in 
> those days. I also started a file of phone numbers and addresses using 3 x 
> 5 cards, which I still use, though I prefer using 5 x 7 notebooks. There 
> is a thing called Jumbo Braille and you might want to use that to start 
> with to sensatize your fingers.
>
> My brother Jeff Weiss and his wife wrote a Braille instructional book 
> decades ago, which I wish I had had when I was learning. It teaches words 
> in groups like "bat, cat, rat" to promote the recognition of letter 
> groups.
>
>
> Also, I would recommend getting a Braille calendar. The fact that you 
> already know what a calendar looks like will help you develop a 
> familiarity with the symbols.
> Donna
>
>
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>
>
> Judith Bron wrote:
>> You might think I'm nuts, but How do braille readers sensitize their 
>> fingers to the placement of the dots?  Thanks, Judith 
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