Broken Arrow student wins bronze at Oklahoma Regional Braille Challenge

On March 6, local blind and visually impaired youth in grades 1st through 12^th grade showcased their braille skills at the Oklahoma Regional Braille Challenge and battled for a spot at Braille Challenge Finals in Los Angeles this summer.

Parents, teachers and friends cheered students on as they furiously typed away on their braillers and quickly glided their fingers along braille dots during this exciting day of competition and camaraderie.

Braille Challenge is the only academic competition of its kind in the U.S., Canada and United Kingdom for students who are blind or visually impaired.

Braille Institute developed Braille Challenge to promote the importance of braille literacy. It motivates students to practice and hone their braille literacy skills, which are essential to academic and employment success.

Oklahoma students have been working hard all school year for this Braille Challenge. This year, we had a total of 38 kids participating – one of our biggest challenges ever!

Students battled it out in five different braille skills categories including reading comprehension, braille spelling, chart and graph reading, proofreading and braille speed and accuracy.

By 2030, the number of Americans with visual impairments is projected to reach 7.2 million. The competition celebrates braille skills and reminds the community about helpful and free services available to those who are blind or visually impaired.

The Braille Challenge also helps to promote the importance of braille literacy and motivates students to practice and hone their braille skills – all of which are essential to academic and employment success.

Braille is a crucial tool for many blind and visually impaired students as it opens the doors of literacy and drives education advancement and future employment opportunities. 

This is important since there are 128,900 Oklahomans, all ages, or 3.3% with vision disabilities, according to using the U.S. Census Bureau.  Go to https://oklahoma.gov/okdrs/information/about-us/ok-statistics.html to find out more.