Stories about a blind man - Reading and writing

braille alphabet.gif
https://blind.iowa.gov/educators/alphabet-and-braille-character-equivalents

As most people know blind people read Braille. After Bernard turned blind he attended school for the blind and learned how to read Braille. When I was little we had a label maker at home. I never gave that thing a second thought, until I was writing this blog. In hindsight it must have been a special thing, since your average label maker isn't used for Braille...
My mum used it to label things for Bernard or to write him notes or letters, which I think was really cute.

I've always found it quite fascinating that all those tiny dots make up a whole language. I used to try and decipher it. Once you know a few letters it's not that hard to guess the rest and as a kid I was very proud of my Braille reading abilities. I remember doing a public speech at school about being blind, Braille and guidance dogs. I was allowed to bring Goofy the guide dog to school and I felt like a queen that day :)

Since Bernard lost his sight in his twenties, he not only knows Braille but he also knows how to write and read like we do.
And he refused to give up the writing part!
For my birthday and around Christmas I always receive handwritten cards from Bernard. Admittedly, sometimes it takes me a while to decipher a part of a sentence, but how cool is that?!

He uses a little workbench with a ruler to guide him along the sentence. When he finishes a sentence he can move the ruler down a little bit and write a new sentence.

Sadly, I don't have a picture of this awesome device.
You'll have to make do with the Braille alphabet ;)

Thanks for reading! Follow me @best-pomchi-ever :)

Thanks for the post. A journey into another world. I know a dog named Goofy! An Irish Wolfhound.
Just wanted to comment how funny it is that I first mistook the post's thumbnail for German runes. I think what makes Braille so cool is that it's more primitive (in the academic sense of the word).

Hahaha, nice.
Yeah, it is more primitive. Primitive but brilliant :)

Wonderful post @best-pomchi-ever!

When I was kid I had a course on learning to read braille. I found it really fascinated and tried to write things myself. Really cool that you can read it!

Well... when I was ten I was able to read some letters and guess some words. 15 years later not a lot of that stuck I'm afraid ^^'

Awesome read, thanks for this! Speaking of blindness, have you heard about these electronic glasses for the blind? They're one of the latest assistive technology devices for blind to help with everyday tasks, such as reading. I think it's really important to have more gadgets for blind people going forward, as the demand for these kinds of products continues to increase. Nevertheless, it's great to see so many options as this technology continues to grow!

Oh hey, I missed this comment :P only saw it just now.
Haven't heard of it. Sounds interesting! I'll ask Bernard if he knows about it when I talk to him :)
I totally agree. We can do so much with technology now and it would be awesome if people that are impaired in some way can benefit from this.
Have a nice weekend!