Welcome back to at your fingertips Braille, then and now.
Thanks so much for joining me again this month. I have a really cool topic to.
Chat with you about.
First, I love reminiscing about my childhood and thinking about really fun things that.
I did and the gifts that my mom gave me. And one of the things she gave me was a gift that lasted all of her life and has affected mine. And that's that of feeling normal.
When I was a kid, I felt a bit out of it socially because.
I was very, very shy. But what she gave me was the feeling that I could do anything the other kids could do. So one Saturday afternoon, she and I brailed all the crayola, crayons in the 64 crayola box.
Now, that was a bit of an.
Undertaking because we didn't have labeling tape then, really. This was, oh, I'm gonna say, oh, dear, 50 years ago.
Oh, my. So it.
It was a bit of an undertaking.
I brailed all of the crayon colors.
On braille paper, and then she cut them out and taped them onto the side of the crayons. And then she bought me coloring books. Now, granted, those of you who know me know that I have no usable vision at all, and so they just.
Felt like blank pages.
But what she told me was that, you know, grass is green and, you know, it's usually at the bottom of.
The picture and the sun is yellow or orange or whatnot. And, you know, I just learned what.
Color things were, and I just had really a lot of fun just scribbling with the crayons and feeling like a normal kid. I remember one day some little sighted kid looked at my picture and said, you're not coloring in the lines.
Well, that kind of was the story of my life because I really tried to break down some barriers and not color in the lines philosophically.
So this was a perfect example of.
Really not coloring in the lines, you.
Know, but I just felt like any normal kid. I had my colors, I had my.
Coloring book, and I just, I loved it.
What mom would do that? I mean, some parents were like, oh, no, you know, you're blind. You can't do that.
And, you know, it just didn't seem like the thing that someone would do, but she just really wanted me to.
Feel like a normal kid. And so, fast forward quite a few.
Years, I'm going to say about 16.
Years ago, my best, best friend in the whole world got me two braille coloring books because she knew how much I enjoyed that as a kid. And now I could really color in the lines. And so what they are is just line drawings. And these were from, I believe, the braille code factory.
I don't think it still exists, but.
They were really cool.
There might be animals like a camel or an elephant. There might be objects or things like.
Bicycle and balloons and some of the things I had to ask what color are they?
You know, I'm assuming a camel is.
Like gray or brown or whatever, because they live in the desert and they.
Kind of have to blend in.
But I did need to ask those things.
So I went back to, I think.
She brailed on some of the crayons.
And there was a little box. And so it was really, really fun.
Over the Christmas time when we were snowed in.
And I just sat there with my coloring book.
When I showed my coloring book to someone, they said, oh, well, you have an interesting coloring pattern.
It's like a swirly coloring pattern. And I guess that other people make an up and down motion with their crayons. So I had no idea that there were coloring patterns.
I did learn that it's, it's cool to outline your picture, you know, around.
The, you know, in the inner side of the drawing. And so that was really cool.
So I hadn't thought about crayons in quite a while or colors. And then I got thinking about back to school types of things. And so I'd like to share with you some ideas. If you have young people in your lives, whether they are blind or sighted, whether you're blind or sighted, if one of you can benefit from the raised pictures in some of the coloring books that are available, we're going to talk about those in a minute.
But I wanted to bring to you.
A few book ideas that might be really cool sometimes. I have gotten books off of bookshare here in the US, and if you.
Have access to that, that is awesome. There are probably books available at the.
National Library Service or at your lending library.
So there's a really cool series by Drew DeWalt and another person, last name of Jeffers, and they've written this really.
Cool series about crayons and the day the crayons quit.
A really cool book. It's available in Braille, and it talks about the crayons of written letters to.
This little boy when he opens up.
His crayon box and they are on strike, basically. You know, blue is really tired of.
Always coloring the water, black is really.
Tired of just outlining things.
And yellow and orange are having an.
