A Walk on the Braille Side
The ability to be "Change-Makers" is in all of us. Most take the access-ramp to volunteering for granted, available to them if they choose to volunteer. Being differently-abled puts a whole new light on this access. Most volunteering opportunities require social interaction skills and the ability to handle oneself without too much assistance. There are many nuances to this - you may have to travel somewhere, meet people, explain, physically assist and have decent fine motor skills. It is no wonder that people with disabilities are, more often than not, excluded from the arena of volunteering.
All of us want to feel productive.
All of us want to contribute.
All of us have bright minds that think.
I’m a high school junior and have had a diagnosis of Autism since age 3. In fact, I only learned to communicate via typing at around age 13. I have many of the issues that keep me from volunteering in the classical sense – social anxiety, motor issues, and limited speech. Making sandwiches for the homeless was as challenging a coordination task, as was the social aspect of volunteering with the children at the shelter. My sensory system would be overwhelmed and disorganized at, “clean the park” type of volunteering. I was not being productive and mere physical presence at such events was a far cry from being a satisfactory volunteering experience.
Last year, I was invited to be a part of the team at AccessBraille (formerly Inclusive Volunteers), a new non-profit (www.inclusivevolunteers.org / accessbraille.org). Its founder, Nikhil Dilip is a high-schooler at Harker School in San Jose, CA. He had a disabled uncle who had not been permitted to volunteer at various organizations because he did not have the skills necessary to participate. Nikhil wanted to create an organization that would provide volunteer opportunities for ALL, irrespective of perceived abilities. It was a radical concept as everyone deserved to help out their community if they wished to do so. Inclusive Volunteers works with other non-profits to identify volunteer opportunities. Nikhil’s hope is that Inclusive Volunteers can eventually recruit people from all over the country and hopefully around the world. “If we can become a truly international organization, we will be able to do further volunteer work and help out the organizations that seek our help. In the near future, I hope that we can create a network of volunteers helping out organizations in need of volunteers and rather than we contacting organizations for work to do, we can build up enough trust in these organizations that they can recruit us”
Many of the opportunities would be virtual, which would suit not only suit the disabled but make it very convenient for the abled too. My generation is no stranger to the possibilities of “virtual!” Nikhil’s mother, Viji Dilip, already works for other non-profit, Benetech and Bookshare (bookshare.org) that is involved in a lot of free educational and technology programs around the world. According to Viji Dilip, “Thanks to the internet it is now possible for many people to volunteer from their home. Crowdsourcing has become an acceptable method for organizations to get their work done. This is a win-win situation both for organizations and for volunteers.”
A list of volunteer opportunities is available on the website. For example the Image-Description Activity (bookshare.org) is looking for high school volunteers. The task entails describing images in textbooks. These will later be audio recorded for the visually challenged / blind readers. In the past, images had always been left out of audio recordings. Essentially while you study Biology/History at school, you can volunteer by describing the images in a Biology/History textbook. Students can in essence turn studying itself into an act of volunteering. Currently there is a critical need for volunteers to describe images in Science and History Textbooks.
The volunteer activity closest to my heart, is putting together the periodical Braille Magazine. The Braille Access Project (brailleaccess.org) delivers mobile blind school kits to remote villages in Africa and Asia. Volunteers in those areas travel by van to remote villages and teach the visually challenged and their families to read Braille. Some areas are so remote, such as the mountainous regions of Nepal, that they are not van-accessible. So volunteers actually deliver the Braille Access Kits on donkeys.
Wouldn’t it be useful if, in addition, they had something interesting to read in Braille? That was the thought behind starting the free Braille Magazine. The Braille magazine, put together by the Inclusive Volunteers team, would accompany the Braille Access kits. Finally, my writing skills could be used to make a difference with my social and physical challenges no longer a hindrance.
We type the words with our fingers.
They will read our words with their fingers.
Reach out…. Our fingers touch theirs.
Imagination flows between the fingertips.
Unlock possibilities!
The magazine was appropriately named, “The Reading Finger.” The short articles were on a wide variety of topics - from poems to personal narratives to humor to travelogues. The authors have ranged from elementary to high school ages. Most significant of all, the articles came from both abled and disabled youth. It was truly “Inclusive!” You can help out by contributing short articles for upcoming issues of the Braille Magazine.
The articles are written in English, compiled and sent to a braille printer for printing in Braille. A page in English could well translate to as many as 3-4 pages in Braille font. Finished magazines in Braille, accompany the Braille Access Kits to their respective destination. Audio versions of the magazine are recorded, again thanks to volunteers, and are distributed. Every step of the process is done through the help of volunteers.
The very first issue of the ‘Reading Finger,’ last year, reached mobile (and non-mobile) schools in Liberia, Ghana, India and even the mountainous areas of Himalayan Nepal. Braille had reached, “The Top of the World,” - literally! The last issue this year carried a sports theme in honor of the Summer Olympics and Paralympics. The team is at work on the next magazine as we speak.
If you haven’t volunteered before, I urge you all to do so. Volunteering comes in all shapes and forms. The opportunity to make a difference can be just a mere keyboard away!
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And this was one my writing pieces that won an award.
