Braille

Announcements

January 4th is the anniversary of Louis Braille's birthday and January is Braille Literacy Month! The following links contain ideas and suggestions for celebrating with your students who are braille readers and/or sighted classmates during Braille Literacy Month (or any time!):

• AFB Braille Bug.
  Games and activities for kids.
• Tips for Promoting Braille in the Classroom.
  Ideas to help sighted kids to learn more about braille while having fun.
• Braille Carnival (Texas School for the Blind).
  More ideas for braille related games.
• Dots for Braille Literacy.
  Newsletter available in electronic format with ideas about teaching braille, new products, and resources. Subscribe (free) or read the newsletter online.
• Free Items from AFB.
  Send for the poster: Dots for Reading to display prominently in your school during Braille Awareness Month. Another free item, Connecting the Dots: A Parent's Resource for Promoting Early Braille Literacy is available on the same page.

Multimedia

• http://media.umb.edu/braillerintro/ (Breeze)
• http://media.umb.edu/brailleroptions/ (Breeze)

Discussion Forum

There is a discussion forum provided for this section. This forum is designed to allow mentors and protégés to communicate and allow the rest of the mentoring community to benefit from these interactions.

Braille Forum

Specialist Bio

Wendy Buckley is adjunct faculty at UMass Boston where she co-teaches the two braille courses for both the TVI and O&M Programs. Wendy has been using braille for thirty years and holds a Certificate of Literary Braille Competency from the Library of Congress. She helped to develop the curriculum for the two-semester braille course and works with other members of the Instructional Technology Committee at NERCVE to develop strategies for using technology in new and innovative ways for the delivery of online content. Wendy is also a full-time teacher in the Deafblind Program at Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Massachusetts where she has worked for the past thirty years. She currently serves as the braille teacher and computer teacher/specialist within the Deafblind Program at Perkins.