learn braille

Wow… I typed “braille box” into Google and my most recent 43 things entry for learning braille was the first thing Google turned up!

I am working on this bit by bit. I ordered Just Enough To Know Better: a Braille Primer from National Braille Press and am using it in conjunction with my braille box. It comes with flashcards and a chart, both of which are proving helpful. I’ve not had a lot of brainpower to work on this much lately, but tonight I’m working on the first ten letters of the alphabet, and I’ve got the first four letters nearly memorized. D is giving me a little trouble, I keep putting a dot at 2 instead of 4, but I am getting better. Of course, this is at braille box size dots, which are huge in comparison to regular braille, but I’ll work on that too. Baby steps. :)

I am now the proud owner of a BrailleBox from The Braille Superstore along with two cards of braille, I think it’s the alphabet, if I’m remembering the first few letters correctly. The box is quite nicely made, very inexpensive for the price. ($7.95 from them on eBay.) I went back and forth about whether or not to get it, but I think I’m going to be glad I did. This looks like it is going to be a very good way for me to get started.

I also had a meeting at Vocational Rehabilitation today and mentioned at the end to SueEllen about me trying this, and she’s going to check on one or two things for me. She didn’t seem to think it was SupahDumb, my reasons for wanting to learn it and stuff, which made me feel a bit better. She suggested the Hadley School. I can’t remember whether I logged it here or not, but I actually did get in touch with them about it, but they didn’t think I would qualify for their program. SueEllen also is putting me in touch with a doctor (via Dave from her office) who does stuff with vision therapy to see what it is that’s causing me to have so many problems with reading and everything. Maybe we can sort something out. At any rate, she said maybe he would be able to write me something that would qualify me for the Hadley stuff. So we’ll see.

But my BrailleBox seems very nifty so far, and I have a hunch I’ll wind up playing with it while I talk on the computer, which will be good because it means I’ll actually practice. Hooray for that. :]

Eeek. Here’s hoping this isn’t just one of my flakey momentary-enthusiasm things, because I just ordered some materials to learn braille. I’m having a hard time tracking down what’s useful for someone teaching themselves and what’s not because I’m not visually impaired, but I do want to learn to read it by touch, not by sight.

Well, we’ll see I guess. Once again: Eek.