This week, there’s a lot for you to get your hands on and listen to.
We’ve picked out some great speeches from various events that deal with Braille at a basic level.
We’ll start today with Michal Tkáčik and his speech at TEDx Bratislava Talks.
Michal is the head of the Slovak Braille Committee. We have the video of the original speech for you, as well as the text in English for those who don’t speak Slovak.
Braille dots like saffron
I am blind. I don’t say this proudly, because there is nothing to be proud of, but calmly, because there really is something to be calm about.
Most people believe me, some ask questions, and once I even experienced… let’s call it “practical” verification. I was tested by a random guy who stopped by our group of high school friends in the park. He obviously didn’t like the look of me, so he tried to flick a nail sharply towards my eyes. To see if I would dodge it. I didn’t dodge it. But not out of heroism—I didn’t even notice it.
A peculiar but direct way of obtaining information. When I remembered this bizarre situation, something very important occurred to me. This gentleman verified, in a socially inappropriate but effective way, that I really couldn’t see. And he knew for sure that I couldn’t see at all.
Certainty and effectiveness are the most important things when gathering information. In today’s fast-paced world, information is waiting for us around every corner, at every moment of the day. Just imagine how much written information a sighted child acquires from their surroundings from the moment they wake up to the bedtime story—the label on the toothpaste, breakfast cereal, shop signs on the street, books, television. Writing lurks around us at almost every moment.
Now imagine how you would access all this visual information with your eyes closed. You can feel and know many things, but you cannot see them. You probably won’t confuse toothpaste with wasabi, unless you’re cooking in the bathroom. But would you be as confident with day and night creams of the same brand?
There are many ways for blind people to access written information. Not all of them can be used with certainty and efficiency.
Braille is definitely effective and provides certainty. It is a dot-based writing system invented in 1825 by Louis Braille, a blind man in France. This year, we are celebrating its 200th anniversary. This writing system consists of Braille cells, which are made up of six dots. We usually explain Braille cells to children by asking them to imagine dots on their shoulders, hips, and knees. Six dots evenly spaced in a vertical rectangle. Characters, letters, and symbols are formed by raised dots in different positions within the cell. The letter a is dot 1, the letter c is dots 1 and 4.
It has been used in Slovakia since the 1920s. Using 63 cells + a space, it is possible to write text, mathematics and other natural sciences, chemical equations, aromatic hydrocarbon structures, musical notes, chess literature, and knitting patterns. Prefixes and other rules are used for writing in these different contexts.
Until 1996, we had unwritten Braille rules in Slovakia, which were taught in special schools. They were introduced by Adolf Fryc, the first director of the current elementary school in Levoča, back in the 1920s. In 1996, the basic rules for letters, punctuation, and mathematical symbols were written down for the first time. It was not until 2021 that the Braille Authority of Slovakia fully dedicated itself to Braille writing. I am the head of this institute and lead Braille activities in Slovakia.
I have been blind since the age of two, with complete loss of vision. As a child, I attended a boarding kindergarten and then the first grade of a special school for the blind in Levoča. Braille was “my” only script and the key to knowledge. From the first grade, I learned from a primer with Braille and tactile graphics. The letters and pictures in it were printed on foil for better tactile training, with the pictures representing very simple shapes of animals or everyday objects.
Instead of a pen, I wrote on a mechanical Braille typewriter. Instead of a notebook, I drew pictures on a special rubber drawing pad with foil. The picture was engraved into it with a sharp object, such as a pen. Imagine a plastic bag with a soft rubber pad inside: that’s what drawing in art class looked like, as well as drawing construction tasks in math class. Once, I won an international art competition for visually impaired children in Zlín with a drawing of a figure skater.
We gradually moved on from primers to books. We only had Braille books for some subjects. But when we did, at least the whole class could use a Braille textbook with the same content. This is by no means guaranteed in today’s inclusive education of blind children.
What is the situation in their education today? In the past, they went to special schools, just like me. One school was in Levoča, the other in Bratislava. Twenty to thirty years ago, it was not possible to enroll a child with a serious visual impairment in a school in their place of residence. Today, this is possible, and blind children can also study in an inclusive manner.
Integrative or inclusive education is a social change with various factors. It is certainly good in that it preserves family ties. Children do not have to leave their parents and the rest of their family 400 kilometers away, as was the case with me. Nor do parents have to move to Levoča, as many of my friends’ parents had to do.
Enrolling a child in a mainstream school also complicates the family situation considerably. Although the school may be full of willing people, it usually has few specialists and even fewer special aids and materials in Braille or other accessible formats. And although institutions that help blind and visually impaired people in education are doing their best, support for inclusive education is still poorly coordinated and unmanaged.
