Friday, April 24, 2009
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Early Learning Coalition of Escambia County Awards $1,555 for Project BRAILLE
Independence for the Blind of West Florida is excited to announce that the Early Learning Coalition of Escambia County has provided support for Project BRAILLE by awarding a grant of $1,555. This money will assist in purchasing a Braille embosser and books, games, and other publications in formats accessible to blind and visually impaired individuals. Thank you Early Learning Coalition of Escambia County!
We still need approximately $11,000 to reach our goal for Project BRAILLE. For more information on how you can help, please call 850-477-2663. If you want to contribute in helping improve Braille literacy, you can mail a check to:
Independence for the Blind of West Florida
Attn: Project BRAILLE
1302 Dunmire Street
Pensacola, FL 32504.
Leia Mais…
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Transition Students enjoy the Festival on the Greens
Pictured above: The group enjoys a relaxing lunch at UWF's Festival on the Green
Independence for the Blind of West Florida's Transition Participants attended the University of West Florida's annual Festival on the Greens Saturday April 4, 2009. They all enjoyed the festival's music, food, informative booths, and even the dog show. Ms. Leigh took the group to the table set up the UWF's archeology department and learned that underwater escavations use a grid pattern of rope to search for items.
Pictured above: Talking with the archeology students.
Pictured above: Talking with the archeology students.One of the most interesting booths at the festival was UWF's archeology department. After talking to the archeology students, Ms. Leigh discovered that many of the same skills that are used in underwater excavations are also used among visually impaired individuals. In the deep murky depths of the ocean floor, there is such little light that archeologists have to use a rope grid-system to move around. The grid system is what visually impaired individuals are taught for cleaning, traveling, and organizing items.
Pictured above: the group enjoying their lunch in the shade.Thanks to UWF for hosting this wonderful event, and to staff who helped make this activity fun for the group.
On May 2 the Transition students will go on the History and Ecology Tour at Lanier Sailing Academy, so stay tuned for pictures and updates!
BRAILLE
BRAILLE INSTRUCTION FOR SIGHTED PEOPLE/BRAILLE LITERACY
The Canadian National Institute for the Blind has created a "Grade One Braille Home Study Course" for sighted people; it covers using a brailler and slate and stylus, as well as the grade one letters, numbers and punctuation signs.
The Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired has made two tutorials available for downloading. They are both designed for sighted people: Computerized Nemeth Code Tutor Computerized Braille Tutor for literary braille.
"Computer-Assisted Instruction for Learning the Code of Braille Mathematics" is a new Nemeth tutorial designed for sighted people. The software is available free from:
Research and Development Institute, Inc.Gaylen Kapperman, Director1732 RaintreeSycamore, IL 60178Phone: 815-895-3078Fax: 815-895-2448E-mail: gkapper@niu.edu
The National Library Service of the Library of Congress also offers a series of courses in braille transcription, leading to certification in braille transcribing and proofreading; they can be taken either in cooperation with a local transcribing agency (in Wisconsin, Volunteer Services for the Visually Handicapped or Volunteer Braillists and Tapists) or by correspondence.
The American Foundation for the Blind has created the Braille Bug, an interactive channel "created to teach sighted children [grades 3-6] about braille, and to encourage literacy among all children--sighted and visually impaired."
The Braille Trail: The American Foundation for the Blind has also created The Braille Trail, an information packet designed for sighted elementary schoolchildren who want to learn about braille reading, writing and mathematics. For more information, contact:
National Braille Literacy CenterAmerican Foundation for the Blind100 Peachtree Street, Suite 620Atlanta, GA 30303e-mail: literacy@afb.net
Braille Workbox: the Louis Braille Center has created the Braille Workbox, a four-part unit designed for sighted students in grades four to eight as an introduction to braille. It includes a biography of Louis Braille, an explanation of braille reading, braille writing materials and a complete short book in braille. The price is $25.00 plus $4.00 postage and handling. The Braille Box can be borrowed by registered users of the Wisconsin Regional Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped.
The Louis Braille Center also sells "Signs and Rules of English Braille," a brief handbook to Grade 1 and 2 braille ($12.00).The Louis Braille Center320 Dayton St., Suite 125Edmonds, WA 98020-3590Phone: 425-776-4042Fax: 425-778-2384.
Teachers may want to combine the Braille Box with "Bits of Braille," a Braille study lesson plan for fourth through sixth grades that also deals with Helen Keller and American Sign Language.
BRL: Braille Through Remote Learning (Shodor Foundation): "A no-cost, on-line educational offering designed to provide braille training to educators, braillists, parents, and others who wish to become braille literate. Offering the RIGHT INSTRUCTION (all aspects of braille) at the RIGHT TIME (self-paced, ready when you are), at the RIGHT PLACE (work or home)." The courses are still available online, but instructor feedback is no longer provided [October 2002].
