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Mission: Empower blind Iowans to be gainfully employed and live independently.
Vision: To be the world's leader in blind rehabilitation services.
IDB Volunteer Newsletter!
Welcome to our newsletter! In this issue, we are highlighting and celebrating braille, e-Reader Pilot Project, Update from the Director, 2021 Braille Challenge, Braille Programs, and a Resolution for Braille. We hope you find this newsletter useful and informative. Please feel free to share any suggestions you may have for things to include or ways to improve by emailing Janice Eggers, Executive Secretary and Volunteer Coordinator at janice.eggers@blind.state.ia.us. If you are a current volunteer, thank you for all that you do. If you are not a current volunteer, please visit our website at https://blind.iowa.gov/volunteers to learn about opportunities or fill out an application.
Volunteer Spotlight - Cindy Ray
What is your role at IDB? Volunteer Braille Teaching
Why did you decide to volunteer at IDB? I felt that some of us who are seniors might have empathy for people trying to learn blindness skills, and even for some her are feeling overwhelmed who are not so old. I felt that braille was my expertise, so I offered to help Terri Wilcox.
Where did you work before IDB? I worked in the library as a temporary coordinating proofreading and proofreading myself.
What do you enjoy most about volunteering at IDB? I enjoy most the opportunity to meet new people and the good feeling that comes from helping them even a little bit.
What is your favorite memory at the IDB? Time spent with Karen Cunningham and Roxanne Book.
What do you like to do in your free time? Meditation and Bible study, music, writing pieces for my church, and fooling around with computers and playing and singing.
Employee Spotlight - Terri Wilcox
What is your role at IDB? I teach Braille classes and lead support groups around Iowa.
Why did you decide to work at IDB? Braille is literacy and I wanted to share it with other blind people.
Where did you work before IDB? I taught voice lessons out of my home in Michigan.
What do you enjoy most about working at IDB? I enjoy it when people start to read Braille on their own. I also enjoy it when they figure out that they can live the lives they want as a blind person.
What is your favorite memory at the IDB? I pushed a student in a wheelchair on the walk near Graze Lake while she used her cane. I had never done this before and kept running the chair off the sidewalk. She kept having to get out so I could get the chair back on the sidewalk. I will never forget doing this.
What do you like to do in your free time? I love to sing, swim, go to church, and spend time with my family.
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Updates from the Director
by Emily Wharton
At the beginning of January, we were delighted to learn that the Governor had included our full appropriation request in her budget. The Governor submits her budget to the legislature for approval. We will be presenting on February 16th to the Education Appropriation Subcommittee. We are very hopeful that, like the Governor, the legislators will see the need for our funding increase and vote in support of services to blind Iowans. We are asking for an increase to support our Independent Living Program and new Young Adult Transition Program particularly. For more details, visit https://blind.iowa.gov/ask22. We hope that everyone who has benefited from our programs or know someone who has will contact their state representative and senator to show their support for our budget request.
In December, several IDB staff presented at the triennial Dare to Be Remarkable Conference. Hanna Geisinger presented on post-training center plan development. Technology specialists Amena Thomas, Enrique Mejia, and Martha Harris presented on our structured discovery based computer curriculum. I presented with Helen Stevens and Chelsea Paige on our Young Adult Transition Program (YATP). We also had a cross-agency presentation about how IDB teaches and promotes braille throughout our programming. Denise Bean, our Youth Librarian, talked about library programs including Braille Bits and the Braille Challenge while Terri Wilcox shared about our braille support groups that she runs across the state, Drew Joines shared about teaching braille to clients in the field, and Nami Wallace talked about teaching the Code Master curriculum in our training center. This presentation really showcased our agency wide commitment to providing braille materials and training. At IDB, we love braille and are happy to celebrate braille in the month of February and throughout the year.
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The Library Celebrates Braille
by Sarah Willeford
The Iowa Library for the Blind and Print Disabled has been working hard to provide more resources in and about braille. Braille is essential for literacy, educational advancement and employment. The Library is using February to highlight these resources. We wanted to share a few with you.
