Textbooks transcribed to Braille

Fielding calls from across the nation for textbooks for visually impaired students, the Mohawk Valley Braille Transcribers organization works at a hectic pace during the back-to-school season.
The group, which transcribes everything from foreign language to mathematics textbooks, completes about eight textbooks per year and also produces duplicates of previously transcribed texts. They work out of the Central Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired offices on Kent Street.

The group has been active since 1973 and is staffed by 24 volunteers. It usually takes about six months to transcribe and proofread a 350-page literature textbook, but up to one year to transcribe a math book.

The group even tackles American history books rife with maps.

"For a fourth-grade child to read what a map looks like is fairly confusing," project coordinator Nancy Hester said. "We try to help them out. "

For the volunteers, mostly retired teachers, the desire to ensure all students have a chance to learn is payment enough.

Elaine Edwards, a retired Clinton teacher who lives in New York Mills, had a friend who was transcribing Braille when she decided to give it a try.

She has volunteered since 1991 and even sometimes works from home.

"The first time I picked up a Braille sheet and could read, it was very exciting. It was like learning to read text," Edwards said.

Volunteers said the training to become a transcriber can be rigorous. It takes most people about a year to learn Braille and submit a 35-page manuscript to the Library of Congress before becoming a certified Brailler.

Mary Doughtery, a Central Association for the Blind receptionist, learned to read Braille in her 20s after becoming visually impaired. She said it took her awhile to learn the new way to read.
"Once you get the concept, and how things are positioned, it's much easier," Doughtery said.

Janet Burt, of Cold Brook, has been a volunteer transcriber 10 years. A retired math teacher from the Clinton school district, she said she got involved with the group through her friend Edwards.
"Learning something new is always exciting to me," Burt said. "It's a good feeling to be able to provide the same materials for blind students as it is for sighted students."