Students gathered at Arcola Community school on Wednesday to face off against one another in the Regional Braille Challenge.
“This is our third braille challenge that we’ve hosted. It is a challenge for students to hone and practice and show off their braille skills in braille reading, in braille writing and also with charts and graphs,” Pamela Tarr, a qualified teacher of students who have low vision or blindness said.
Those who spoke with CTV shared that the process of learning braille required lots of time and patience.
“First I start with like, alphabet words and then with like, word like type unveiling words and braille and then contractions and then like more even harder stuff. And then that makes me better and I read braille books,” said 10 year old Huda Alahasan.
All of the students taking part have some degree of vision impairment or blindness.
“We learned when I was at a young age that I had a visual impairment that wasn’t curable. So I had to start learning, braille,” 10 year old, Fletcher Bryant McDonald said
Students shared that events like this one make the prospect of learning a lot more fun.
“It’s fun because, like, you can braille stuff and read stuff. You can learn....I just keep practicing every day,” said eight year old Zhisheng Huang.
This particular competition is hosted through the Braille Institute which is located in Los Angeles. Every year, they host a Braile Challenge Finale for those who perform the best in their regional qualifiers. While the prospect of travelling to LA is certainly an appeal, Tarr shared that it is about much more than that.
“We live in such a diverse community with all different needs. And so it’s important that the blind community has that voice and that people understand what braille is and how important it is. Nowadays with technology, many people think, ‘Oh, well, people with a visual impairment, they can just listen,’ but that’s not good enough,” she explained.
The teacher added that the excitement of the students was certainly noticeable.
“Today school was that transportation was canceled, but our students still came because they were so excited. They did not want to miss out today,” Tarr said
Students shared that while living with a vision impairment comes with its challenges, it is far from debilitating.
“Even if you are visually impaired, you can still do a lot of things. Like, for example, I do a lot of things such as acting and rock climbing,” Bryant McDonald said.
