The BrailleBridge Experience

Katarína Šmajdová Búšová from Slovakia shares with us today a fantastic event! The kind we’d love to see more of.
Not just because it gives us something to report on, but because it was a truly enriching experience for everyone involved, as the attached photos clearly show.
Thank you, Katarína, for telling us about it and perhaps even inspiring some of our readers to try something similar.

Braille – a bridge over obstacles

The participants with the highest age in the camp with their eyes covered (aged 78). They are sitting at a table and having fun learning how to find their way around a six-point compass using balls that they place in a six-pointed egg carton.

Last May, the Slovak Blind and Partially Sighted Union organised a rehabilitation and relaxing retreat, where we spoke mostly about braille. 18 participants learned to understand the six-point by fun activities, tested their tactile skills and wrote the Braille alphabet.

Participants sitting at a table. Some have their eyes covered. Each has a relief sheet in front of them with various shapes and lines, which they have to trace with their fingers and describe in words.

Colleagues from the Braille Authority of Slovakia by Matej Hrebenda Slovak Library for the Blind in Levoča prepared a presentation about braille and its use today. They brought embossed pictures, braille publications and aids for writing braille.

Participants sitting at a table. Some have their eyes covered. Each has a pinboard in front of them. Following instructions, they write letters of the Braille alphabet on it.

People from Touch&Speech n. o. prepared for the participants a workshop on using braille in the Corvus program on mobile phones and on writing and playing braille games on a braille display. We had fun with a game of Corvus braille Tetris.

An employee from the library helps participants during a discussion with the lead coordinator of the Braille Authority of Slovakia, Michal Tkáčik, to feel pictures in relief graphics from SKN.

Our participants were entertained with paintbrushes, glue and polystyrene balls which we used to create braille text on blue hard paper. The text represents the title of our retreat.

In the photo at the table, people from Touch&Speech n. o. explain and demonstrate how to play Braille Tetris on a Braille display. One participant tries the game at the table and comments on it. Three others stand around, watching and laughing at the game and the comments.

There was a great atmosphere, which we enjoyed together with braille 😊

Group photo of all participants with ÚNSS staff who organized the trip. Everyone is standing outside on the steps in front of the hotel entrance. Each of them is holding a letter of the Braille alphabet. They made them together out of blue paper and white polystyrene balls. All the letters together form the name of the retreat – Braille – a Bridge Over Obstacles.

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