Testimonials
“As a TVI for over 33 years, I am very excited at the prospect of being able to work with the BrailleDoodle. Teaching Braille and Nemeth remotely over the past several months has proven to be challenging on many different levels. The device’s durability and affordability mean that it can be purchased not only for in-school use but also for many of my students who continue to be remote learners. This product has excellent potential to be used by students of all ages, educational levels, and degrees of functional vision. I look forward to using it!”
Jacqueline Becker, TVI – Braille Specialist
“I was encouraged to learn braille when I was newly diagnosed with a debilitating eye condition known as RP; Retinal Pigmentosa, which leads to complete vision loss over time. I found braille difficult and confusing.” “The BrailleDoodle invention will be fantastic and will make any novice’s ability to learn braille so much more accessible. It will also be affordable; which is different than other tech devices in this space.” –
Nasreen Butta, CCO BoldBlindBeauty.com
Hello,
Braille literacy is very important in the year 2020. Books are expensive, as is technology. Things like math are very difficult to achieve, and as we go through our education, blind people need an equal chance to succeed. My name is Georgette Williams, and I am advocating for the TouchPad Pro, the BrailleDoodle, and the Braille Cloud. I believe that they’ll help blind literacy. Braille doesn’t have to be something of the past.
I have been a braille reader and writer since I was about six years old. I am an avid poet, and creator. Braille is very important to me, allowing me to experience the world a bit more similarly to my siblings and friends that can see. Sure, only 20% of the blind population actually is completely blind, therefore only two out of ten of us really need braille. But it’s still important. Especially for math, school, and books. It’s important that they be affordable, so that no one will be breaking their wallets. And yes, it takes a lot of money to make these braille devices, but regular children don’t have to spend so much money on their books. It’s only fair that it goes both ways. After all, people do not ask to be born blind, or any kind of disabled. So it’s only fair that their parents won’t have to financially be in debt because of it.
Although we cannot see, blind people also enjoy art, colors and drawing. And that is why the braille doodle and the braille cloud will be very helpful. It will give us, the blind, the experience of looking at pictures. Though we will never fully understand the color blue, it would be nice to be able to feel it and know that people are making an effort. Facebook, Instagram, and other social media sites are huge on taking selfie‘s, where you center your face in the camera and take a picture of yourself. However, it would be much easier to do with the touchpad pro.
The touchpad pro, would be able to tell you if your face is centered, which took the iPhone’s camera app years to do. You would also be able to draw, comparing a selfie that you took of yourself to a drawing that you might want to make of your face. It would expand the world of drawing for anyone who has always dreamt of it. No longer would you have to carry around a plastic mat, special types of bags to hold your special types of materials. The touchpad Pro would be portable, and although it uses a stylus, it isn’t sharp like the one that comes with a slate and stylus. You could show it to your friends and you can experience the pictures you draw together. And that’s the most beautiful thing. Experiencing art together. With and without sight.
Thank you,
Georgette Williams Freshman, Suny Purchase
Hello,
My name is Sharon Giovinazzo, I am the President/CEO at World Services for the Blind in Little Rock, Arkansas. I am not only an administrator for the world’s most comprehensive vocational training center in the world, teaching life skills and hosting more than 20 career tracks to place people who are blind and visually impaired in highly competitive global workforce opportunities; I am also the CEO at WSB, who just happens to be an individual who is blind, who learned braille at the age of 31.
When I heard about the Braille Doodle and it’s creator, Daniel Lubiner, I quickly discovered that he is a true innovator with a vision and passion to improve the lives of people who are blind and visually impaired across the globe, so I couldn’t wait to engage in conversation with him.
As an art teacher he seen a need so great emerge during the pandemic that he used his creative genius to create a product that would allow children of all ages from 1-101 to access braille and art in a fashion that was hands on and fun, without the need to spend thousands of dollars. Daniel, knowing the kids that he teaches most of the time does not even have the money to supply their own crayons, knew that in order to distribute such a product to the masses that it would need to be affordable.
This is one of the most exciting and innovative products that I have seen in my twenty year career and well deserving of the Touch of Genius Prize for Innovation.
Should you have any questions please feel free to reach out to me, my email is sgiovinazzo@wsblind.org.
Respectfully,
Sharon L. Giovinazzo
Hi everyone,
My name is Hanan Hirsawa, and I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York! I currently attend Medgar Evers College as a freshman. We are all always looking for amazing, and fun new ways to improve accessibility for the visually impaired and blind. Three products in the makings that would 100% help visually impaired/blind individuals are the Braille Doodle, The Braille Cloud, and The Touch Pad Pro. First, how cool would it be for the presumption to be proven wrong that anyone without sight can’t draw? With the Braille Doodle, anyone without sight can make tactile drawings.
There are also fun products to help any beginners who are just starting to learn braille, such as The Braille Cloud. The Braille Cloud also comes with fun shapes, and is actually cloud shaped.
And lastly, the Touch Pad Pro, the device that will take visually impaired/blind individuals to a new world of independence. So much comes with the Touch Pad Pro, 14 lines of braille, feeling pictures, and help with being able to read graphs. It even comes with a stylus to help with touch drawing and saves these drawings in a tactile form. All of these devices would definitely be more than helpful for people without sight.
Sincerely,
Hanan Hirsawa – Medgar Evers College
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