POST: Oh man.. I don't know what to say. This means so much to get a ribbon on a photo that I am so proud of.
I'm a man of my word! I'll be making a $100 donation to my local CNIB to help them with their awesome work.
GO SNOWMEN!! ____________________________________
This photo is really special to me.
When the challenge was announced, I had a difficult time figuring out how to visually represent language. I figured that sign language would probably be overdone. Aha! Braille!
I called up my local CNIB, and spoke to the librarian in charge. She said that they didn't have a lending library, but I was welcome to borrow one of their braille books. Later that day I met Mary-Ann, the librarian, who is blind. We spoke for almost an hour about braille, the history behind it, and how it works.
She showed me all kinds of really cool gadgets, like her Bluetooth braille display, which is a screen reader that raises pins on the display to form braille letters.
I left there with lots of reading material, and this book pictured here. This book is actually 'The Life and Work of Louis Braille'.
I will be making a donation to the CNIB when I return the book, to help and support this fantastic organization. If I win a ribbon, I promise to double it. :)
If you want to learn more about the CNIB or the celebration of 200 years since Louis Braille's birth, please visit www.cnib.ca, or www.braille200.ca!
Statistics
Place: 2 out of 116 Avg (all users): 6.5271 Avg (commenters): 8.6250 Avg (participants): 5.9211 Avg (non-participants): 6.6667 Views since voting: 4656 Views during voting: 325 Votes: 203 Comments: 24 Favorites: 2 (view)
Congratulations on your second place finish. Your entry was my pick for blue. This was a tough challenge to convey language, the use of your son's hand emphasizes the importance of teaching our children about language even at an early age. Braille is such an important language and is prevalent every where we look, unfortunately most people over look it's existence. Stevie Wonder used to leave his braille magazines on airplanes in hopes of capturing someone's attention. He even joked about leaving his Playboy magazines. Now there's a thought provoking idea.
I'd also like to highlight a comment by linustgl which read:
"overall I like this picture. the on thing that bothers me is the use of a child's hand. Probably not old enough to read a book like this."
You are absolutely 100% correct, and what an astute observation. It is my son's hand, and he is not quite 3 years old.. He has JUST started to understand the concept of reading. And considering this is an autobiography of Louis Braille, he certainly is too young for it.
I didn't get round to voting, but this one stood out for me as my pick for the blue so I'm so glad you got a ribbon, not least as it means the donation goes up ;-) Well done for the ribbon and a further well done for highlighting an important charitable cause :-)
Great idea and composition. My only real comment is that I would have liked to see the hand attempting to read the writing as a blind person would, rather than just resting on the book.
Celebrating 200 Years of Braille (1809-2009)
Add photograph to your favorites
Add photographer to your favorites
Photographer found comment helpful.