The American Foundation for the Blind has a broad array of resources for parent and teachers to promote braille literacy, including online issues of "Dots for Braille Literacy."
"Strategies and Resources for Teaching Braille to Adults," by Frances Mary D'Andrea is an excellent, compact collection of ideas for motivating students and helping them learn; it includes a carefully selected and annotated set of resources and textbooks. "Strategies" is available from the Information Center of the American Foundation for the Blind.Email: afbinfo@afb.org
"Beginning with Braille: Firsthand Experiences with a Balanced Approach to Literacy," by Anna M. Swenson is full of ideas and techniques for creating braille readers. New York: American Foundation for the Blind, 1998. 200 pp. ISBN: 0-89128-323-4 (Paperback). $27.95. The Foundation has a good list of braille literacy resources for parents.
"The Braille Connection: A Braille Reading and Writing Program for Former Print Users," produced by the American Printing House, is "designed to teach former adult and teenage print readers how to read braille, and how to adapt it to their lives."
"The Fast Track" is a combination braille, tape and print manual for learning braille ($39.95). Order from:Lois Wencil19 Parkview Dr.Milburn, NJ 07041.
Freedom Scientific offers a free downloadable tutorial in Nemeth Code, used for braille mathematics. The 18 self-study lessons are to be used with the Braille Lite.
The National Federation of the Blind also has a braille mentoring program to promote braille literacy.
National Braille Press publishes "A Braille Spelling Dictionary for Beginning Writers," which contains about 1,400 words, each one written in Grade 1 braille, Grade 2 braille and large print. It also contains a mini-thesaurus ($7.00).
The International Braille Research Center (IBRC) Resource Library is a collection of scholarly papers related to braille, many drawn from the "Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness." The papers will be more useful to teachers of braille than to learners.
The National Association to Promote the Use of Braille (NAPUB) has a new mailing list. To subscribe, send a message to listserv@nfb.org; leave the subject blank and in the body of the message put: subscribe napub-l. "The purpose of the list is twofold. First it is a means of communication between the members and supporters of NAPUB, to promote and discuss the activities of the Division. . . . Secondly, the list is intended to generally promote Braille, Braille literacy and the use of Braille generally."
SOURCE: http://blindreaders.info/brailnst.html
Leia Mais…Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Help Pave the Way
Independence for the Blind is selling bricks to help raise funds for the C.W. Gemmill Learning Center. The 4" x 8" bricks will be placed in "Jean's Garden" and are $50 dollars each. You can inscribe three lines per brick, with 15 characters max per line, including punctuation and spaces. This is a great way to leave your family's mark in Pensacola that will last forever. This is also a great gift idea for the person who has everything. Mother's Day is less than a month away!
Proceeds from this fundraiser will assist in funding the C.W. Gemmill Learning Center, which will be a state of the art training facility for individuals who are blind or visually impaired. For more information on how to purchase a brick, please email or call Lindsay Pieler at 850-477-2663 or lindsay@ibwest.org.
American Idol
Season 8 American Idol contestant Scott MacIntyre should be inspiring blind and visually impaired individuals all over the world to never let anything get in your way. The 23-year old from Arizona has been visually impaired since birth, yet he has not let that deter him from following his dreams. Let's all support Scott as he works to become the next American Idol! Good luck Scott! American Idol is on Fox every Tuesday and Wednesday.
Leia Mais…The 2009 Louis Braille Bicentennial Silver Dollar commemorates the 200th anniversary of the birth of Louis Braille, inventor of the Braille system, which is still used by the blind to read and write.
Louis Braille was born in Coupvray, France, near Paris, on January 4, 1809. At the age of three, he lost the sight in his left eye as the result of an accident in his father’s workshop. An infection spread to his right eye and he became completely blind by the age of four. At the age of 10, Braille received a scholarship to attend the Royal Institute for Blind Children in Paris, where he became the youngest student. At the school, most instruction was oral, but Braille read books for the blind, which had large letters embossed on the pages.
In 1821, a captain in Napoleon’s army, Charles Barbier de la Serre, visited Braille’s school and introduced a system he had invented called “night writing.” This was a method for communicating on the battlefield at night without having to talk or light a match, which could alert the enemy. It consisted of 12 raised dots which could be combined to represent words by sounds rather than letters. Over the next few months, Braille experimented with different configurations until he found a simpler one using just six dots.
By the age of 15, using a blunt awl (the same type of tool that had injured his left eye 12 years earlier) to punch holes in paper to represent letters, Braille had developed the code that is essentially what we know today as modern Braille. It uses no more than six dots in a “cell” of two columns of up to three dots each to represent letters and contains a system of punctuation and “contractions” to speed reading and writing. It is read by passing the fingers over the raised dots.
Today, Braille has been adapted to almost every known language and is used everywhere from bus stops and maps to music notation and text books. In his native France, Louis Braille’s achievement was recognized in 1952 – the 100th anniversary of his death – when his body was moved to Paris and interred in the Pantheon.
