Tag: Braille
GIVEAWAY: Braille Books
I have braille books to give away. All of the books I am offering are UEB (Unified English Braille), all used but in excellent condition.
I am restricting this round of giveaway books to US addresses only. I will be mailing them “Free Matter” and I am not sure how international mail works with Free Matter at this point. My apologies to my international friends.
So, to my US friends, all you need do is fill in the Request Form below with your name, your email address, and which book or books you would like. Your comments are also welcome. If you are first to request, I will contact you by email and ask for your mailing address privately. It is that simple. So, on to the list of braille books to give away:
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The Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution – in one volume
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Club CSI: The Case of the Digital Deception – 2 volumes
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Conundrum – a puzzle magazine (word search, Sudoku, etc.)
Update: These books have all found new homes.
Spice Things Up
Let’s spice things up!
- Pictured: 3 large filled spice jars – curry, cinnamon, and cumin – all labeled with bold black marker.
So for anyone who likes to cook and for those of us who do not cook at all, spices are essential to making things taste great. And spices are expensive, too, so we do want to use them with some care. We want to be able to use them with some inkling of knowing what we are doing, and without any waste.
- Pictured: There are four spice jars – curry, cinnamon, and cumin and paprika has joined the others. The paprika is being prepared to be labeled. The label for the paprika is on the table, ready to be applied to the jar.
I prefer a labeling system. I take 3 by 5-inch index cards and cut them in half horizontally so that I then have two 1-1/2 by 5-inch strips from each card. With a bold marker, I write the name of the spice across the strip and then wrap it around its spice jar. I secure it in place with a rubber band. With that system, I can keep my spices on the shelf above my food prep area and I can usually make out what each bottle contains. Braille can be added to each card, either alone or in addition to the big bold writing. The label can easily be removed when the jar is empty and that label can be placed on the new jar.
When you are working in the kitchen, add some pizzazz- with spices, and be comfortable with what you are doing and how you are doing it. And enjoy!
How do you find the spices you need?
Get in the Game
Card games are fun for everyone. Well, maybe not “52 Pickup,” but every other card game I can think of, and there are so many! Blind and visually impaired people can and do share in the fun. We play with a marked deck!
It is true. The cards are marked!
Any deck of cards can be adapted. Making playing cards tactile is the way. Just add braille! A few raised dots, inconspicuous to sighted players and likely unreadable also, tell the visually challenged player exactly what cards are in hand.
Add braille to the upper left-hand corner and the bottom right-hand corner (opposite corners). Each card is brailled with the corresponding number or J, Q, and K for jack, queen, and king. In addition, the cards are marked with the corresponding suit. So the 3 of hearts is marked with the brailled 3 and brailled H for hearts. The 4 of spades is marked with the braille for 4S, the 9 of diamonds will be 9D. The only exception is the number 10. Because the number 10 requires 3 digits including the symbol for the suit, and all other cards have only 2, that might be an attention-getter. So, the 10 is labeled with a brailled X instead.
If you are blind or visually impaired, it is fairly easy to learn just the braille that is used on playing cards if you do not already know braille. There are only a total of 17 different braille symbols to a standard deck of cards and all 52 cards are uniquely identified with combinations of just those symbols.
A slate and stylus is all that is needed to turn an ordinary deck of cards into a tactile deck. Or you can spend a few dollars and buy a brailled deck of cards. Your choice.
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Pictured: Chart shows the 17 braille symbols used on tactile playing cards. Symbols include numbers 1 through 9, a special braille character for number 10, the four card suits, and the J, Q, and K for the picture cards.
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Links to items mentioned:
Legally Blind 