Society for the Blind’s Braille Production & Training Program has one principle.
“Braille is literacy,” says Jill Guilbeau, program manager and lead Braille instructor. “You can read digital books, but that’s not reading. To be able to sit down and read a book in braille, it’s powerful to me because you’re using your skills to read. It’s part of being independent.”
For more than 70 years, Society for the Blind has offered programming to help blind and low-vision youth, adults and seniors lead more independent lives.
When the opportunity arrived to acquire Sacramento Braille Transcribers in 2021, the society jumped at the chance.
“We have long wanted to add braille services, so this was an opportunity for us to look at yet another piece of expanding our mission,” Society for the Blind Director Shari Roeseler says.
The previous braille transcribing service mostly used volunteers to produce materials, but many decided not to continue when the Unified English Braille code was released 10 years ago to unify symbols among English-speaking countries.
Along with the new code came certification requirements to work as a transcriber. Roeseler put out the call to the community and now has 16 certified transcribers, including specialists in math, music and languages.
“If we get (a client) who needs music, we reach out to that translator,” Guilbeau says. “For some educational materials, we do math with graphics, so a blind student gets to feel everything a regular student is feeling.”
Guilbeau knows how important it is to make braille materials available as early as possible.
“I started braille when I was 5,” she says. “My parents forced the school district because they didn’t want me to fall behind. For children growing up, if they go into classrooms and they’re low vision and they can’t see what the teacher’s doing, they lose so much. Having braille at your fingertips is amazing and makes for a smooth transition.”
With the transcription service, Guilbeau can make sure students have what they need.
“I always wanted to produce our own material for students,” she says. “It’s more fun and I love doing it. I love creating things and knowing it’s going to a good cause.”
With up to six machines at Sierra 2 Center in Curtis Park, the braille program produces educational materials along with menus, newsletters, playbills, manuals and more for local businesses and organizations.
The group is always seeking new ways to reach people in need.
“It’s about educating folks,” Roeseler says. “There’s a resource right here in your backyard that you can use to have everyone in your community be able to read.”
For information, visit societyfortheblind.org.
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