Friday, January 18, 2013
Keep Calm and Braille On.
I want this for my son. I want Pope to have this piece of equipment. It's called the Perkins Smart Brailler and it's an ingenious device for teaching Braille. The commission for the blind should provide this... The problem is, they may not... And why? Because the Pope may not be blind enough for Braille. Fortunately, for him, the Pope has a little usable vision in his one eye. His other eye is a prosthetic since he lost that eye to Retinoblastoma, it can see nothing. His remaining eye, while small and fragile, has the ability to see light, color and some objects up close. This is HUGE for Pope, but I worry about his future. He can not see average book print. And I worry that Braille will become more and more important to him as he gets older and is reading. Thus far, the commission for the blind has determined that JP is a "visual learner" and they are not yet willing to provide Braille. The Smart Brailler cost ~$2000... certainly not in our budget.
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Sorry to hear you're having so much trouble trying to get the commission for the blind to recognize your son's needs. Until the day comes when they do decide your son deserves a new Smart Brailler; you may want to check out the other Braillers Perkins has that are bit more affordable. They aren't the latest & greatest Braillers but they get the job done; you can find more info and prices on the different models here: http://support.perkins.org/site/PageServer?pagename=store_homepage
ReplyDeleteThanks Jeff! The wonderful thing about the Smart Brailler, especially for young kids, is the feedback. We have a standard Perkins Brailler. Yes, it gets the job done. But it's just 'work' and not very motiving for the average 5 year old.
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