[stylist] Braille Presentation at 2009 VA State Convention

[Chelsea Cook]

Hello again,

  I thought since the thread of Braille was on here that it might 
be an appropriate time to bring this up: I was asked to give a 
presentation on Braille at our state convention last weekend.  
Below (and attached) is the text of my speech.  I hope you enjoy 
my story: my journey, really, of how I learned Braille and how it 
got me where I am today.  I love Braille and couldn't do what I 
do without it! But enough of me talking: let the speech speak for 
itself, and let me know what you think of it.
Chelsea
"I ask you to look both ways.  For the road to a knowledge of the 
stars leads through the atom; and important knowledge of the atom 
has been reached through the stars."
Sir Arthur Eddington, British astrophysicist (1882-1944), Stars 
and Atoms (1928), Lecture 1

Literacy and Opportunity:
Learning Braille, Using Braille
by Chelsea Cook

  Believe it or not, there was a time when I didn't want to learn 
Braille.  I vaguely remember my mother sitting me down in front 
of small alphabet flash cards and forcing my fingers down upon 
those wretched dots which felt so strange.  I was probably not 
even four, and did not yet know the power this code brought: to 
me or to the rest of the blind.
  Then I found it.  I don't know how and I don't know when, but 
somewhere along the way, Braille clicked.  It was the catalyst 
that set off all my other academic adventures.  Because of my 
early start and my parents' persistence, I developed a love of 
reading that holds true to this day.  I have pulled that trick 
many times over the years of staying up late into the night with 
a book under the covers, as many Braille readers out there can 
relate.  On a few such occasions, those books were textbooks: 
Noreen Greice's Touch the Stars, for example, or a few sacred 
volumes of our eighth-grade science book.  The school had 
switched the grade levels' books when I was in seventh, but I 
didn't care.  I was reading physics and chemistry a year ahead of 
the standard biology curriculum to satisfy what I now know was 
the beginning of an unquenchable thirst for knowledge that only 
understanding of the physical sciences could provide.  Even now, 
when I do college-level physics, I can visualize the mathematical 
relationships between quantities only by remembering their Nemeth 
symbols.  Last year, going through a period of no physics at all, 
my vision teacher Brailled out a twenty-one page formula sheet.  
The equations under my fingertips radiated a tangible energy; it 
was as though I were connecting with the very scientists who had 
developed them.  They held the secrets of the universe.  All I 
had to do was learn and follow.
  I read extensively out of school as well.  By third grade, I 
had read all the Braille books in my elementary school's library.  
Bookshare and Web Braille were far-distant dreams then, and even 
now it still awes me how there are so many books being produced.  
The Harry Potter series has always been one of my favorites; I 
have bookcases filled with all seven.  The words of authors took 
me places.  Traveling through space and time with Robert Hineline 
and Madeline L'Engle, I discovered the wonder of science fiction 
and decided to write my own.  I compose novels and poetry so that 
one day, readers will read my work and I can spread the message 
of hope and literacy.  There is a special pleasure in reading 
poetry in Braille, a suspense as to what the next line will 
invoke.  As far as learning the "music" of the words, audio does 
not measure up.
  I cannot imagine what it is like when other blind people tell 
me they don't know or have never learned Braille.  Braille has 
given me every opportunity in life: It allowed me to hold office 
in the NFB at the national level; it allowed me to return home 
from Colorado with my plane tickets properly labeled and 
identified; it brought amazement to my classmates when they found 
out I don't have to abbreviate my notes.  Earlier this year, Dr.  
Schroeder asked me if I was going into space with the Louis 
Braille coins.  I told him I wished I could, and someday intend 
to follow them to the final frontier.  As I was listening to the 
shuttle launch, I smiled at all the familiar radio calls as 
everything was reported to be nominal.  When they made it into 
orbit, I thought I was there with them, circling the globe at 
17500 miles per hour, looking around at the stars and the small 
blue planet we call home, realizing my dream of being an 
astronaut.  The symbolism of knowledge gained by blind people and 
by astronomers studying the depths of the universe with the 
Hubble Space Telescope was not lost on me; it was amplified.  
Those coins being launched were my two worlds coming together, 
and they were just waiting for me to join them.
  We must keep teaching Braille.  Those six dots unlock doors.  
Those six dots help solve the mysteries of the universe.  Those 
six dots give freedom.  Braille makes dreams reality.  While 
important, it is not rocket fuel, but Braille that will carry me 
to the stars.  Braille gives us words; words give us knowledge; 
knowledge gives us power.
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