Argument about, you know, which one is.
The color of the sun.
And so it's just a really, really cute book. You know, how it kind of resolves. And it's a really good way a lot of times for a young blind.
Child who doesn't know the colors of.
Things to learn those, I found that really, really valuable.
As I was growing up, my mom would tell me what colors things are.
And it was super important for my just knowledge base. So there is a really cute book called the Crayons Book of Feelings. And, you know, a description of this book is.
Is really cool. It's the crayons are back in this board book, all about feelings. And from the creators of the number.
One New York Times bestselling the day the crayons quit. The day the crayons came home.
Everyone knows the crayons love to color, but did you know that crayons have feelings, too? Sometimes they are happy, and sometimes they feel downright blue. From the creative minds behind, the day the crayons quit and the day that crayons came home comes a fun board book to help young readers understand and express their feelings. How cool is that? You can have a discussion over a.
Book and a box of crayons.
It's just a really great way for kids to open up and chat about their feelings.
And so there are some really cool.
Books in that series. And when I typed in the word.
Crayons and there was some, like, 1245 results, you know, granted, they're all might be, you know, very different, but it's.
Really neat to get a book from one of these services in, in Braille, either on your braille display or in.
Hard copy, and then have your young reader, whether they're blind or sighted, read.
The book with you. I've done this before, and it's a.
Really, really great way to connect. Either they're reading it on their, you.
Know, Kindle device, their e reader, or.
Actually an actual hard copy book. So that being said, when I went.
On the hunt for braille coloring books, I found some really cool options. If you're in Canada, this would be tactile vision graphics. And if you're in the US, maxi aids, sell these. And so here are some ideas. Now, these books, unfortunately, they're not cheap, but they're options, and they're about $20.
And they have ten raised lined coloring pages. And so if you think about it, all right, maybe you can take the.
Page out of the book and put on your fridge.
Your young person has drawn this. You know, that's an option.
So there's different raised lined coloring books. They're just line drawings, for instance, from.
Maxiades or the tactile vision graphics.
There's a book about spring. Spring is here.
There's a book called best friends.
There's another one called Summer Sunshine, fun.
In the water, on the farm, winter wonders, autumn leaves. And then there are some other books by a company called Sensei.
So that's sensee. And there's a braille coloring book of animals.
And another one is involving best friends. I think that one's tactile vision graphics, though.
Oh, the braille fruit book.
So different kinds of fruit. So it's a way for sighted and blind children to connect. If I had had the experience of having a raised line coloring book, the.
Little friend that said, oh, you're not.
Coloring the lines, it would have made me feel bad.
It would have helped me connect with this child. Because you're inclusive, you're having a shared experience.
And so that is a list of.
Some of the books that maxi aids sells, maxyads.com.
Or you can look up the organization in Canada, tactile vision graphics.
There are a few other organizations that offer some possibilities. The Perkins School offers a braille alphabeth.
Coloring book or set of pages, and they are definitely tactile.
The National Braille Press does offer the book in Braille the day the crayons quit.
And so obviously that would have illustrations as well as the braille and print text.
They also have a book written by a teacher of the visually impaired. And it's called best practices in creating tactile graphics. And it's quite extensive.
It has many chapters and they focus.
On how to decide what pictures make the best tactile graphics.
And then of course, you've got ways to make them.
And some of these organizations that are.
More educational, like say it's Aph or.
The Perkins school, they might have free.
Downloadable graphics that you can send to a braille printer that uses a swell paper which makes like a picture in relief that is raised up, and or.
The embrail embossers that you could send.
A tactile graphic to a line drawing.
So that is a good book to check out. So those are some options. If you have young people in your.
Life and you want to have a.
Fun time with them, whether they're blind or sighted or you're blind or sighted, you could connect over a coloring book. Now I wanted to take this time to talk about something else that is brailled. And that is our awesome merch from unmute. If you go to our website unmute show, you will find a link. If it's not there, it will be there soon. That offers you a chance to check.
