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21/Oct/2025

Braille Awareness Week Brings Learning, Fun, and Inclusion to School

Categories: News, Latest Academy News

To celebrate Braille Awareness Week, our Year 9 visually impaired student, Jacob H, organised a range of activities with the help of Sarah Watson and Lynn Halton from the Visual Impairment Team at Northampton Council. On Monday, these activities took place at our Diversity Club, led by Mx Skelton, and for the rest of the week, they were hosted by our school library. Jacob guided other students through all the activities with enthusiasm and knowledge.

The activities on offer included using only the sense of touch to guess hidden everyday objects, learning the Braille alphabet, typing it on the Perkins Braille machine, and a variety of fun activities like Braille code-breaking, Braille UNO, and Braille LEGO. Students could also see art made by Jacob – a tactile painting where different materials created different textures and braille art where the braille alphabet had been used to create tactile images of a ship, an apple or the Eiffel Tower. Students could also read about the inventor Louis Braille.

Our librarian, Ms Čechová, interviewed Jacob, and Lynn Halton, about the event.

Why is Braille Awareness Important?

JH: It is essential for people to know what it is like to be visually impaired and how Braille is used.

LH: Braille is an international code which helps people with sight loss to read and write.

What would you like students to learn the most about Braille?

JH: The history of Braille and how Louis Braille invented it.

LH: I would like people to realise what a difficult skill it is to learn Braille and how visually impaired students need their schoolwork adapted so they can learn at the same pace as their peers.

What was the most popular activity?

JH: The Braille UNO! It was fun to play with everyone.

LH: The Perkins Brailler, the machine which is used to type Braille. Many students wanted to know how it works.

Did you get any interesting feedback from students?

LH: Once they learned how to write their own name, they started writing short messages in Braille and were impressed how quickly Jacob read them back.

Would you like to add anything else?

JH: I had a fun time organising this event. I would want to do it again. 4th January is World Braille Day, so it would be fun to do something to celebrate that too.

Braille Awareness Week Brings Learning, Fun, and Inclusion to School

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