It's 4 January, the anniversary of Louis Braille's birth. Every year at this time, I like to reflect on a man who was a teacher in his lifetime, and who in the years after his death has taught us lessons of empowerment, resilience, and self-determination.
Every day, I am grateful for the gift of literacy he gave me and millions like me who are blind. In the last year, I have benefited from that gift by labelling and identifying items.
I have referred to copious notes in meetings as part of my job as a CEO. Also in that role, I know that if I take the time to proof a document with Braille, it will be accurate all the way down to picking up extraneous punctuation that I might miss with text-to-speech.
It has helped the global community of blind podcast listeners as I read aloud with fluency the many contributions that come into my Living Blindfully podcast. One of the most wonderful things about that podcast is when I hear from people who were denied Braille as a child, or who became blind later in life, who have told me that my reading Braille on the podcast has encouraged them to embark on their own Braille reading journey.
I've delivered presentations to audiences around the world, some of those were large audiences, and read my speech notes in Braille.
Best of all, Braille allows me to read stories for my granddaughter, just as I read to my own children when they were little.
My life would be very different, and very much the poorer, without it. And my story is not unusual. The data are clear that blind people who know Braille have a far higher chance of finding employment.
The story of the Braille code shows us that the best people to develop solutions for blind people are blind people ourselves. Louis Braille designed, then refined his code, and taught it to other blind people. There was a period where the books containing his code were burned. The Braille code was driven underground because some sighted people felt threatened by its otherness. They insisted that blind people should conform and read raised print, even though it was inefficient. Thankfully, the Braille code prevailed. That lesson is just as applicable today.
Some think Braille is no longer necessary because blind people have talking books and talking computers now. This view is wrong and harmful. To people who say these things, I say we'll give up Braille when sighted people stop reading print and use audio exclusively too. Braille is our equivalent to print. When something is under my fingertips, I remember it more clearly. It is the same as being a visual learner.
And Braille is more vibrant than ever, thanks to an exciting range of Braille displays. It is also a tool of profound significance for those who are DeafBlind, for whom audio isn't an option.
So once again, a toast to Louis Braille the man, and Braille the code which in New Zealand we capitalise to always remember his genius and his sacrifice.
@JonathanMosen this is great stuff, I especially thought about this snippet:
"Some think Braille is no longer necessary because blind people have talking books and talking computers now. This view is wrong and harmful. To people who say these things, I say we'll give up Braille when sighted people stop reading print and use audio exclusively too."
Braille and also print both allow for a VERY flexible reading velocity based on your capacity to understand the respective words!
The downside is it makes Google the de facto owner of all of your online information. You could never use a Google product, but because they have such a large market share they’ll essentially force every site and platform to use their solution.
#OnThisDay, January 6, in 1994, U.S. Figure Skating Champion Nancy Kerrigan was bludgeoned with a police baton on her right lower thigh by an assailant hired by the husband of her rival, Tonya Harding (depicted in I, Tonya, 2017, starring Margot Robbie)
Happy New Year one and all if you’re following my @neilhimself raffle we are now down to 495 raffle tickets left to go please see the full description as written by Lyra’s Books for this amazing edition of Neil’s 🌟STARDUST🌟 only 2 such books exist!
Link to the tickets also below
Jag vill börja logga mina böcker och läsning. Har väldigt svårt för Goodreads. Vad använder ni för att hålla koll och "dela med er" av er läslogg? Självklart går det att ha nån sida på min hemsida eller bara en .txt nånstans. Men hur kul är det. Jag vill ju se vad andra läser och dela med mig av min enormt dåliga smak!
Really great interview with Jodie Foster in The Guardian!
"There’s something Hugh Grant said [..]: that the fame thing at a young age is like being shot up with steroids and you live with those big muscles your whole life, and then, one day, you make the decision that there are no more steroids. And you don’t recognise yourself and have no idea who you are. And you have to rebuild an entire identity. That can be difficult, and [..] I had to learn late.” https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/jan/06/jodie-foster-interview-true-detective
... and what do you think about the above interview, @actuallyautistic?
Jodie Foster:
“I’m not a multitasker. I’m a weird focused person. If there’s a spectrum, that’s my spectrum. It doesn’t matter if there are planes going by or if someone is calling my name, if I’m focused on something. I’m really good at going, no thank you, I’m not doing that.”
My radar was having hiccups so intense were my feelings while reading this...
[Professor Raina MacIntyre] published her first book, Dark Winter - An insider’s guide to pandemics and biosecurity in 2022, which conveys her knowledge and concerns about biosecurity in lay language for non-expert readers.
Professor Raina MacIntyre (MBBS Hons 1, FRACP, FAFPHM, M App Epid, PhD).... heads the Biosecurity Program at the Kirby Institute, which conducts research in epidemiology, vaccinology, bioterrorism prevention, mathematical modelling, genetic epidemiology, public health and clinical trials in infectious diseases.
Area of Expertise
Emerging infectious diseases, infection, biosecurity, biodefense, influenza, vaccines, adult vaccination, elderly vaccination, epidemiology, outbreaks, epidemic control, pandemics, travel and border control, HPV, pneumococcal disease, bioterrorism, smallpox, monkeypox, anthrax, Ebola, viral haemorrhagic fevers, MERS coronavirus, COVID-19, health security, health intelligence, modelling, clinical trials, study design, big data, precision harm, artificial intelligence for epidemic detection.
Want to make cool rustic designs? Special cowboy fonts can give that old western look. But nice cowboy fonts usually cost money.
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I saw that! January 2nd I think?? Coincidentally, I probably signed up around the same time but didn't experience any server issues or anything. May have took a bit to import my Goodreads library but it was pretty smooth sailing overall 📚 ☕ 🤓
@GamingNews@n0madz@bookstodon They always have a bit of a sign up frenzy on new years as there is some challenges that start then and people got subscriptions as gifts and whatnot.
But it was even more that their projections this year. Next newsletter will be interesting.
We just passed the halfway point of our fundraising goal for Banned Books Back! Moms for Liberty, eat your hearts out! 😏
To recap, our collective received a serendipitous donation of children's books that had been removed from Florida schools as part of an ongoing effort to censor titles depicting queer joy, civil rights history, immigrant stories, and more. Right now, our collective is harboring dozens of boxes of these "dangerous" titles — but not for long. Later this month, we'll be calling on our local community to help package bundles and send these Banned Books... Back!
Thank you so much to the folks who have boosted this effort, including but not limited to Autostraddle, The Washington Post, LGBTQ Nation, so many rad bookseller buddies, and the 270+ folks who've donated. 💓
According to Jon Bakos on Bluesky, 🍉 (to show Palestinian solidarity) is the Political Word of the Year in the American Dialect Society voting. #Woty2023