Out the different merch options that we have produced by blind girl designs.
I love my blind girl designs t shirts. I've got a hoodie, I have a tote bag. I am all set with the unmute.
Be heard raised tactile design. It has the raised loco.
It even has the braille dots, the.
Unmute be heard in braille, which is super, super awesome. And then of course, while I was.
There, I had to buy something else.
From blind girl designs. I went to her website directly and looked at some other categories and I got a braille shirt that has the letters of the Alphabet in the outline of a heart and got it in.
Pink, I believe it is. And it's very, very cool. She has some other things, t shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, dresses, cardigans, totes and aprons.
Christmas year round, you know, really cute.
Designs, like with snowmen, with canes and.
You know, just really, really super blindness related but very fun stuff.
And then she has kids clothing and.
She supports in this case, you know, blind run businesses, fundraisers and that sort of thing. And so check out our merchandise. We have it on the unmute show website. And then you can also look at.
The full offerings on blind girl designs. I mention this especially because they are great conversation starters. And also you are assured of getting high quality merchandise that is actually tactile.
If you're buying from Amazon or some.
Maybe an etsy thing, you've got to.
Make sure that the actual item is tactile. A lot of times they'll just print the braille letters or dots on the.
Shirt, but you cannot feel them, which is no fun at all. And so I've ordered a few things.
That I know what they are because I order them. And, you know, I can ask my.
Be my eyes or AI assistant of.
Some kind, you know, what shirt am I wearing? But I can't feel it. And so you definitely want tactile. You know, that's what braille is, is tactile. So talking about coloring books, talking about tactile, braille related, blindness related clothing, the.
Last thing I wanted to mention to.
You with the next topic would be.
Some podcasts that are available that would.
Focus on braille and organizations who definitely do some awesome work.
So there's a relative lack of braille podcasts.
And of course, with my podcast through unmute, I'm wanting to change that and.
Add another voice to the conversation. But if you look up braille, you're going to find a few things that are really invaluable. Some resources. Both of the consumer organizations here in the US, the NFB and the ACB.
Have their newsletters, main magazines on a podcast format.
So the braille monitor from NFB or the ACB forum, of course from ACBA.
They are going to be coming out monthly and on their regular schedule.
And so you can use your favorite podcatcher of choice and look those up. Another really great podcast that I was introduced to probably not long after it got started just in the pandemic was brailcast.
This is all one word braille cast and it's from the brailists.org.
So that's pluralbrailists.org.
In the UK, they do a wonderful.
Job of putting out these really awesome presentations. Sometimes they have live calls that people.
Tune into, app or demos, reviews of products, they have interviews, and they're just.
A really great organization promoting the learning.
And use of braille centered in the in the UK, but certainly all kinds.
Of things of interest for us.
So Braillecast is a great one to check out and they usually come out, I think about once a month.
Another one that would be of general.
Interest for things going on to do with the rules and production and changes or such. In the braille code is the bana braille bits. So Banna, the braille authority of North America, b a n a Braille bits.
So this is the newsletter podcast for them. And so that's a really interesting thing.
To keep up with as the code is made uniform and the different rules and things that are being put in.
Place to make sure that our braille is uniform in the english speaking countries. So these are some ideas for you walking down memory lane for me with.
Crayons, feeling like a normal kid, having.
Lots of great options now with raised.
Line drawings in coloring and also merch that you can buy from from us, but also lots of merch from blind girl designs.
And then a podcast to listen to to keep you up to date on all things braille. So if you have any suggestions for anything that you'd like me to discuss.
Or like me to review, anything that.
Would be of interest to you, please send an email to feedback unmute show.
That's feedback Unmute show and mention the.
At your fingertips podcast or the Braille podcast. And please let me know what you're enjoying, what you'd like to see more.
Of and I will look forward to chatting with you next month.