I chose to research Braille because I have a high chance of completely or partially losing my sight. This is because of Age-related Macular Degeneration–a condition where the retina, the part of your eye that transmits light signals to the brain, is ruined. I have such a high chance of getting this because of my eye color and genetics. The prospect of losing my sight was what got me so interested in Braille.
I started my research by finding basic information about the creation of Braille using Encyclopedia Britannica. It proved to be very difficult to find primary sources, so I expanded my topic to include the use of Braille in today’s world, which I found information about from the Today.com article about Braille patches. I also looked at how and why Braille was superior to other methods of tactile writing–I used the official site of Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. After I knew what I was looking for, I started trying to find primary sources. I struggled with finding primary sources, because Braille wasn’t well-known at the time of its creation. Any sources I did find were written in French, and I could not find a translated version. I expanded my research to encompass other tactile reading methods, and how these were and still are used. I also found a book containing several letters and quotes from and about Braille.
I started putting my information into the NHD website creator. It took some trial and error to learn how to use it. I wanted all of my pages to look similar, with a layout that was easy to make sense of and read. Each page covers something different, and I organized them in order of the paragraphs in my paper. I also wanted every page to have access to all of the others, so they don’t have to be read in a specific order.
Braille relates to the theme of “breaking barriers” because there was a communication barrier between the sighted and those with vision impairments. They could still communicate, but the visually impaired were unable to communicate as effectively as the sighted. With the use of Braille, they were able to understand each other better. I wanted to learn more about something I had only heard about.