Braille is a touch based reading system. Which can be complicated for those who have two or more decades of visual reading.
Something many blind from birth Braille teachers do not understand, or even know about, is the way we were taught to read visually. Teachers would smack your hand with a ruler, or worse, if you were caught following along with your finger as you read in print. Which severely damaged the learning abilities of the visually impaired, dyslexic, and other learning differences.
What blind from birth Braille teachers don't realize is that if we touch and read along with our fingers, we are still expecting that ruler smack for daring to do so! Braille teachers even get angry that you lift your fingers off the Braille letters and are breathing hard from the fear of being smacked. They can't recognize the issue.
There are also other reasons many of us, especially women, are uncomfortable with touch. It is a natural PTSD survival and safety issue. Something difficult to overcome.
Many blind from birth teachers also use other senses more than the average sighted person. They may be able to use hearing (screen readers) or sense of smell, with decades of practice. However, most sighted people don't use these as frequently. And were taught to ignore those senses as children. These senses may be not working as well when we begin to lose our vision, especially past the age of twenty. Our hearing may need hearing aids or cochlear implants just to have a conversation. Our sense of smell may be permanently untrustworthy due to repeated untreated sinus infections.
Pre-Braille Tips
There are lots of pre-braille tips, some of which can be helpful regardless of visual level. As your vision changes, some may have to change. While some items aren't cheap, and need to be bought from website catalog sites such as Maxi-Aids, others are cheap, and can be found with a little searching at local dollar stores or craft stores. Items often found in the art, craft, or office sections do work well, without the special price tag.
Thoughts on feelable dots - the sponge ones or cork ones are the best to buy. The hard plastic ones can cause skin trauma for people with arthritis, or finger problems.
Appliances
How you work with appliances depends on several things.
Are you renting? You may not be able to use something that could leave something permanent on the appliance.
Do you live with sighted people? You don't want to cover up the numbers on the microwave so they can't see them.
Pet safety? Don't use something that can fall off and they can swallow.
Low Vision: Use a permanent marker to mark the start button on washers and dryers. Or a piece of electrical tape. For dark surfaces such as microwaves - Brailled tape works to mark each number and sighted people can still use it.
No Vision: Puffy paint or Brailled tape.
Food
If you have sighted family or friends to help, they can group meal items together, or put the foods for you to cook that day out where you know where they are, including a special pan in the fridge for the meat for the day. As you open cans or bags, you may be able to recognize by smell or texture what the food is. A small piece of tape on a bag, box, or can, can differentiate it from another that is similar. Or maybe, you put vegetables (in the can) in one basket, and the canned fruit next to it. Create a system that works for you and your family, and allows for the needs of all.
Low Vision:
Magnetic alphabet letters to help find cans. Use caution - "P" can stand for peas, peaches, peanuts, pears, pineapple, and more!
Large permanent marker to help mark frozen or boxed foods and to circle expiration dates.
No Vision: Known organization pattern and phone apps to read cans, boxes, and bags. Some people use rubber bands and other items, however, these tend to snap, be moved, and break.
Light Switches
Low Vision:
Bright fingernail paint to mark the room. If multiple on one panel - have a specific color or texture for each purpose as labels. For example - all hallway lights may be cork, and all fans may have no mark.
No Vision:
Puff paint dot for primary switch. Cork for fans, and something special for sink disposal.
Plugs
Low Vision:
Bright fingernail paint to mark the wide side of plugs. Both on the cord, and on the outlets.
No Vision:
Feelable dot on the wide side of the outlet plug. Puff paint dot on the plug of the cord, on the part you grasp, not the part that goes into the outlet.
Braille Fonts
Computer systems come with a few installed braille fonts. Some are better than others. Many only produce letters, and maybe a period. These often do not include the dot to capitalize the first letter of a sentence. Some only produce the direct dots needed for each letter, while others use the whole symbol layout to show where the dots are.
I tend to use Braille AOE font. It includes the whole symbol, and you can easily use all the non-letter symbols. Create a document that shows the whole keyboard by pressing each letter and symbol on the regular keyboard, both plain and with the shift key.Many blind from birth people do not understand the purpose of writing a document in non-feelable Braille. By doing so, you create a Braille to English (or other language) dictionary for those who can still see. It also allows those who are losing their vision to visualize what they are reading in a way that feels natural to them. It decreases the fear of learning Braille.It can also be a life saver. If your document contains both feelable Braille, visual Braille, and print, it allows emergency medical people to quickly find your medical information, know you are blind, and help you get the treatment you need.
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