Now, for the first time in history, a United States coin features readable Braille.
It is available in both proof and uncirculated versions. The obverse (heads) features a portrait of Louis Braille designed by United States Mint Artistic Infusion Program (AIP) Master Designer Joel Iskowitz and sculpted by United States Mint Sculptor/Engraver Phebe Hemphill. It is also inscribed with LIBERTY, IN GOD WE
TRUST, LOUIS BRAILLE, 1809 and 2009.
The reverse (tails), showing a child reading a book in Braille, was designed by United States Mint AIP Master Designer Susan Gamble and sculpted by United States Mint Sculptor/Engraver Joseph Menna. The word Braille (abbreviated Brl in Braille code) is depicted in the upper field. The word INDEPENDENCE is featured on a bookshelf behind the child, in addition to the inscriptions UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ONE DOLLAR and E PLURIBUS UNUM.
Surcharges from sales of the 2009 Louis Braille Bicentennial Silver Dollar are authorized to be paid to the National Federation of the Blind to further its programs to promote Braille literacy.
To learn more about this coin please visit:
http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/commemoratives/index.cfm?flash=yes&action=2009LouisBraille
Friday, April 3, 2009
C.W. Gemmill Learning Center nearing completion
Pictured above: A few of Independence for the Blind of West Florida employees stand in front of the entrance to the new training facility, which is expected to be completed by Summer 2009.
Left to Right: Alicia Hefty, Hulrick Baptist, Lindsay Pieler, Lynda Edens, Lance Bonner, Shonda Walker, John O'Dillon, Shuntay Williams, Jason Grills, and Mary Colston.
Pictured above: another staff shot, left to right: A. Hefty, H. Baptist, L. Edens, L. Bonner, S. Walker, Russell Rieder, J. O'Dillon, J. Grills, S. Williams,, M. Colston.
Pictured above: Entrance to building.
Pictured above: staff getting a tour of the new building.
Pictured above: an inside few of the entrance.
Pictured above: a view down the long hallway.
Pictured above: the reception area of the new building.
Pictured above: Staff listen as Executive Director R. Rieder describes the future site of Jean's Garden, which will be a relaxing area for clients to have lunch, rest, and socialize with one another. Leia Mais…
Congratulations Jeffrey Miller!
Pictured above: Jeffrey with his mother Martha Raye at his celebration
dinner Thursday night.
Independence for the Blind (IB West) honored Jeffrey Miller April 2, 2009 at Applebee’s in Pensacola where he has been successfully employed for the past five years. Mr. Miller was a former Vocational Rehabilitation client at IB West in 2004. While he was a student he made the job contact at Applebee’s independently and was persistent until they offered him a position. One of the lessons that IB attempted to instill in Mr. Miller was the importance of longevity at your place of employment. Well, Mr. Miller took the heed to the advice and is now a valuable member of the Bayou Boulevard Applebee’s. Congratulations Jeffrey Miller! The entire staff and Board of Directors of IB West are extremely proud of your accomplishment!
Pictured above: Jeffrey Miller and Senior Vocational Rehabilitation
Counselor John O'Dillon.
Leia Mais…Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Fun in the Sun
Independence for the Blind of West Florida took a group of Transition participants, visually impaired teenagers, to the Village of Baytowne Wharf in Destin for the December activity. (I'm sorry this is so late!) The group was able to participate in fun activities, including a zip line and ice skating. Enjoy the pictures from wonderful day!
Pictured above: Megan, Darreck, Justin, and Alex
Pictured above: Megan, Darreck, Justin, and Alex
Pictured above: Alex ice skating.
Pictured above: Megan ice skating.
Pictured above: Megan and Alex taking a break. 
Pictured above: Even Senior Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor Mr. O'Dillon attempted to ice skate!
Pictured above (2 pictures): Justin clings to the cord as he travels down the zip line.
It takes two to Tango!
Pictured above: Darreck, Instructor Rachel, Cassie, Alex, Instructor Daniel, Justin, and Ms. Leigh Four Transition students learned a few ballroom dances Saturday March 21 at the Fred Astaire Dance Studio in Panama City, Florida. Rachel and Daniel, both dance instructors at Fred Astaire, took time out of her busy schedule show Darreck, Alex, Cassie, and Justin some basic dances such as the Tengo, Salsa, Waltz, and Merengue. The students all enjoyed the dancing immensely and wanted to know when we would return.
Pictured above: Rachel and Alex
Pictured above: Cassie, Rachel, and Leigh
Pictured above: Everyone concentrating on learning the steps.
Pictured above: Darreck and Leigh
Pictured above: Alex break dancing.
Pictured above: Justin dancing with Rachel
Pictured above: Justin, Alex, Darreck, and Rachel dancing.
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