Blog 2025-02-21

This week in class we learned about Braille and accessibility for the visually impaired. It started with watching two YouTube videos, one about Louis Braille’s story and another explaining how Braille actually works. Louis Braille first had an infection in one eye at age 3, the infection soon spread to his other eye, and by the time he was 5 years old, Louis Braille was completely blind. The first video shared how Louis Braille, at just 15 years old, created a system that would change the world for blind individuals, he developed the raised dot system despite resistance from educators and his invention is still widely used today. The second video was on how braille works, it broke down Grade 1 Braille and explained how the combinations of raised dots represent letters and numbers. The Be My Eyes app connects blind and low-vision users with sighted volunteers who assist them via live video calls, helping with everything from reading labels to describing surroundings. Our skills lab this week involved tennis balls and a tin muffin tray. We used these items to make 3-D models of different letters in braille, Mrs. McCleery gave each of us a sentence in braille and we were tasked with decoding it using the tennis balls and tray, my message was "What is your name and grade?".