Braille essay a winner for Mansfield resident

Timothy Vernon

The Sun Chronicle, Monday, January 12, 2009
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MANSFIELD - A Mansfield resident will be honored for an essay he wrote about his experience using Braille as part of a Statehouse ceremony on Wednesday.

Timothy Vernon, son of former state Rep. Bill Vernon, will receive a $100 award from the Perkins School for the Blind for his essay "Braille: A Special Gift." The award is part of Perkins' Braille & Talking Book Library's essay contest, which asked contestants to explain "How Braille Has Made an Impact on My Life."

Vernon and two other award recipients will be honored at a State House ceremony to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Louis Braille's birth.

The ceremony will begin at 2 p.m. on the Grand Staircase.

Blind since birth, Vernon says learning braille allowed him to "be on an equal playing field" in the Mansfield public schools. It also allowed him to make the dean's list each semester at Fitchburg State College, where he earned a degree in communications. Braille has also made a difference at NSTAR Electric and Gas in Westwood where Vernon, a customer service representative, uses it to take notes.

"Audio information is an excellent medium, but it does not provide the independence offered by braille," he writes in his essay. "As a student who is blind, my knowledge of braille allowed me to read with classmates, share stories with other children, and complete homework assignments independently On a professional level, fluency in braille helps me compete with my sighted colleagues."

Perkins School for the Blind, the nation's first school for the visually impaired, is one of several organizations marking the Jan. 4, 1809, birth of Louis Braille, the inventor of the braille alphabet used by blind and visually impaired persons the world over.