Personal Braille Program

Even with the advent of technology, Utah Council of the Blind (UCB) believes Braille literacy is very important for those who are blind or visually impaired. With this in mind, we have created the personal Braille program to provide a way for Braille readers to have personal items transcribed into Braille and also to promote Braille literacy among the blind and visually impaired community.

Having print materials transcribed from print into Braille can be cost prohibitive for many individuals; therefore, our program offers free Braille transcription for personal print materials. This could include such items as wills, Doctor's instructions, materials for meetings, small instruction books, crochet and knitting patterns, recipe books, and more. Individuals can also request that certain materials already available in Braille be purchased for them to own.

This program is free to any resident of Utah who is blind or visually impaired and reads Braille. There is no cost to the applicant; However, this program is solely supported by grants and is very costly. Therefore. when an individual requests an item to be transcribed from print to Braille, the request is sent to a standing committee for consideration and approval of the project. If the project is approved, an effort will be made to determine if the item has already been produced in Braille. If it has, we will purchase it from that source. If it is not available from another source, we will produce it and make it available to others as requested.

More information from Vicki Flake:

Although the Utah State Library for the Blind and Disabled provides a wide selection of reading material in braille, and National Braille Press and other organizations offer many titles for purchase at reasonable prices, there are personal items which are not available from any of these sources. These may include anything from legal documents to instructional manuals to educational materials—anything of importance to the braille reader. Realizing that the high cost of braille transcription makes it impractical for many people to have documents of personal importance transcribed, the UCB created a program to help. Any blind or visually impaired resident of Utah who would like an item transcribed into braille for their personal use may submit a request to our Braille Committee. When the project is approved, the UCB arranges for the transcription of the item at no cost to the client.

Most recently, the long-awaited Volume 1 of the Leslie Gertsch – Cooking with Family and Friends braille recipe collection is available. It includes lots of sweet treats and several other of her favorites. The collection is available in hard-copy braille or as a digital brf file which can be read on your Braille eReader, braille notetaker, other electronic devices or the Victor Reader Stream.

Also available at this time are Instant Pot Recipes Volume 1, Instant Por Recipes Volume 2, Tina Terry Recipes, and Vita-Mix Recipes as well as a knitting pattern booklet that contains patterns in a full range of sizes for a hoodie that is constructed entirely on knitting needles without the need for seams; it is called The Wonderful Wallaby.

There is no cost for any of these books if you are a blind or visually impaired resident of Utah. To obtain your copy or copies, contact our business office at 801-245-9264 or e-mail utahblind@gmail.com and let us know which books and in which format you would like.

To request transcription of an item, you may call UCB's current Braille Committee Chair, Kira Larkin, at (801) 898-5472.