My name is Christina, I’m twenty-five, and I’ve been blind since birth.  Being born three months early can mess with a person’s retinas. 

However, my favourite and most useful technological advance isn’t new – It‘s actually over 200 years old.  It’s Braille.

In case you’re wondering, Braille is a system of reading and writing used by many blind people the world over. It’s made up of various combinationns of a six-dot cell (think of the number six on a dice).  For me, Braille is  my ink. Braille, despite its age, has been built into new technology just like many other adaptations. For example, I’ve gone from using a Perkins Brailler, which is basically a typewriter with only six keys, to a Braille display, which converts the information on a computer screen into Braille (I’m not an engineer, so I don’t understand how that’s possible).  You can even turn on a setting on an iPhone which allows you to type in Braille – that’s pretty good for a system that’s been around since 1809.

I’ve used Braille for everything since I was five – library books came through the door in big bags, like pizza delivery bags; they even had children’s magazines, which became teenage magazines.  It didn’t matter that the title wasn’t exactly the same – the content was what mattered. 

All through college, especially because I studied languages, Braille helped me hugely to learn spelling and grammar.  If I want to remember something, I find the physical act of putting pen to paper, so to speak,  helps me to memorise.     

So to sum up, Braille is more important to me than all modern technology – because for me it’s part of every piece of modern technology.