Braille Literacy Month

from Pearson Canada:

Louis Braille was born on January 4^th, 1809. Due to an accident in his younger years, he lost his sight. In spite of this, Louis Braille excelled in school and at the age of 20, he published his first book about a system that used raised dots to represent letters and numbers. His hard work has opened the door for many non-sighted people to be able to read with their fingers for education, work, and pleasure!

Thanks to Mr. Braille, these individuals have access to braille in elevators, on signs, on computer keyboards, at ATMs, and on watches. There are Lego building kits that have instructions in braille and there are also tools to help visually impaired children improve their literacy skills, using wooden alphabet blocks with braille symbols on them that can be used to form words. Even the Rubik’s cube comes in braille!

For some suggested activities to do in the classroom, visit this webpage.

Resources for Educators:

Braille Literacy Canada

Paths to Literacy – Instructional Strategies

Perkins – Teaching Reading and Writing Braille

Family Connect

Supporting General Education Teachers

Teaching Students with Visual Impairments

CNIB – Braille Resources

Other websites with information and ideas include:

New England Consortium on Deafblindness

Paths to Literacy

Braille Literacy Canada

Wyoming State Library

Arapahoe Libraries

Braille Works

CNIB

National Library Service

Perkins School for the Blind E-learning

National Braille Press

American Foundation for the Blind

Cleveland Public Library

Hadley