Building Braille Futures: Games and Books

On this episode of Change Makers, we’re exploring how braille is helping shape the future. From a fun new braille word game on the Monarch, to inspiring programs like Braille Tales and the American Action Fund for Blind's Braille Books Program that provide braille books to children from birth through age 17.

On this episode (In order of appearance)

• Jason Martin, Technical Innovations Product Manager
• Christine Genovely, APH Braille Tales Coordinator
• Melissa Riccobono, Braille Specialist for American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults

Additional Links and Information

• Wordstock for Monarch
• Sign up for Braille Tales
• Donate to Braille Tales
• Sign up for Braille Books Program - American Action Fund
• American Action Fund can be contacted at 410-659-9315
• Email American Action Fund
• Email Melissa Riccobono

Transcript

Narrator 0:00

Welcome to Change Makers, a podcast from APH. We're talking to people from around the world who are creating positive change in the lives of people who are blind or have low vision. Here's your host.

Sara Brown 0:15

Hello and welcome to Change Makers. I'm APH's public relations manager, Sara Brown, and on this episode of Change Makers, we're exploring how Braille is helping shape the future. Whether that be in games or books. We're going to talk about a fun new Braille word game on the monarch. And after that, we're going to hear about two inspiring programs that bring Braille books to young readers. Up first, I have Global Technical Innovations Manager Jason Martin here to talk about Wordstock. Hello, Jason, and welcome to Change Makers.

Jason Martin 0:49

Hey Sara. Thanks for having me.

Sara Brown 0:51

I'm excited to talk to you because this has been something that's been long in the making. You're here to talk about a brand new game on the monarch. Tell us all about it.

Jason Martin 1:01

I want to tell you about our newest inclusion called Wordstock. Or I get a little goofy with it and go Wordstock, man, like Woodstock. So it's it's a really happy app uh that really is a celebration of literacy where students get to guess four and five letter words and they go through a tactile experience to figure out what that is. That's kind of the short version of it.

Sara Brown 1:24

How does one play this game on the Monarch?

Jason Martin 1:27

Uh you you would download uh Wordstock from HumanWare's Key Updater, which is pretty cool. So it doesn't come automatically on the system. With the latest update, we understood that we would be launching some apps that would be appropriate for all ages, but then there's some apps um such as PBS Kids, which is really aimed at a younger audience. And we know monarch users kind of stretch that gamut of young to older to professional. And so so what we did was give the users the option in Key Updater that there is uh a selection of adding additional apps. So this app doesn't Wordstock doesn't automatically come to your system. So if you have a monarch and don't have it yet, you can go into Key Updater and find Word Stock and basically download it. It's a very short download, and then it then it starts you out in the game. So you get a word of the day, and effectively you get six guesses to guess what the word uh of the day is. And now that's a current word that all monarch users will be able to find and play against each other, but there's also archived words. So again, it's a five-letter to four-letter word. So we added four-letter words for younger audiences because they're a little bit easier, they're a little bit shorter. And I say this, but I struggle with the four-letter words sometimes. Um, but I think it's just a different mode to kind of make it a little bit easier. So you get six chances to guess. And I like to use the word like alone or fruit is one of my favorites uh first guess words because it has a number of consonants and a number of like weird vowels. But um effectively it's a literacy guessing game where you're trying to guess the word by series of elimination. And this is the first time it's been tactile. So if I were to guess this word and all of my letters are wrong, they're gonna pop up with a tactile box around them, and you're gonna be able to know, hey, this letter's wrong. Or if say the word, like that use case fruit, say there was an F that was in the word, but maybe it's in the wrong place, there's a different indicator that shows, hey, this letter is in the word, but it's not quite in the right place. So it's it's really a game about understanding words, using your brain to come up with a bunch of words, and then really testing them out. And and when you have parameters where it doesn't let you put in a make made up word, uh it gets really, really tough and really tricky.

Sara Brown 4:01

What's the reception been like towards this game? Have you heard any feedback?