The Braille Challenge
The Braille Challenge is the only academic competition of its kind in North America for students who are blind or low vision. The Braille Institute developed the Braille Challenge to motivate students to practice and hone their braille literacy skills, which are essential to academic and employment success.
The Library is hosting the Iowa Regional Braille Challenge for students during a remote testing window of February 1, 2021 – February 28, 2021. Contest proctoring can be done individually or as a group at school, home, or other agreed upon setting with a proctor.
Any blind or low vision student in grades 1 – 12 who can read and write braille is eligible to participate in the Braille Challenge. All Contestants are divided into five categories and tested on fundamental braille skills such as reading comprehension, spelling, speed and accuracy, proofreading, and charts and graphs.
All students can compete in the preliminary Braille Challenge events, which are held from January through the end of March throughout the United States and Canada, but only the top 50 students (10 in each category) with the highest scores are invited to Los Angeles for the final round – two days of competition, camaraderie and fun!
For more information about the Iowa Regional Braille Challenge
For more information about the Braille Institute and the National Braille Challenge
Braille Challenge T-Shirts
To help us celebrate the Braille Challenge and Braille literacy, we are pleased to work with Raygun this year for the Braille Challenge t-shirt. All proceeds will benefit the Friends of the Iowa Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped and future Braille Challenges.
All shirts are crew neck and short-sleeved. The shirts are heather red with white lettering. The front of the t-shirt says in print: #brailleiowa. The back of the t-shirt says the same thing in Braille. All adult sizing is unisex and all shirts are $15.00. T-shirts will be mailed to the address you provide on the order form. Participants of the Braille Challenge will be provided with a t-shirt.
Orders can be placed until February 10, 2021
Link to the Braille Challenge T-shirt Order Form
 Braille Bits Program
Braille Bits is an introductory braille class designed for sighted individuals to learn braille.
It is a correspondence-guided class providing braille lessons online or by mail. Lessons are guided by a Certified Braillist through the Library of Congress, so you’ll get help and support when you need it. Braille Bits is intended to familiarize the student with the braille system, with braille contractions and their usage, and with the rules of braille. Rules are set forth by the International Council on English Braille (ICEB) and by the Braille Authority of North America (BANA) and published in The Rules of Unified English Braille (UEB).
Throughout these braille lessons, examples are presented in simulated braille (dots reproduced in print). Rules will slowly be introduced as you proceed through each lesson. The lessons will build on the knowledge you gain in each of the lessons. A podcast has been developed to correspond with each Braille Bits lesson. It features each Braille Bits Lesson and an interview with a special guest to discuss all things braille.
If you are interested in participating in Braille Bits, please contact Denise Bean, 515-452-1338, denise.bean@blind.state.ia.us and check out all of our Braille Bits Resources.
Check out our Braille Bits page for lessons, podcasts and more information
 Braille eReader Pilot
Our library was one of five libraries to be selected to participate in the first phase of the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS) Braille eReader pilot. The Braille eReader has a 20-cell braille display, an eight-key, Perkins-style keyboard. The eReader can access braille books on BARD or connect with a phone/computer to be used as a braille display/braille keyboard
The purpose of the NLS Braille eReader Pilot is to test the functionality of the eReader devices and collect feedback from pilot patrons. The NLS Braille eReader Pilot Project will lay the groundwork for the general distribution of braille eReaders. This will increase access to digital braille materials, promote braille literacy, and provide access to tens of thousands of braille titles in digital format.
We have currently checked out over 120 eReaders to our patrons throughout Iowa. If you would like more information or would like to participate in the pilot, please contact Tyler Swett, Accessible Media Specialist, 515-452-1343 or tyler.swett@blind.state.ia.us. Individuals must be a patron of our library before they are able to participate in the project.
For more information about the Braille eReader Pilot Program
Braille Babies Program
Our library introduced a brand new program this January called Braille Babies! The program is geared for our youngest patrons and their parents/caregivers. Participants will receive a free braille book, access to monthly resources filled with helpful tools designed to stretch and explore new experiences at the turn and touch of each page.
