Braille Goddesses Brings Light to Visually - Impaired People

Saitama Braille Translation Study Group

Every month from around the middle of 2005 Hiragana Times editorial section has received telephone calls from a women's group soon after the magazine became available in the shops. The caller usually points out misused characters in the text. We have some staff engaged in proofreading in the editorial section to make sure there are no spelling mistakes, however, the caller still points out two or three misused characters or typos every month. We are astonished at their sharp perception.

The editorial team started talking about it and one day a staff member asked the women's group how they find errors. They explained that they are members of the Saitama Braille Translation Study Group (Saitenken) and every month they create a braille version of Hiragana Times for visually-impaired people, and while they are putting all the words and phrases into braille both in Japanese and English, they can easily spot misused characters or spelling errors.

The principle behind braille is that 6 dots form each word. There are 64 patterns in all, which express hiragana/katakana characters. In other words, one hiragana character is expressed using six dots. For English text, the Japanese characters are transformed into Roman letters. It can be said that the principle behind braille is the same as that of a six-bit-per-letter computer. They say it is possible for people to acquire braille translation skills in approximately one year, although there are differences between individuals.

The present style of six-dot braille was developed by Lois BRAILLE, a Frenchman. He lost his eyesight at the age of three, and while he was studying in a school for the blind in Paris, he was very moved to discover that he could understand books by touching the convex letters with his fingers. Taking advantage of this ability, he studied more about it and finished creating a reading system in 1825. In Japan, a study aimed at expressing the Japanese language using its method was carried out and completed in 1890 by ISHIKAWA Kuraji, a teacher at Tokyo Blind School.

Saitenken was established by Mr. ITO Takeshi, himself a visually-impaired person. Mr. Ito asked a matron of the dormitory to read books aloud for him, and he made all-out efforts to put their contents into braille. He also opened braille classes in various places including prefecture public libraries. The present chairman of Saitenken, Ms. MATSUMURA Masako who participated in one of his Braille classes, recalls her memories of Mr. Ito: "He was a very wonderful person. I respected him and started to learn braille. But, to my regret, he died 18 years ago in a train accident."

Each member bears expenses
Saitenken has 140 members. They hold braille classes in their local areas, do braille translation and meet once a month to study about braille and exchange related information. Braille translation is hard work. "About 15 years ago, we used to make them using a braille typewriter," says Ms. MUTO Haruko, demonstrating the method. Prior to that, the group used to make dots one-by-one by hand with the use of a braille board.

Now, computer software enables braille words to be typed on the screen. After printing the completed data, the braille is ready. The work has become much easier. "The problem is expenses," says Ms. Matsumura. "That printer cost us 1,070,000 yen. The other printer that can print on both sides at once cost double. Besides, such expenses including fees for books, paper, administration, renting rooms and so on are by no means small."

Saitenken is a voluntary group so the members share all the expenses. In spite of carrying out such social voluntary work, they receive no public support such as subsidies. For visually-impaired people, the group?s members must be just like goddesses, who share the expenses among themselves and continue to work quietly in spite of lack of sleep.

Many members commented about their motives behind beginning voluntary work - "I like books," or "Because my children don't need my help any longer, so I have much more free time." In response to the question "Why are you so eager to do this, especially when you are paying expenses out of your own pockets?," they all said with one voice and a smile "It's my hobby," "it is also good for me? and ?hobbies cost money."

The group members are not at all showing off their voluntary efforts, but they do enjoy working with braille, clearly emphasizing that this voluntary work is their hobby. This may be the ultimate attitude behind carrying out voluntary activities. Because of their efforts, visually-impaired people can read Hiragana Times every month, and also people around the world can have a window through which they can get to know more about Japan. Visually-impaired people must be able to clearly see the warm hearts of Saitenken group members.

Saitama Braille Translation Study Group
www5.ocn.ne.jp/~saiten/

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