Jason Martin 4:05

So I was uh at the Deaf.Blind. Limitless conference about a week ago, about two weeks ago, and when I was giving a presentation on this, I always like to just bring it up and play, well, what's the word of the day with a big group of of audience members? And it's it's actually wild and a lot of fun. It's one of my favorite presentation activities. And and what happens when you do that is we all guess a word and we see how it goes. I think the fastest we've solved it as a group is three. Um, but what's unique about this is so when we're guessing it as a group, it's it's kind of some word uh word exposure. And and what I mean by that is when I was giving that presentation, the guess word was "sicks." S-I-C-K-S. And I was like, "huh," it's a different word. Um and at the time I was like, well, what is what does that actually mean? I said it out loud. I was like, what does the word "sicks" plural mean? And a very southern lady in the back, this was this conference was in Birmingham, Alabama, very southern lady in the back spoke up very clearly. She said, "you know, when you sick your dog on somebody," and I said, "Oh, that's that's probably what it is." So it's it's interesting, even in that example, um, kind of word exposure, uh, and and even developing the app. I think I've I I've I've gained a bigger love of words with this app. Um an example is the word "Zarf" uh that came up, Z-A-R-F was one of the four-letter words. And what was interesting about that is everyone uses Zarfs daily. You may not realize it, but it's the little thing that holds a coffee cup and keeps you from burning yourself in the coffee cup. So I I think it's just word awareness that really gets this out, and it's done in a gamified fashion for both kids and adults. I find that adults um what what I've seen uh after this come out, like especially in that presentation, is "when can I get this? I'm gonna play this every day."

Sara Brown 6:06

And this game is free.

Jason Martin 6:08

Absolutely.

Sara Brown 6:09

Is there anything else you'd like to say about Wordstock before I let you go?

Jason Martin 6:13

Uh what I would say is this, you know, we really want to use the monarch as as not only an educational tool, but if we can if we can include education and some form of experiential gaming. I love that idea. Just having it's I think in our industry you hear edutainment, and it's not necessarily that, but it's something fun. Like who wants to do worksheets all day when we could actually gamify some things? So I think what this does is shows that a tactile medium like Monarch is really capable of bringing on uh mainstream content, popular things to be fully accessible for those who are blind so that they can have experiences very similar to their peers. And, you know, play on. That's that's really my attitude is anything that we can do to get people playing and thinking.

Sara Brown 7:04

Playing and thinking, two very important things. So yes, well, I can't wait to start hearing feedback. So if anybody out there listening that does play this game and has feedback, please send it to me and I will share it with Jason. I'll share it on this podcast too. I'd love to hear the feedback from those who are out there in the world playing this really cool game. Jason, thank you so much for coming on Change Makers and talking to me today.

Jason Martin 7:28

Always great as always, Sara.

Sara Brown 7:29

Wordstock can be downloaded on the Monarch, and I've put more information in the show notes. Now we're shifting gears from games to books. Here to talk about Braille Tales is Braille Tales coordinator Christine Genovely. Hello, Christine, and welcome to Change Makers.

Christine Genovely 7:45

Hi, thank you for having me.

Sara Brown 7:48

So, would you like to introduce yourself for our listeners just to let them know a little bit about you and what you do at APH?

Christine Genovely 7:54

Yes, absolutely. My name is Christine Genovely, and I am the Braille Tales Coordinator for APH. I've been here for about five years, and a big part of what I do is running this Braille Tales program and trying to get it out to as many kids as possible across the nation.

Sara Brown 8:13

And it is such a really cool program. Talk about what Braille Tales is overall for those who maybe have not have heard about it.

Christine Genovely 8:22

Absolutely. Braille Tales is a program that is partnered with Dolly Parton's Imagination Library. So what we do is we take the books that are part of the Imagination Library and we cover them with clear Braille labels so they are accessible for both print readers and braille readers. And this program is um it's available for children who are blind and low vision, but also for sighted children whose parents are blind and low vision. We want to get Braille into the hands of the kids that need it, but we know that not every family has the same makeup. So by providing these twin vision books, we can um get it out to families no matter what their makeup is.

Sara Brown 9:06

So talk about how you know children can be enrolled in Braille Tales and any eligibility requirements.

