Blindness is a condition that occurs when there is complete loss of vision in both eyes. The person ceases to feel the light and see anything. Loss of the ability to navigate in the environment (domestic blindness) and the inability to do one's work with the help of various optical devices (professional) can lead to such a state.
Reasons
Impairment or loss of vision can be caused by various factors. The consequences of intrauterine diseases or fetal malformations lead to congenital blindness. Vision loss affects children under the age of ten and adults who have reached the age of fifty. This is due to the fact that the child either already has congenital blindness, or acquires it due to eye diseases or injuries. People of mature age go blind due to vascular diseases or the appearance of glaucoma. In the latter case, a corneal transplant operation may help restore vision.
Employment of the disabled
Despite physical limitations, the blindpeople in Russia have the opportunity to prove themselves in different professions. They are employed by the Society of the Blind, which also conducts cultural, political and educational work among people with disabilities. The centers of their government are in Moscow and other large cities. Special books in braille and flat characters enable blind people to learn to read, write and type.
Pedagogical process
In Russia, the education of blind and visually impaired children is mandatory. Schools accept students with vision from 0.05 to 0.2. Loupes and other techniques that improve vision are used to teach children in this category. In addition, a font with enlarged letters is used. Specialized schools take children who are completely blind and with vision up to 0.05. Education using various methods and visual aids focuses on hearing and touch. Libraries for the blind have audio and regular editions, special plates with Braille. The Russian State Library for the Blind (the largest institution of its kind in our country) contains specialized manuals. This, in particular, is not only the publications mentioned above, but also a huge collection of relief-volumetric models that allow people with vision loss to recognize the types of different objects and feel them.
Use of computer electronic devices
An alternative to print publications are audiobooks. With their help, you can listen to dramatizations (with pauses, in sections) and performanceson a digital player. Volunteers also make their contribution, who create audiobooks on special sites that are free to listen to and distribute. Various devices that replace vision are produced and developed. The model of visual-substituting devices (project "Tactile Vision") is a new patented means of coding and signal transmission. Publications that use Braille (Russian), keyboard and display help people with disabilities work with texts, creating and editing them. A special program based on a speech generator that reads information from the screen also makes a great contribution to the full life of blind people.
Braille
This is a special system for teaching reading and writing for the blind. It was developed in 1824. The Frenchman Louis Braille (fr. Louis Braill), the son of a shoemaker, lost his sight at the age of three due to an inflamed eye after being wounded with an awl. At the age of fifteen, he creates a method for tracing and reading letters. Subsequently, he was named after the name of the creator.
The font for the blind Braille differed from the linear type of character design by Valentin Gajuy. The creation of the boy was prompted by the "night method", developed by artillery captain Charles Barbier (fr. Charles Barbier) for reading military reports in the dark. The disadvantage of the Barbier system was that the characters were too large, limiting the number of characters on the page. Using braille printing, blind people learn to write and read. This method contributes to the development of grammar, punctuation, and spelling skills. In addition, withusing this method, the blind or visually impaired can get acquainted with graphs and complex diagrams.
Structure
What is Braille? How is writing and reading done? Letters in Braille are represented by six dots divided into exactly two columns. The text is read from right to left, and on the next page it already goes from left to right. However, there is a certain difficulty in the perception of this font. It lies in the fact that the text is read on the reverse page along the bulges from the marks pierced on the other side. The points are numbered from top to bottom in columns and are read first from the right, then from the left side. How does this happen? Upper right corner - finding point 1. Under it goes 2. Lower right corner occupies 3. Top left - position 4, then bottom - 5, and in the lower left corner - 6.
Some typhlopedagogues suggested swapping 1 and 3, but their proposal was not supported. Later, expanding Braille (Russian, in particular), they added 7 under 3 and 8 under 6. A cell without a puncture is a certain character. There are generally accepted norms for the size of points and the distances between them and columns. The minimum mark height sufficient for recognition is 0.5 mm. 2, 5 is the gap between the punctures; 3.75mm horizontal, 5mm vertical is the distance between cells. This structure allows the blind to easily and quickly master reading skills, easily recognizing signs by touch.
Printed sheets of Braille texts have different formats. But a leaf is considered traditional for Russia,including twenty-five lines of thirty and thirty-two characters each with a total size of twenty-three by thirty-one centimeters. For people with vision loss, braille is the only way to learn how to write and read. With these skills, people with disabilities not only become literate and independent, but also gain employment opportunities.
How is the system used?
