Braille

Students from every continent and every epoch imagine, even if only idly, of someday, somehow turning the tables on their teachers. Likely they don’t realize until they have done it, that their teachers also may see such a reversal as an opportunity to return the torment.

That’s partly the story of Role Reversal Day 2022, held on Friday, February 4. Hand it to the leadership of the CCB Student Association for organizing carefully and thoroughly, putting staff into groups and planning the schedule, even reviewing lesson plans from each ”teacher of the day.” This is the group, remember, that collected necessary items for the NICU babies when Avista Adventist Hospital was forced to evacuate during the December, 30 Marshall Fire in Boulder County. They also received an additional $820 in cash donations which were donated to the Marshall Fire relief fund.

For the first time in two years, our week-long Seniors in Charge is live and in-person at the Colorado Center for the Blind! These four dynamic and intrepid older blind folks have been waiting since spring of 2020 to get five full days of blindness training in Braille, technology, cane travel and kitchen skills, and they are determined to get the most out of this opportunity to spend quality time with our Senior staff! Duncan, Chris, Stephanie and Dishon are not disappointing them with long, and at times, intensive training every day. They even spent time in the wood shop with Paul on Tuesday.

We’re celebrating the holidays, and we hope you are too!

For the past three weeks, we’ve been delighted to have Adama Conteh as a special student at the Colorado Center for the Blind. Adama is from Sierra Leone, a country of about 6 million in West Africa. She has been in the U.S. under the sponsorship of Hope International, which has provided Adama with training at their headquarters in Tennessee, and transportation to Colorado to attend the Center for these three weeks.

We hosted the Braille Challenge today, referred to as the “Braille Blizzard Challenge” by the seven Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind (CSDB) staff members who drove north in the storm, sometimes at 25 MPH or slower. It was also slow going for participants, teachers and parents who came from as far away as Dillon and Fairplay. It even took as long as 90 minutes to get to Littleton from Aurora as wind and snow swirled across the Metro area this morning, beginning about 8 a.m.

There were 14 participants in the Braille Challenge hosted here today, and there were 25 in Colorado Springs last Thursday at CSDB. No doubt, Braille Rules!

That was one of the first lessons of the first day of summer for Confidence Camp kids this morning.

“If someone asks you what your backpack looks like, what are you going to tell them?” the lesson continued.

Yes, Monday began with learning for the 10 5 to 12-year-olds. It went on from there, including making lunches, and there will be plenty more lessons in independence and fun over the next two weeks. Lots of fun too – their day ended with a trip to the pool for a swim. Now that’s summer!

And then there were the 23 teenagers in our Earn & Learn and College Prep programs in their first day of classes. they will be with us for 8 weeks, including a trip to the National Federation of the Blind 2018 Convention in Orlando!

Here are a couple of pics taken this morning at the Dirt Coffee Bar in downtown Littleton. Dirt is a nonprofit operation dedicated to employment for people with Autism and we knew we had a lot of values in common when they called us to ask about Braille menus and board games for the shop a month before it opened. There’s nothing like a Braille menu!

This morning we delivered two copies of the menu in Braille … and of course we had to try out their coffee and hot chocolate!

Here’s a short clip from dirtcoffee.org –

Dirt is on a mission to bring you quality crafted coffee, food & drink while employing & empowering individuals with autism. … From the ground up, our shop will go further to cultivate a culture of acceptance, inclusion, and opportunity

After spending much of the day in their chairs, giving their best in various Braille skills as part of the

Braille Challenge, participants in the Metro area competition found goal ball the perfect way to unwind.

It’s the third year we’ve hosted the event for Metro-area kids, which is organized in Colorado by the

Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind. Students scores on reading, writing and more are collected regionally and given rankings, then compared to scores across the country. Eventually, the Braille Institute in Los Angeles will bring the most competitive students there for a final competition.

In the meantime, there’s a little goal ball, some local and regional prizes and pizza for lunch!

Here are a few photos from the Shared Visions reception at the Colorado Gallery of the Arts at Arapahoe Community College on Thursday night. Everyone got hands on with pieces from Nathan Abels’ painting and drawing classes. CCB students also had laser-cuts of drawings they made in Ann Cunningham’s art class with accompanying Haiku, and CCB alum Jenny Callahan had a number of stone carvings and a bronze in the show.

The Seniors art class had bowls thrown on the wheel in Katie Caron’s ceramics studio. Katie brought her daughter, who insisted on wearing sleepshades so she could try to identify the art tactilely.

If you’re on the Front Range of Colorado this post won’t surprise you, because you drove/walked/bussed in a steadily-falling snow this morning.

But let’s admit it – this 3 to 5 inches of snow is a bit early this year, just think of all those trees whose leaves have yet to drop! Tonight will be a killing freeze, with temps in the low 20s. That will likely mean an icy commute tomorrow morning. Tricky, but it’s part of the deal. Blind people have to go to work in good weather and bad, just like anyone else. And that’s what we teach and expect here at the Center.

So, we’ll be open tomorrow just like today, unless of course frozen branches knock out the power, as they did in an arc that went around us, from the Bemis Library to the Littleton Downtown Light Rail Station.