Christine Genovely 9:12

Absolutely. Braille Tales is available for children who are under six years old. It's birth to five. Uh, and the children, as I said, it's for children who are uh blind and low vision, but also sighted children of parents who are blind and low vision. Uh and you can apply directly on our website at aph.org front/ braille-tales.

Sara Brown 9:32

And talk about some of the books that are available through the program. Um are they picture books, chapter books, educational materials? What type of books are there?

Christine Genovely 9:40

We have some really fantastic books as part of our program. As I mentioned, uh Braille Tales is in partnership with uh Dolly Parton's Imagination Library. So we we get the books from the Imagination Library catalog itself. They're picture books, and we do try to cover a multiple multiple age ranges of books. So you'll see some longer books, some story books, some maybe board books, um, but there are a lot of really familiar titles. There's a lot of old favorites, some good nursery rhymes, um, and they are just all so fun. We really have some great books in the program.

Sara Brown 10:20

Are the Braille Tales books, are they provided completely free? Talk about how they're distributed?

Christine Genovely 10:26

Yes, they are absolutely free. Thank you for bringing that up. They are completely free to families that are subscribed to the Braille Tales program. So you will never see a bill for these books. You just sign up on our website and then the books are mailed directly to your house. So uh after that initial um effort of submitting your application, you should not ever have to think about it again. These books will be delivered to your house and you can create your own little home library with the books that just come to your front door.

Sara Brown 10:58

Talk about what ways the parents or educators can support a child's learning alongside Braille Tales.

Christine Genovely 11:05

Well, particularly in regards to Braille Tales, the best support that you can offer is to just read, read, read with your children. Um, all of these moments that you have sharing uh bedtime stories or family bonding moments over a favorite book, um, whatever it may be, these are also multi-sensory experiences for your children. And it's teaching them tactile skills, braille familiarity, um, the connection between spoken language and what their alphabet's going to be. So you're creating these beautiful bonding moments, but also setting such a great foundation for their lifelong education. So, what we can say is just the more exposure you can provide, the better. And that's what we want to do with Braille Tales.

Sara Brown 11:54

Real quick, talk about what a page would look like, you know, because it's it can be for us a parent who is sighted to read to their child who is who is blind, or the child who is blind to read to their parent who is sighted. But talk about what a page would look like because I I think when you hear that, you're like, "how does the page look?" "What does it look like?" So talk about that.

Christine Genovely 12:16

Yes. So these books from the Imagination Library are your standard picture books. So um imagine any any kid's book that you would pick up from the bookstore, from Amazon, wherever it may be. Um, and what we do is we emboss clear labels and put them over every single page. So all of the text that's written in the book is still completely legible, all the images are still completely um visible. And then what we do is we just provide the tactile braille on it so it's still accessible for both print and braille readers. Um, and that way, you know, sometimes maybe a parent with a blind child hasn't hasn't learned braille very well yet, but they still want to be able to have that moment where they can read together, or really vice versa. Um, if you're a braille reading parent and your child is cited and wants to have these um, you know, bedtime story moments, you can be a part of that as well. So they are completely accessible for both print readers and braille readers.

Sara Brown 13:20

I think that's so cool how it can go back and forth. You know, the the parent with the sight or the kid with the sight, either way. It it's it's accessible for everyone. Now, talk about if there are any bilingual or multicultural book options for diverse families.

Christine Genovely 13:38

There are in actually a couple different ways, and we're really excited about this. So, uh, as I mentioned before, we really tried to provide a diverse mix of books throughout the year, um, not only on age level, but also culturally. We do um offer a number of bilingual books. We make sure we try to get some bilingual books in the mix. We also um showcase books from a very diverse range of authors, books that showcase different types of multiculturalism. Um and we love making sure that everybody feels seen in the books that we are sending out every year. In addition to that, we have a Puerto Rico supplement to our Braille Tales program, which is so exciting, and that provides bilingual books that are actually transcribed in Spanish to the blind and low-vision kids of Puerto Rico. And right now it's uh a supplement strictly for Puerto Rico, but we're hoping one day we might be able to expand that a little bit further.

