By NewsLine Staff
mail@floridanewsline.com
Temple Sisterhood Braille Group invites all interested people to attend an informational session about being a volunteer braille transcriber. This session will be held on Thursday, Aug. 22 at 10 a.m. at Congregation Ahavath Chesed/The Temple, 8727 San Jose Blvd. in the Coleman Room.
Since 1957, the Temple Sisterhood Braille Group has been converting printed books into braille versions for blind or visually impaired individuals who read braille. Through the use of braille, people who are blind are able to read and study the written word. Braille provides a vehicle that opens the world of literacy.
The Temple Sisterhood Braille Group, a non-denominational, all-volunteer group organized under the umbrella of the Congregation Ahavath Chesed, has provided thousands of braille books and materials to students at the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind, the IRIS Lending Library for the Blind (which serves blind individuals across the United States and Canada), for students in Duval, St. Johns, Clay and Nassau public schools, the Florida Department of Agriculture and US Forest Service, as well as homeschooled students throughout the U.S. and licensed health-related professionals in northeast Florida. During 2023, 591 books/documents were converted into braille. Volunteer braillists and graphic artists tallied more than 15,000 volunteer hours. According to the Independent Sector (independentsector.org), their volunteer time is valued at more than $640,000.
Interested individuals are invited to attend the informational session to learn more about the group and to obtain information about becoming a volunteer braille transcriber or graphic artist. Volunteers attend a free nine-month classroom program where they will learn how to transcribe books into braille. A modified class is also available to learn how to convert illustrations into raised collage images or tactile graphics that enhance and complement written text and can be interpreted through touch.
“Using a Windows-based program on a laptop or desktop computer, various combinations of simultaneous keystrokes create braille cells that form words, numbers and punctuation. The completed digital file is sent to an embosser that produces the raised-dot formatted document,” said Lynnette Taylor, a long-time volunteer with the group. “Learning to braille is a unique challenge, like learning a code. All that’s really needed are basic computer skills, attention to detail and a dedication to serving the blind community.”
Contact: Holly Cleveland (holly.cleveland@att.net or (904) 463-0357), Sue Foster (snf5981@gmail.com or (904) 460-4207), or Lynnette Taylor (dandltaylor1@earthlink.net or (904) 466-2129) for more information.
Photo courtesy Sue Foster
Anita Daniel is a Temple Sisterhood Braille Group volunteer.
