Really Reading for the Blind

I mentioned a few posts back that I was volunteering some at RFB&D. Except I wasn't reading, I was "directing." That's when you follow along with the people that are reading and make sure they are doing it right. Like I would know on some of the stuff - like Math Books.

After you direct long enough, you get to take the reading test, and if you pass that, then they will let you read. Well, I did and I did. Took it and passed, that is. So today I read. You will recall that I've been a little nervous about revealing my history with these folks. They did, after all, reject me once upon a time. But I figured if they rejected me again, I could attack them on my blog, and boy that would show them! But I passed with flying colors so there's no hard feelings about the past.

The test is interesting. It consists of 7 or 8 pages, each representing a typical page that you might actually read. For instance, the first page was a vocabulary list, and it contained words like ACETANILIDE, BOATSWAIN, BOGATA (NJ) and OTIOSE. You are supposed to (correctly) pronounce each word, spell it, then pronounce it again. You do get to look the words up ahead of time. While actually reading, if you encounter a word you don't know how to pronounce, you are supposed to stop and look it up.

The 2nd page is an exercise on analyzing a product map. The text describes the steps to follow and then shows a map that the reader is to analyze. In this case, it is a map of the State of Texas, showing cotton production in 1895. You are supposed to describe the map, point out that the state is divided into 4 different geographic regions, paint a word picture of what area each region covers, then count the cotton bolls in each region and indicate to the listener where cotton was grown and to what extent.

Another page was a flow chart, with decision branching and alternate paths to follow. Or how about the page on Oral Hygiene which included the illustration of a cross-section of a tooth, with labels for the Crown, Dentin, Pulp and Root. But the best page may have been this.


Yes, just the cartoon - and the task is to describe it so a non-sighted person "gets it." Go ahead. Try it.

I guess I "got it" because today they paired me with a director and I spent 2 hours reading a Business text which featured eleventy-zillion different ways for a company or organization to conduct sessions to improve/benefit/restructure/turn around/rethink/revitalize itself. When I got through, I'm not sure that I knew how to conduct any of the sessions described, but I did know that 2 hours of continuous reading is very hard on the throat!