Sara Brown 14:36

And for anybody out there that's in the world of philanthropy, is there anything the public can do to support this program? And how is it supported?

Christine Genovely 14:45

Yes. So Braille Tales is largely grant and donation funded. So we are beyond grateful for any support of the public. If you'd like to make a donation, you can do so from our website. You can do so with a phone call to our development department, and it goes directly towards maintaining this program and expanding this program to reach even more blind and low vision families. So just $15 is all it takes to provide a single Braille book to a blind or low-vision child. So I do ask if you're able, please consider a donation to Braille Tales so we can reach as many children as possible.

Sara Brown 15:26

And Christine, before I let you go, is there anything else you would like to say or share about Braille Tales?

Christine Genovely 15:31

Yes, please join us in the Braille Tales program. If you are eligible to apply for Braille Tales, please do so on our website. Um you can also reach out directly, and I'm happy to walk you through the process. We would love to get you involved and send you Braille books. If you are not eligible in the program, please do consider making a donation to BrailleTales to help us to continue to provide these books to the families across the country that may need them. And we absolutely appreciate every little bit. Every little bit helps, and thank you all for your support.

Sara Brown 16:04

Christine, thank you so much for taking time out of your day and joining to join me on Change Makers. Thank you so much, Sarah.

Christine Genovely 16:11

It's been a pleasure.

Sara Brown 16:12

I've put links in the show notes for anyone wanting to learn more and sign up for Braille Tales. Now, for those who have older children, this is a great program for a free monthly book. American Action Fund for the Blind's Braille Books Program provides books to older children. And here to talk more is Braille Specialist Melissa Riccobono. Hello, Melissa, and welcome to Change Makers.

Melissa Riccobono 16:38

Hi, thank you so much for allowing me to be on today.

Sara Brown 16:42

Yeah. Well, before we get into the questions, would you like to introduce yourself and let our listeners know a little bit about you?

Melissa Riccobono 16:49

Sure. My name is Melissa Riccobono. I live in Baltimore, Maryland with my husband, Mark, and our three uh children, I guess I will say, except one is now technically a young adult. She is 19, and then we have a 16-year-old and a 13-year-old. Our 16-year-old and our 13-year-old uh are both blind. And we uh I am also a blind parent. My husband is blind, so our oldest is the only sighted member of our family. And I work uh as a volunteer with the American Action Fund for blind children and adults. I get to do a lot of things with the American Action Fund. One thing that I do is I get to help produce and create thousands, literally, of free small pocket-sized calendars for people who want a braille calendar on their desk, in their purse, wherever they might want a braille calendar. And I get to do that each year, and that's super fun. I think, though, even more fun is that I get to be the person who helps to find and pick braille books for our free braille books program. Uh, in other aspects of my life, of course, I'm a mom. We're going to start to homeschool our middle daughter this next fall, which is going to be quite the new adventure. And I also am a podcast editor, and I am an audiobook narrator, and I've done some descriptive video. I've done some descriptive video on Netflix. I'm the voice that you hear if you watch the documentary "The Quilters," for example. I am the person that you hear describing the action. So I do quite a bit of different things, but I definitely enjoy all of my work, and there's never a dull moment.

Sara Brown 18:41

So this program that we're talking about today, American Action Fund Braille Books, talk about the goal of this program and who was it designed to serve.

