To mark Braille Literacy Month, help our MSU Bias Busters envision a timely new guidebook
You can help the Michigan State University Bias Busters with this project
By JOE GRIMM
Founder of the MSU School of Journalism Bias Busters project
The next time you pass by the raised dots on elevator buttons, give them a second look. Touch them. That is how they are meant to be used. This dot writing was invented in the1820s by Louis Braille, a French teenager. This system is named after him. Braille uses dots to represent letters, numbers, spaces, punctuation, musical notes, some common words and more.
They give people who are blind or who have low vision a tool to read.
January is designated as Braille Literacy Month because the inventor was born on Jan. 4, 1809. He died Jan. 6, 1852. This month, a journalism class at Michigan State University will begin work on a guide that helps people understand and have conversations with neighbors, co-workers and classmates who are blind or who have low vision. By answering some of the very basic questions about their lives and experiences, we hope to help people feel more comfortable having conversations.
And—you can help!
Braille, who lost his sight as a child, developed his system after learning “night writing,” a system designed to help soldiers communicate soundlessly in the dark. The teenager’s improved system initially met skepticism. He kept developing it and today it is used globally.
Beside leaving us a writing system that appears all around us, the inventor left a philosophy that echoes today. He said, “We do not need pity, nor do we need to be reminded that we are vulnerable …’’
This sentiment is reflected today by organizations such as the National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind.
To publish this guide with the working title “100 Questions and Answers About Blindness: Courtesy and Etiquette,” it is essential that students hear from the people they are writing about.
We need to hear what questions affected people want in the guide. We will ask, “What questions should we answer?”
“What would you like people to know?”
“What do you tell them when you can?”
“What stereotypes do people have?”
“What do we get wrong?”
“Are there assumptions or actions that bother you?”
If you know someone who can help us answer these questions first hand, please send me an email with their contact information. You could help a lot of people. I am at [email protected].
Thank you.
The Michigan State University School of Journalism’s Bias Busters series covers a wide array of cultural, racial, religious and professional groups. On this Amazon page, you can see the many opportunities we provide to learn more about our friends, neighbors and co-workers.