Braille books are huge!
Not only are the physical books big, but it takes many, sometimes many, many, many, numerous volumes just for the Braille equivalent of one single, normal size, manageable print book.
For a totally blind student, it’s hard, if not almost impossible, to learn to spell with any proficiency, unless you read Braille.
This is doubly true if you take a foreign language, of which I studied five!
I was lucky, because I had access to Braille books from elementary school all through high school.
Unfortunately, seven years of carrying Braille books from class to class in an extremely overloaded backpack gave me chronic back, neck, and shoulder problems, which still plague me every day!
—
For Denise’s
#SixSentenceStories Prompt, Volume.
That is an issue I never considered before. Even getting a large enough selection of books in Braille would be difficult.
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Yes, getting Braille books is difficult, especially foreign language books. Braille transcribers are few, and good ones are even fewer. Also, Braille is pretty expensive to produce, even now. I am grateful that I had access to Braille when it mattered most, Including so that I could read to my son when he was little. Now I use various formats of electronic and audiobooks. Thanks very much for reading, Frank!
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Like Frank, I’d never considered the size of braille books but after looking at a few images of them, I can see why it would take multiples to make the equivalent of one regular type book. Five foreign languages?! (I’m jealous, lol) No wonder you have back issues.
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Lol Denise! Thanks for reading and for another great prompt!
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Tienes razón.
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Muchas gracias!
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Like the others here, I have never given thought to how much bulkier books in Braille format would be. I am glad you had access to the things you wanted to read and learn, but I can’t imagine hauling them around. Audio books must be such a blessing to you now! But as you say, that would not help when learn how to spell.
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Audiobooks are wonderful and certainly more accessible. But depending on the material, I’ve still had to look up words if I wasn’t sure of the spelling. It’s always the little things! 🙂 Thanks for reading, Josie!
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Interesting six. I used to work with a blind student who brought in some of his Braille books. I too was surprised at how big they were.
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Some are bigger or thicker than others, but they are all pretty unwieldy as a rule. Thanks for reading!
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That was an interesting and informative read.
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Thank you. ☺️
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Gosh. Just wondering; with audio books so accessible – are there fewer braille copies nowadays?
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That’s an interesting question. I really don’t know. I do know there are electronic Braille books, but you need a special device to read them, an electronic Braille display, and that costs hundreds to thousands of dollars. It’s a quandary either way!
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To be fair – i didn’t realise that you could possibly Braille on line. It just goes to show how much you learn through the blog community. Thank you all!
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☺️ Thanks for reading and being open to learn!
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