Braille skills training is often neglected precisely because of this shortcoming. Experts are concentrated in institutions, and assistance to children is therefore provided only on an outpatient basis. Aids are expensive, and many of them require training to use. There is a dire shortage of textbooks and teaching materials in Braille or other accessible formats in Slovakia. Blind children therefore often have different textbooks than their classmates. They cannot keep up with them.
Transcribing Braille textbooks is expensive and difficult. Braille books themselves are much larger and thicker; a standard 100-page textbook can have up to three such volumes.
Transcription involves more than just translating the text; it is also necessary, for example, to format tables correctly or describe all images in words. Currently, this work is done by the transcription department that I manage. It has “as many as” two employees though.
The form of inclusive education was not sufficiently prepared in our country. A large part of the burden of acquiring and transcribing textbooks fell on the shoulders of parents. Personally, I have encountered cases at work where parents had to leave their jobs and provide full support to their children in order to secure study materials.
The student should be cared for by a support team. This team consists of staff from several areas:
• The educational component, represented by the school and teachers, as well as special educators and specialized counseling and prevention centers;
• Aids and compensatory mechanisms, which are the responsibility of the employment office;
• Social component – the civic association Slovak Blind and Partially Sighted Union which provides orientation and self-care training, and more…
Help can be found, but in Slovakia it is very scattered and poorly coordinated.
In this daily struggle to ensure the education of blind people in mainstream schools, Braille and touch are at the bottom of the list of skills taught.
Unfortunately, this means that blind people can graduate from primary school on the verge of illiteracy.
However, braille is not just the key to education. It is primarily a source of information that is inexpensive to produce/install, does not require batteries, and is not dependent on electricity or technology. It is the most effective way to convey short but crucial information.
It can significantly help with spatial orientation or product labeling. You have all encountered Braille on medicine boxes or in elevators. We owe this to European Union directives. Every time I pick up a medicine box, I am happy. I can easily read the name.
And I wonder if such a simple thing can really only come about when it is mandated…
Let’s go shopping together. In addition to my white cane, I also have a number of helpful apps on my phone to help me navigate the store. One of them allows me to use my phone’s camera as a scanner. It scans any text in the vicinity and reads it to me through my headphones. However, if I point my phone at a shelf, it will, of course, read me a mix of product names, prices, discounts, advertisements… Anything with a piece of text, often in one frustrating jumble of information. Of course, there is a solution to this—shopping with store employees or a personal assistant.
Another wave of frustration comes a few days after the purchase. With the pass of time, I can’t remember exactly what I bought and where I stored it at home. It’s not enough for me to come home with my purchases and put them in the right places. If I don’t label the products, I may end up opening several cans in a few days before I find the right one for chili con carne. (example: two cans without labels, demonstrating indistinguishability; after attaching a label, a person can normally see what it is. After attaching a label with Braille, even I can tell.)
I consider Braille to be the most effective form of labeling. It doesn’t take long minutes to turn the can around to scan it. It doesn’t need other reading devices, it is independent and resistant even to hands busy with cooking, cutting, cleaning… .
Believe me, it is a real joy that we no longer need the labeling process for medicines.
Is it within the power of society to give us such an improvement in quality of life for other products as well? Definitely yes, I have already found Braille on Slovak Lyra chocolates, and in the past also on Vinea bottles. However, Braille descriptions on products are very rare, and I can’t think of any others in Slovakia at the moment.
Since Braille is missing from products, I may end up using my wife’s conditioner instead of men’s shampoo, which in my case … (open ending, self-joke, as I have very short hair)
Braille is my job, but it is also my way of obtaining information. On the occasion of its 200th anniversary, I would like to emphasize its enormous importance, not only for the blind. After all, it is in the interest of society as a whole that everyone has access to information that is intended for everyone.
And when you think about it, Braille is actually quite beautiful. It can be part of an interesting dotted design or serve as a non-slip surface for packaging. It is playful, but we have to discover its playful side.
After two hundred years, society as a whole should recognize the importance of Braille. If it accepts blind people as part of itself, it should also accept Braille as a fully-fledged tool for conveying information to blind people.
Opening up inclusive education and life also requires a fundamental and practical change in attitude… If I want the name of my product, the content of my book, or the nameplate on my office door to be readable for everyone, I have to look for different ways to make them accessible.
More Braille is needed not only in education, but also on products, in the labeling of spaces or seats in vehicles, in orientation in cities, hospitals, public buildings…
For Braille to become an integral part of the lives of blind children, they need to constantly learn about it and, above all, find it on the things around them.
Just as children who do not have to reach for it with their hands always have writing in sight.
Only then can inclusion truly work: through a real change in society’s attitude.
A house must be built from the ground up.
Together with all of you.
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