[stylist] Onkyo essay for Helen Kobek

[EJ Kobek]

Hi, Jackie,

I'm so glad the essay touched you, and so grateful for your sharing of your
own experience. And thank you so much for your specific commentary on my
writing. First and most important, about your own experience. I truly honor
your approach to learning braille, and can see the complexity of using
jumbo braille to do that. I cringed the merest bit when you aid you felt
guilty at not transferring to standard braille.....Not to tell you how to
feel, but DON'T FEEEL THAT WAY! But not to tell you how to
feel...:-)....transition to vision loss at any age is hard....and we do
what we do when and if we do it. One page in 12 minutes is nothing to
sneeze at....and neuropathy is a tough barrier....If you want to get back
to it (not that you should) let your community know so we can support and
cheer you.

I'm glad the essay touched you in the ways it did. I tailored it
specifically to reach both the sighted (most people have seen "The Miracle
Worker" and many people remember their first time reading a whole printed
word), and the blind/vision impaired who may feel hopeless. I'm happy to
say that I've heard from a number of sighted folks who connected the dots,
so to speak, about the importance of braille from reading the essay. To me,
the essay is all about education.....

Thanks again, Jackie, and looking forward to reading more of the Onkyo
essays, and your work as well.

Warmly,

Helen



On Mon, Dec 22, 2014 at 7:35 PM, Jackie Williams <jackieleepoet at cox.net>
wrote:

> Helen,
> This is one of the best articles I have ever read on Braille, and the
> adventure in learning that it brings.
> I did not have my first lesson until I was in my late seventies. The
> neuropathy in my fingers led the instructor to make an individual lesson
> each time in jumbo braille. After two years, I had gotten through extended
> Braille, and was absolutely amazed about how much I learned about the
> structure of our English language, and all of the prefixes, suffixes, and
> the sense it all made.
> But after daily effort for those two years, I only got to reading one page
> in 12 minutes. Totally unrealistic for reading a book.
> But what interested me most about your experience is your breakthrough into
> reading a whole word at one crossover. I feel guilty that perhaps I should
> have kept at it another year, and transferred to regular size Braille. You
> cannot get books in jumbo Braille.
> At any rate, I marvel at your knowledge gained from books in all fields,
> starting at the age you did. Ten years after my lessons, I am not sure I
> remember by wrote what I did learn, and now, I am fortunate to feel the
> keys
> on my computer!
> Your ability to write concisely, yet imaginatively, and bring into it that
> movie about Helen Keller, made it a very personal piece for me. Wonderful.
>
> Jackie
>
> Time is the school in which we learn.
> Time is the fire in which we burn.
> Delmore Schwartz
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of EJ Kobek
> via
> stylist
> Sent: Sunday, December 21, 2014 8:53 PM
> To: NFB Stylist
> Subject: [stylist] Onkyo essay for Helen Kobek
>
> Hi, all,
>
> We talked about sharing our essays for the Onkyo World Braille Essay
> contest. Here is a link to a webpage that has mine on it.....It's been
> posted on National Braille Press's website.
>
> Anyone else wanting to share theirs? I'd love to read them!
>
> http://www.nbp.org/ic/nbp/braille/voices9.html
>
> Helen
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