fixed us a midnight lunch, and so we redeemed him. (Laughter) We forgave him. And, but anyway, but I had mama and daddy were very, what I want to say, they wanted the best for their children, OK? And I knew all the time that I was going to go to college, and my brothers went to Clemson but because they didn’t stay it wasn’t Daddy’s fault, you know. Anyway.

How did you become a teacher of students of visual impairments?

I became a teacher many years after I had graduated from college. And that was, Mr. Cleo Fennel was superintendent of education then, and Cleo was maybe about the age of my husband, and they were at Clemson together. But Clemson, he kinda always tried to get me to teach. He thought I should teach. But the thing was that I majored in Home Economics I loved Home Economics and I didn’t, I really didn’t want to teach and I didn’t have to teach. So but anyway, I kinda hung in there for a while and I don’t know who I talked to but I kinda found myself interested in this, what do you call it when they started these programs for the handicapped and the blind and the poorly sighted and this kind of thing, you know, and somehow, I, I suppose it was when they were stuck

Kaitlin Walsh
23 June 2010

Well…[Laughter]…I grew up in the country, and I was an only girl, but I had three brothers. Oh, and they were teasing me all the time and I hated it. I had a little white pony who was as tall as I am here when I stand up, and I had her until my daddy said I got too heavy for her, so then we had to sell her, and because that…that broke my heart. But, and this…we…lived in the country. And really, down in the [???] section, and usually boarded, my daddy was a trustee of the school and boarded teachers and that kind of thing. And it gave us, I thought, good experiences with…with older, they were women, you know, maybe three women. And it was good. And, and, I enjoyed them, and, and…[Laughter]…I don’t know about whether or not they enjoyed me, they probably didn’t! I probably, I probably worried them to death. But anyway, it…it was, you know, it was very good, and I had a very good home, and…and daddy was pretty well to-do. And I was the only girl in the family so the boys gave me a terrible time, and one…and this has nothing to do with you, I’m sure [Laughter from off camera]…[???]…But one time, I had a friend spending the night and in the middle of the night my brother comes rolling from under the bed, just dying laughing, ’cause he’s been listening to all of our talk! [Laughter from off camera] And you know, girls and friends when they get together, and they’re spending the night together, I mean, you know the talk goes on. And then, he said…[end]

Joanna Howard
June 21, 2010

MM: that I was taught has made the possibility of using Braille such an enormous benefit to me. I have taken testimony from people in court; I have made arguments to courts of appeals; I don’t dare walk into a courtroom without a sheaf of Braille in my briefcase that tells me what the legal arguments are going to be, what the testimony will consist of, and how I am to go about the process of defeating my opponent. There’s, There’s no way I know how to do this unless I’ve got written material that I can touch. If I were to try to listen to it on some recording device, sitting in the courtroom, it would distract me from knowing what’s going on and I couldn’t afford it. This is an enormous benefit, one that makes it possible for me to do the job that I like and to expand opportunities for me and for others.
The statistics show that something between 80 and 85 percent of people who know Braille well find a way to get meaningful employment. They also show that about 70, somewhere between 70 and 74 percent, of blind people who are seeking employment are unemployed. In other words, Braille is so valuable to getting a job and becoming a part of the society in which we live, and not only that, reading it is fun.
[No audio: white text across three black screens with question: “Some say that listening to books is not an example of literacy/and that only by reading Braille can a blind person be considered literate/ What’s your opinion? “ ]
MM: I think there are different kinds of literacy and that you could not [end]

PM: … come to the convention and they can meet blind adults who are, you know, traveling through the convention, who have jobs, who can answer their questions and can talk to them. One of Dr. Maurer’s favorite things at the convention is to get together with the kids on the first morning of the parents’ meeting and talk to them about the things that they want to talk about.

MM: I get the little kids who are four and five and six years old, and I sit on the floor with them, and they sometimes show me their stuffed animals, and I talk to them about what they’re going to be doing at the convention. One time I said to them at the convention, “You know, a lot of times, when you’re a blind person, you’re going to be lost. And this can be scary, but if you understand it, it isn’t scary, it’s a chance to find out new things. Don’t worry about being lost. I’ve been lost many times, and I’ve found my way to where I needed to go, and sometimes I learned some important things that I didn’t know, and it was lots of fun to be out there exploring.” And as I left the room, I heard one little kid talking to another little kid, and one of them said to the other, “Are you lost?” And the other one said, “Yes, I’m lost, but Dr. Maurer said it was okay.” [Laughter] And I just have great fun talking to these guys. “Don’t be afraid of your life. Look at your life as an adventure, and it will become an adventure for you. Lots of people can talk to you about being afraid of your life, [Laughter] but don’t believe in that. That’s not where your life is exciting. Your life is exciting because there are many things to do in it, and lots of them can be just plain good times.”

PM: We have a Braille carnival, too, at the convention, where the kids come and play all kinds of Braille games, and they love that. And then we have a Braille book flea market, where people bring all their Braille books, and …

…you learn what’s in the book from the reading rather than learning to read from what’s in the book.

Looking back now, what’s your opinion of how you were taught braille?

PM: Well, I loved my braille teacher. She’s no longer living. She was a wonderful person. She would sit with her… I don’t know… usually have 3 or 4 students in there I think. And, you know, I was an extra because I was… and I was still in high school, and, of course, all the other people were adults in the program.

So I would come in, and she would sit down, and she’d get her book out, and she’d be reading her own book and just let people read out loud from their textbooks. So she had… Sometimes she’d have to stop and show us our place or give us an explanation of a braille rule or a different letter or so on. But she was very relaxed and she was a little past middle age when she was working with me so, you know, I really was very comfortable with her and I loved her and I really enjoyed learning from her.

So I don’t know if there was anything about the way that I was taught that was unusual, but it certainly was relaxed and, you know, I didn’t feel nervous or pressured or any of that kind of thing. So it was very enjoyable.

MM: Well, my braille teacher was my mother, and loving your mother is not too hard [laughter] although being annoyed with her while she was teaching you braille is certainly possible [laughter].

I don’t remember the lessons nearly as well as I remember the reading afterward. The lessons were there, and I was annoyed by them, but then they were gone, and the books were there, too. And my hands were giving me the chance to explore exciting worlds that would never have been a part of my life except for the literature that was under them. So, how I was taught was a very…