Melissa Riccobono 18:52

So this program was started in 1997, and at first it was more for kids that were probably in grades four through seven. So kids that were maybe 10 to 14, uh, 13, somewhere in there, give or take a little bit. And eventually they also decided to go into books for very young readers. Then things kind of started to shift a little bit. And so eventually the choice was made to go to just one book a month. And for a little while it was a magazine. It was National Geographic Kids, which wasn't available anywhere else. And eventually I took over as the person who decided, helped, helped the board decide. It's not just my decision, but I helped the board decide what books we wanted to focus on. And we sort of made the decision that the kids that really, really needed these books and could probably benefit the most are kids between the ages of probably seven and ten. So kids where uh National Braille Press's Braille Book Club kind of ends, APH's Imagination Library, I believe, ends at age seven. And uh even our American Action Fund, we also have a Braille Reading Pals program that ends ends at age seven. And so we thought we really need books that are smaller chapter books that are still from popular series that kids can actually get mailed to their houses and keep, and that are the next step for kids that are used to getting books in the mail, kids that are starting to really build those great reading habits, and then once they're a little bit older, then they're able more to learn how to use Bookshare, learn how to use the library, figure out what books are of interest to them because we try, but we understand we're not going to always be able to get books every month that are slam dunks for every single kid. And so to us, it's really important for kids to just build that love of reading, build that library, be able to get those favorites that they can keep and maybe read again and again, books that they can share in with their friends, because they're books that are hopefully books that their peers are reading. They're books that have not been produced anywhere else, or if they have been produced, maybe one or two from a series are produced, but the rest are not. So we really try to make sure that we're not having books that have all have already been put out there in Braille. They might be in audio somewhere, but they're not in Braille. And so that's sort of a little bit of the history of the program and a little bit of what we are trying to do with it.

Sara Brown 22:00

How children can enroll in this program and what are the eligibility requirements?

Melissa Riccobono 22:05

The only eligibility is that a child needs to be legally blind and needs to be a braille reader. And when we say child, we don't ask for a doctor's note, we believe you. And if you are an adult, we do not discriminate. We love to have the books, of course, in the hands of blind kids. That's what the program is designed for. But if you are a blind adult who loves to read, if you are a blind teacher who needs books for your classroom, if you're a sighted teacher and you teach blind children and you need books for your classroom, if you are a school librarian and you want books for your library, any, anybody can join the program. And we just want to give the books, get them in the hands of those kids who need them. All you have to do is go to actionfund.org. So A-C-T-I-O-N-F-U-N-D.org. And there is a link on that page that says BrailleBooks. And you click on that link and all the information about the program is there. And you can fill out an online form. If you're not techie and you have a problem filling out the form, you can give us a call 410-659-9315. And we would be more than happy to help you out. It does take a little while to get on the mailing list because obviously we have to send we try to get the books mailed out in the month where they're scheduled to be mailed out, which means we have to give the producer right now, the books are being produced by the Clovernook Center in Cincinnati. So we have to give them time to have the list, print the labels, get everything together. And so if you were to go onto the program toward the end of the month, it might be a couple months before you start getting those books, but they will come to you, we promise. Also, the really good news is we have a downloadable braille book library. And that is again right there on the bottom of the page where you have the Braille Books program and the application, everything else. If you keep going down the page, you will see something that says downloadable Braille Book Library. And that actually has Braille ready files, BRFs, of all the books that we have produced. I want to say since oh goodness, maybe 2012. I can't remember the exact date, but they are all there. And so that goes back to when we used to do very long books. For a while, we were doing things like the 39 Clues series. I don't know if people are uh familiar with those, but again, books for older um kids and even adults. And all of those things are there, plus everything that we've done since I took over. I think I took over picking titles maybe in gosh, 2018, 2019, maybe? I can't believe it's been that long.

Sara Brown 25:08

Once you enroll in the program, and like you say, you know, you get on the list and you finally start getting it's one book a month, correct?

Melissa Riccobono 25:14

One book a month, correct. We really do try to focus on some diversity whenever we can. We think it is so important that blind kids, like all kids, see themselves in books. And so we do try as much as we can to focus on both fiction, nonfiction, diverse characters, diverse cultures, and that's sort of partly what we're doing, but also fun books, enjoyable books, books that are sometimes books that that you can enjoy with your family.

Sara Brown 25:50

So before I let you go, is there anything else you would like to share about this program that we might not have touched on or that you want our listeners to know?

