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ANNOUNCER: From our community to yours...
WOMAN: I'm Linda Blackwell for Accessible Media.
The sound of the Perkins Brailler fills the classroom
as the Alberta edition of the Braille Challenge
gets underway.
Angela Leavens is a visions specialist
with the Calgary Board of Education.
We invite students from across Alberta to come
and they compete in specific challenges
that are outlined by the Braille Institute.
And if they do very well, they can qualify
to be the finalist at the Braille Institute challenge.
The students are divided into different age categories.
So there's one test for spelling,
there's one for speed and accuracy,
reading comprehension,
there's one for proofreading,
and another for charts and graphs.
BLACKWELL: We met with 14-year-old Meaghan Hargrave
between tests.
She's been using Braille since preschool
so she knows it pretty well.
And, like most of the students,
there's another reason she's here today.
Socializing; hanging out with my two favourite friends.
We play goal ball together. We have a blast.
You know, a good sense of humour.
All of our birthdays are on the 19th of a month.
LEAVENS: The older students,
they have an additional challenge
that the younger students don't.
And that's around understanding graphs and charts.
They are a spatial representation of an image.
When you think about Braille,
and you only get a portion of the view
that we would have of an entire page,
in an instant, we get a picture.
The students have to very strategically look at the page
and figure out What am I feeling?
And understanding what that is in relation to another part.
It is an advanced skill;
it's something that we have to teach students
in a prescribed way; you can't just give someone an image
that's 2-dimensional and expect them to know
that represents something in three dimensions.
You really have to approach it in a systematic way
to put all those pieces together and make a visual image.
BLACKWELL: This independent writing system
is not a language.
It is a code by which all languages
may be written and read.
And, recently, Meaghan had a Braille challenge
of a different sort.
My mom, she went and brought a wine bottle over
and it had Braille on it but it was Italian.
I couldn't read it. I was so disappointed.
So I could help you find wine too that you like.
Aww, thanks, Meaghan!
The Braille Challenge finals
takes place in Los Angeles, California,
June 20th and 21st.
WOMAN: So you should be very proud of yourselves
for what you've achieved.
Let's clap for you guys. (Applause)
From the Braille Challenge in Calgary, Alberta,
I'm Linda Blackwell.