Words, Words, Words...

Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote that words are the skin of living ideas. We here at Foreword agree. We are fascinated by words: they look great, they’re dangerous, and they’re prettier than Paris Hilton. This is the first of a series of articles in Foreword that will be about the power of words and ideas - this one courtesy of VoicePrint.

Enjoy.
Jason

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Silly rabbit…Braille is for kids
By: Kim Mannix Vermette

All readers embrace the special joy that comes from opening a favorite book, taking in the words on a page and letting their imagination paint vivid pictures in the absence of visual images. Sometimes we’re so inspired by the power of words that we dream of penning our own stories or poems and sharing our creations with others.
For 17-year-old Carolyn Naylor, a Nova Scotia native with low-vision, that dream came early in life. At age 11, she began putting her ideas to the page. “I love writing stories,” says Carolyn. “It’s fun, it makes me happy and it’s probably my most favorite thing to do.”

Carolyn’s efforts to become fluent in Braille are on-going, but her commitment to learning it has brought reward. Last year Carolyn entered the Creative Writing and Braille Accuracy Competition, hosted each year by the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB), as part of its Braille Conference held in Toronto each October. She won top prize in her age category.

While the competition is a great way for blind and vision-impaired Canadians to show off their creativity, there’s a bigger purpose to the competition: to showcase the CNIB’s belief in the importance of Braille literacy. Shelagh Paterson, the director of advocacy, sales and marketing with the CNIB library in Toronto, explains that learning to read and write Braille is as important for persons who are blind or vision impaired as learning to read and write print is for sighted people. “Reading Braille is equivalent to reading print. Both ensure literacy, which we all need to have to function in society,” she says VoicePrint, a division of The National Broadcast Reading Service, shares CNIB’s belief in the importance of literacy and access to the written word for all people. This year VoicePrint will be participating in the annual Braille Conference in October by serving as host of a workshop that will investigate new programming ideas of specific interest to Braille users. VoicePrint listeners can look forward to unique programming focused on Braille, the Braille user, and the CNIB's annual children's short-story competition.

For more information about VoicePrint, to access a broadcast schedule and more details about its special Braille-related programming, visit www.voiceprintcanada.com