Melissa Riccobono 25:59

Well, you know, we are always looking for feedback. We want to know what it is that real kids want. Uh we we or that parents want for their kids to have. Again, this is a program where we don't focus on picture books per se. We really do want that short chapter book length. So probably something around 120 pages. We've sometimes gone a little bit further uh with that, you know, choose your own adventure book, or we did a couple cookbooks last year. We did a poetry book that had all the poems of Mr. Rogers. I think that was a little bit longer, but again, sort of one of those that we just thought would be a really nice book for people to be able to save. Um, so we would really love it if people give us thoughts. What do you think of the books? What would you like to have us think about doing? We can't promise that we're going to do them, but we'll certainly take a look if you have series that you would like us to look into. Probably the best way to get a hold of us and to give us some ideas is either by email. You can email Action Fund at actionfund.org. That's pretty easy to remember, or you could email me directly. I would love to hear from you. And that is Melissa, M-E-L-I-S-S-A at Melissa@actionfund.org. You can also give the action fund a call, 410-659-9315, and either talk to somebody or leave a message, and we will definitely get back to you. Because again, this is this is your program. We want it to be something that is meaningful, that actually has books in the series that kids want to read. And let me just say, too, by the way, we did uh books in the "I Survived" series. We've done that a couple of times. Um, we of course do did JoJo McCoon's. We have one book that's really wonderful. It's called "Mitzi Mufflin Principal for a Day" which is about a little girl who is new, brand new to a school. She's a blind student, and she ends up becoming principal for a day, and all the adults don't show up at school. And there's just a lot of really, really good books that we have done, and we'd love you to explore those in the downloadable Braille Book Library. We actually also, it's not part of the free Braille Book program, but we have worked with Tracy West, who is the author of the "Dragon Masters" series. The "Dragon Masters" is all about kids who are taken from their homes and they are selected to train with dragons that have very special powers. And one of these kids is named Tess, and she is blind, and she has a sound dragon, and they work together, and the dragon helps her with some echolocation, and Tess helps the dragon, and they they go on adventures. And so Tracy West came to us when that book was published, which is several years ago now, and said, "I have this character that's blind. I really want to get this book in the hands of blind kids. How can I do this?" And the Action Fund partnered with her not only to produce that book, but also to produce all the other books in the "Dragon Masters" series. Now, these are only for download, but they should be in the downloadable library. Or if you look on our sight, there's maybe a separate section for the Dragon Masters, but all the Braille files are there. You can either read them on a Braille display or you can read them, uh, you can emboss them and read them that way. And so those are really good books. And in fact, our daughter, our youngest, the "Dragon Masters" series is really what made her a reader. She was sort of a reluctant braille reader, but during the pandemic, we said, "okay, you need to read for 30 minutes a day, and we'll read with you." You know, it was the pandemic. What else were we gonna do? You can only do so much uh sourdough baking, and and uh anyway, and and it was great. It worked out well, and those were really the books that caught her imagination and really helped her become a reader. And then the other ones were the "My Weirder School" books by Dan Gutman, and those were also done by the Action Fund. And so uh I'm really grateful as a parent. I think it's so important to get books in the hands of blind kids. And I saw it firsthand how once our daughter had books that were fun and funny and engaging and had kind of those shorter chapters so she didn't feel like she was reading and not making much progress, they really made a difference for her. And I really hope that they can, that those books and everything else that we're doing can make a difference for your own kids, or you as a braille reading adult, or you as a teacher. The books are there. We give them away. We want to get them into the hands of any blind kid or any blind adult who would like them. And so please um become a member of the program. We also give away free white canes, we give away free slates and styluses, so there's so much and free calendars. So there is so much on that Action Fund website. And of course, we're always looking for help to do the things we do. So if you are able or you know someone who is able to make a donation, you can also find information on how to donate to the program and to all the things the Action Fund does on our website, actionfund.org.

Sara Brown 31:48

And I will be sure to put links in the show notes of this podcast. So anyone wanting additional information and/or those links and phone numbers and email addresses can certainly find them there. Melissa, thank you so much for taking time out of your day to come on Change Makers and talk to me about this great program. It's lovely to talk to you today.

Melissa Riccobono 32:07

So nice to talk to you and really look forward to hearing from anybody who wants to give us feedback. And we hope that lots more kids and families take advantage of the program.

Sara Brown 32:17

I've put additional information in the show notes for anyone wanting to learn more about Word stock, Braille Tales, and American Action Fund for the Blind Braille Books program. Do you have a podcast topic? Please send it to me at changemakers@aph.org. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Change Makers. As always, be sure to look for ways you can be a change maker this week.