Students with visual impairment compete in braille challenge

ABC NEWS (Australia)

For more than 126 years, Queensland's Braille House has been helping those who are blind or have low vision - to learn by reading braille. Today is the annual braille literacy challenge, where some of Braille House's students show off their skills.

Transcript

00:00 I'm here at Braille House for the 2023 Literacy Challenge, which is happening here all day.

00:08 And I'm joined by the CEO of Braille House, Richard Barker.

00:11 Richard, how important is today for Braille House?

00:14 Oh, Michael, it's very important.

00:17 The children that have come, you know, create lifelong friends, as well as, you know, getting

00:22 their reading and writing skills tested against their peers.

00:25 And this is all part of their education.

00:28 And it's critical for them to, you know, to participate in a day like this, because you

00:32 don't normally get this in their own schools.

00:36 And you know, the social media that's been going around with past students going, you

00:41 know, it's a very, very valuable day.

00:44 Socially as well for them, connecting with other students must be really good as well.

00:48 Oh, it is.

00:49 And, you know, talking to some of the children that arrived here earlier, they're looking

00:52 forward to catching up with their friends.

00:55 And they look forward to this day.

00:56 And a lot of them create lifelong friendships out of this.

00:59 Braille House has been around for so long, 126 years.

01:02 It's such an institution, isn't it?

01:04 Oh, it is.

01:05 And you know, what we're doing at the moment is really raising the profile again, for Braille.

01:10 And Braille is the key for literacy for children who are blind and have low vision.

01:14 So days like this are important.

01:16 And as we head, you know, rapidly towards 2032, inclusion, accessibility, it's important.

01:23 We take a lot of things for granted as sighted people.

01:26 But you know, days like this allow us to promote and profile again, the importance of Braille.

01:33 And you're looking for a fit for purpose building, to get that built here at Braille House.

01:38 How important is that that happens, that becomes a reality?

01:41 Oh, look, it is important.

01:43 You know, it's a wonderful house that we've got here.

01:47 But it's struggling.

01:49 It takes up a lot of, you know, our repairs and maintenance.

01:52 And so the new building will allow us to have, you know, the proper training rooms, you know,

01:57 the room set up for a day like this, you know, proper production facilities, a library, which

02:04 will have climate controlled and so forth.

02:07 But we see the house being maintained, and you know, probably displaying a lot of the

02:11 historic pieces of Braille technology, and being a place where, you know, students can

02:17 come and interact with Braille and tactile.

02:21 Well, Richard, appreciate your time this morning.

02:23 I know very busy, but a lot of the students are looking forward to some of the prizes

02:28 as well that you got in store for them.

02:29 So should be a great day here at Braille House, reading and writing challenges and yeah, lots

02:36 of fun for the kids.

02:37 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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