Program Information
For Ages: 0-4 years’ old
Design of the Program
- Teaching children the importance of exploring touch, textures and tactiles
- Elaborate on a multi-sensory approach to reading readiness
- Time to play!
- Beginning Braille Skills Are Explored
- Monthly Braille Activities Provided
- Parent Resources
- Monthly Parent Sessions
- Personalized Activity Box received at sign up!
If you have any questions please contact Denise Bean, Youth Services Librarian at denise.bean@blind.state.ia.us, 515-452-1338.
For more information about our Braille Babies Program
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Did You Know?
A Resolution for Braille
by Sandi Ryan
With the new year come opportunities for improvement through resolutions, and celebration of Louis Braille’s birthday on January 4. Braille, born in 1809, developed the six-dot code that allows blind people to read and write. January is coming to an end, but it’s not too late to make one more resolution: to hone your braille skills by reading and/or writing braille for 21 minutes each day in 2021.
Braille is one of the best tools in the toolbox of blindness skills. Whether you read braille from a paper book or from a digital file using, for example, the digital braille eReader recently introduced by the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, you can, with practice, become skilled in braille, and broaden your world, whether you use only braille, or it is one of your tools for reading and writing.
The Iowa Department for the Blind has the resources you need to learn and practice your braille skills.
Patrons of the Iowa Library for the Blind and Print Disabled can improve their braille skills by volunteering to participate in the pilot test of the NLS eReader. We want to thank each of the patrons already doing this crucial volunteer work, which will put an eReader in the hands of each NLS patron across the country, following testing in several states. For more information and to sign up for this program, contact Tyler Swett, Accessible Media Specialist, at (515) 452-1343 or tyler.swett@blind.state.ia.us.
Braille is a major focus of the Department’s Orientation center program. Students learn the braille system as they also develop other blindness skills. For more information, contact Alan Bickell, Orientation Center Program Administrator, at (515) 802-8162 or alan.bickell@blind.state.ia.us.
You might consider attending a Self Week, where blind Iowans spend a week at the Center, intensively learning and practicing blindness skills. For more information, contact Helen Stevens, Education and Training Program Administrator, (515) 829-7411 or helen.stevens@blind.state.ia.us.
You can learn braille through one of the Department’s braille and support groups, led in several locations across Iowa (or on the phone) by Terri Wilcox, Vocational Rehabilitation Teacher, (515) 452-1333 or terri.wilcox@blind.state.ia.us.
If you would like to learn braille online or by mail, the Library offers Braille Bits. Check out Braille Bits at https://iowalibrary.blog/ under “Resources.” Volunteers are always needed to become certified in braille and transcribe materials for students and books for the Library’s general collection into braille. For more information, visit https://idbimclibrary.blog/.
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Upcoming Events
2/1-2/5 – New Staff Seminar Week (9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Monday-Friday)
2/19 – 8:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. – All Staff Meeting
3/9 - 12:00 p.m. - Commission Board Meeting
Deadline to apply for May Self Week session
3/14-3/20 - VR Self Week
3/26-3/28 - LEAP staff Camp
5/7 – 8:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. – All Staff Meeting
5/9-5/16 - VR Self Week
5/21 - Young Adult Transition Program last day of school (students move out 5/22)
5/31 – Memorial Day, State Offices Closed
6/8 – 12:00 p.m. - Commission Board meeting
6/20-6/25 – IL Integration
7/5 - 4th of July (state holiday)
8/20 – 8:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. – All Staff Meeting
8/23-8/27 – New Staff Seminar
9/6 – Labor Day (state Holiday)
9/21 - 12:00 p.m. – Commission Board meeting
11/19 – 8:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. – All Staff Meeting
11/25-11/26 – Thanksgiving (state holiday)
12/7 - 12:00 p.m. – Commission Board meeting
12/25 – Christmas (state holiday)
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