Braille Club
Vision Impairment is a low incidence disability amongst school aged students and those students have unique curriculum needs such as using braille for reading and writing. The Statewide Vision Resource Centre and the Visiting Teachers-Vision Impairment, have started a “Braille Club” for students who use braille for literacy and numeracy.

The aim of the Braille Club is to:

Braille games days and other activities to promote the specialised skills of brailling student are held at the Statewide Vision Resource Centre from time to time during the year. Last year we had a braille games day, a braille literacy day, an open day entitled " What a Lot a Dot Can Do" Day and "Skill Power Week".

Below is a picture of two students playing tactaul tic-tac-toe.

Two students play a jumbo version of tic-tac-toe
Tactaul snakes and ladders

Games We Enjoy

Shut the Box
This is a simple game using the numbers 1 to 9, two die and a wooden box. The numbers are brailled on wooden tiles which are attached to the box using a metal rod. The wooden tiles lie in a horizontal row from 1 to 9 across the top of the box. To begin a player rolls the die if a 3 and a 2 are rolled they can turn down the 3 and the 2 on the wooden tiles or a 5. The same player then rolls again. The games continues until no tiles can be flipped down. The score of the remaining tiles is totaled and the next player begins. The player with the lowest score wins.
There are several games sites on the internet which sell shut the box or you can obtain a version from the Royal Natioanl Institute for the Blind in the U.K.

Picture of the game shut the box.

Shut the Box from RNIB

Shut the Box Cabin Fever Games

Skill Power Week
One of the activities the students enjoyed at the Skill Power Week was to try their skills at being radio announcers for a radio station. Here is Michael's version of the Melbourne Cup with interviews before the start of the race. It is in mp3 format.

The Melbourne Cup by Michael on Radio SVRCFM

A Braille Awareness Kit is available from the Statewide Vision Resource Centre for Department of Education and Training teachers who would like to run braille awareness activities in their classrooms.
Please contact Lyn Robinson if you would like to know more about the Braille Club or the Braille Awareness Kit.
Lyn Robinson
email: lynrobin@svrc.vic.edu.au
Phone: 03 9841 0242

An Invitation
2009 will be the bicentenary of the birth of Louis Braille. Various groups around the world are designing ways to mark this occasion. In the United States there will be a special "braille" coin minted, here in Australia various activities are being planned. Read more about an exciting braille/art event which will begin in Sydney in January 2007.
Celebration of Braille: An Invitation

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Web page editor Lyn Robinson. Last updated December 2006.
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