Braille includes 63 informative characters and a space (64th). The extended system contains 255 characters. In it, as in the usual one, there is also a space. Since the total number of different combinations of points is limited, multicellular symbols are often used. They consist of several signs, which individually have their own functions. Additional characters (numbers, uppercase and lowercase letters of the alphabet) may also be used. Each sign combination has several meanings, the number of which can exceed a dozen.
Braille is applied to paper with the help of special written objects - a special device and a stylus. For this reason, any changes in the configuration, selection, size, shape of the letters are not possible. It is customary to highlight characters using special characters. They are placed before capital and small letters. In the presence of different types of fonts, these signs are set before and after the highlighted words or parts of the sentence. Mathematical root, superscript and subscript symbol are highlighted on both sides. To create text or part of it in italics, it is placed between special marks -conditional tags. Here we can note some similarities with the html system. It also uses tags.
Grammar features
Braille has characteristic features in terms of its construction. They consist in changing some grammatical norms. Therefore, a blind person who has learned to write thanks to this system ("Brailist") will begin to make certain mistakes when working on an ordinary computer that is not adapted for the disabled. Braille differs from normal in the following ways:
- capital letter is ignored;
- no space after the comma and before the dash;
- there is no gap separating the sign of the number and the number;
- the same designation is used for similar characters (dash and hyphen are the only punctuation marks in the system).
Such grammatical errors are the norm in Braille writing. A blind person will tolerate them until they pass special additional training.
System value
With the help of various combinations of dots in one cell, Braille writing reproduces alphabetic, numeric, and musical symbols. The designations of this system are used to write foreign words and letters, computer and mathematical symbols, equations. Braille is an effective tool that develops grammar, punctuation and spelling skills for blind people. Also, this system simply and clearly describes graphs and diagrams that are very difficult to describe verbally.
Benefit
Having masteredBraille, a blind child can start learning and working on a computer with a special display and a special printer. The text is read with the index finger of one or both hands. Perceived by touch, it is quickly understood due to the lightness and compactness of the signs. This manual is designed to teach sighted people the braille system at home. This will make it possible to build communication with blind family members, write notes to them or leave a phone number. It is also important that sighted people will learn to read what someone who has been trained in Braille will write for them. It will be possible to communicate without the mediation of others. This guide can be successfully used by school teachers and rehabilitation specialists.
Writing style
As mentioned above, Braille invented a way of tactile reading for the blind and visually impaired people. This principle of obtaining information is based on a set of six marks (cell). They are arranged in two rows of three characters. Points that are in a different order within the cell form semantic units. The signs follow in a certain order: from the left 1, 2, 3 from top to bottom, and the right column is the same - 4, 5, 6.
1 4
2 5
3 6
So, in fact, Braille is formed. How to learn this method?
Technology
The Braille device and lead, typewriter - these are the devices that are used to present writing for the blind. A sheet of paper inserted between two metal or plastic plates of the device is clampedthem. The upper part has rows of rectangular windows, and the lower part has a recess corresponding to each window. The plate cell is similar to the Braille cell. The sign is formed due to the pressure of the stylus on the paper. The recesses in the bottom plate, when squeezed, give out certain characters. Recordings are printed from right to left because the text to reproduce will be on the other side of the sheet. The column with the numbers 1, 2, 3 is located on the right side, and 4, 5, 6 - on the left. A Braille typewriter has six keys. They correspond to 6 points in a cell. In addition, the typewriter has a shaft handle for line feed, as well as "return back" and "space". The keys with which the sign is formed are pressed simultaneously. Thus, each pressure corresponds to a letter.
From the "space" on the right and left sides are three keys. Let's see how the clicks are made. With the index finger of the left hand, press the key next to the "space". It represents point 1. You need to press the key on the left. Point 2 is drawn with the middle finger of the same hand. To do this, press the center key. It follows after the one that corresponds to point 1. Nameless press the last key. It corresponds to point 3. The fingers of the right hand press the keys from the opposite side. The first, located directly next to the "space", corresponds to point 4. It is pressed with the index finger. Next - corresponds to point 5. On itshould be pressed with the middle finger. The last key corresponds to point 6. Press it with the ring finger. Thus, both hands are involved in drawing. "Space" is placed with the thumb. Typed text can be read without turning the paper over.
Conclusion
Mastering the Braille system will require some effort. A mark inadvertently placed in the wrong place can change the numbers in the phone number, for example. But the energy expended in learning type for the blind will not be wasted. The main thing is to set a goal and strive for high results.
