My why...

  I love braille.
          I mean I love braille. And even before I knew what braille was, it was in my life. When my grandfather was in the military during WW2, the doctors told him, to make sure he read as much as possible then because he was going to eventually lose his eyesight and become blind. Still he went on to be a math teacher, Baltimore city school principal, marry the love of his life, get his masters from Columbia (in a time when Maryland wouldn’t integrate its colleges and universities,) have one daughter and two granddaughters. Yes, he eventually lost his vision, but he still read. He learned braille.
         Growing up, I had no idea why the books in the den had no pictures in them, I just used to love to run my hands over the pages and feel the bumps. I don’t think it was until much later I learned that all of my Ga-Ga’s books were in braille. My connection to braille had been formed in those early years, just as a child with sight explores the pictures and words in books without any real concepts of the written word, I explored braille books without any concept of braille. That was to come years later.
         Fast forward to my first formal introduction to learning the braille code during preparation to become a teacher of the visually impaired, I grew to not only develop a concept of braille but a deep respect for a code that was devised to allow all people access to the skill of reading.
          I think the struggle for equality that my grandfather went through in this country as a person of color with a disability, helped shape his belief that education is the one thing that cannot be taken away. Knowledge is power. That is why I started this website and channel, like Louis, I feel that access should be for everyone. I think knowledge is something that should be available to all. As teachers, transcriptionist we have little time and money to spend learning a new program or all the features of an exciting program. I want to provide high quality short focused videos and post that will help us in our busy work lives that will better help serve our babies, students, clients and people.
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