Closing the gap between books and braille

After losing her vision at just 1, young Eva Garcia has now become an avid reader and can learn alongside her peers thanks to the support of Braille House.

Eight-year-old Eva in her Hogwarts robe alongside the Harry Potter series written in Braille.

Eight-year-old Eva Garcia lives with cortical visual impairment yet has become an avid reader thanks to support from Braille House.

Eva lost her vision when she was just one-year-old through a viral encephalitis, which is inflammation of the brain caused by a virus.

Through the Braille Literacy Challenge that Eva attended with Chancellor State College, she had the opportunity to be surrounded by other children with vision impairments and quickly developed the skill of reading braille.

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Eva’s mum, Laura Garcia, said her daughter attending the Braille Literacy Challenge at Braille House “really helps her to connect”.

“For her to be able to learn alongside her peers, for an eight-year-old, it’s a big thing,” Ms Garcia said.

“It’s really opened up a whole new world so obviously a child with a vision impairment, one of the big things is how they’re going to get exposed to literacy, how they’re going to keep up with the school curriculum, how are they going to keep up in a social setting with their friends.”

She said literacy enabled children to develop their own voice, to make decisions and form opinions which is critical to navigate life and to integrate socially as well as to achieve their life’s goals.

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For Christmas this year, Braille House are asking for donations so the organisation can continue to narrow the gap between general books to braille and e-braille books by producing more books for visually impaired children and adults.

“To learn at the same level as your peers is really important,” Braille House’s Andrew Backhouse said.

“Donations help Braille House to grow and maintain as a Centre of Excellence in the production and teaching of braille.”

You can find the link to make a donation to Braille House here.

Brooke Festa is a journalism student at USC.

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