Read with great sensitivity
Lisa Vogel studied departmental journalism with a focus on medicine and biosciences at Ansbach University and deepened her journalistic knowledge in the master's degree in multimedia information and communication. This was followed by a traineeship in the editorial team. Since September 2020 she has been writing as a freelance journalist for
More posts by Lisa Vogel All content is checked by medical journalists.Learning to read anew: Heidi Böhm teaches Braille. In doing so, she helps people to discover their sensitivity in their fingers. A self-experiment.
It is dark. A thick sleeping mask robs me of my eyesight. My hands are resting on the pages of an open book. I have to search until I feel the first line, the first character on the paper. I feel the little raised points under my index finger. I cannot say for sure whether there are two or three of each other.
“We don't read with our fingertips, but with the big package on the bottom,” says Heidi Böhm in a calm voice. “That's where most of the nerve tracts run. You can only feel all points if you lay your finger flat on the paper, that is, gently breathe over it. "
The 64-year-old has been helping blind people to read with their hands for 22 years. She gives lessons in Braille. For six months, two hours a week - that's about how long it takes to get the basics right. Today I'm getting my first lesson.
Six point code
Braille, also known as Braille, is a point system. A letter is made up of a maximum of six points. The points are arranged in three lines of two points each - like the six on a dice. Top left is point 1, below point 2, below point 3. Top right is accordingly point 4, below 5 and bottom right is point 6.
Each letter has its own code. If only the point at the top left is raised, this is an “A”. If the one below is also to be touched, this means “B”.
It is not easy for me to properly sense the closely related points. It takes practice to feel whether there are two or three points below each other. After a few lines my fingers become more dexterous.
From the battlefield to everyday life
The 16-year-old Frenchman Louis Braille developed Braille in 1825. As a toddler, he injured his eye and became blind. There was no braille at the time. Those who could not see received books for the blind with tactile letters. But to read like this is extremely difficult.
“Louis Braille was intelligent. He knew that soldiers back then had a system of tactile points, ”says teacher Böhm. This enabled them to read messages without having to light a lantern. Braille simplified this so-called night writing to the six-point system. The advantage: each letter can be read with just one finger.
Photoreceptor cells slowly die
I hear Heidi Böhm's fingers glide quickly over the thick paper. Before about eight she was completely blind herself. She has cone-rod dystrophy. Pigments are deposited on the back of the eye. The light-sensitive visual cells of the retina, the so-called cones, therefore gradually no longer function.
The cause of the disease is a genetic defect. At the age of about eleven, Heidi Böhm began to feel the first signs. “At some point in school I couldn't see the blackboard properly, even if I was sitting in the front row,” she recalls. The term retinal degeneration was used for the first time in an eye clinic.
The darkness crept in
Heidi Böhm therefore dealt with the aids for blind people from an early age and learned Braille. “I think reading and writing are skills that everyone should master,” she says.
When the Bavarian Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired was looking for volunteer teachers for braille 22 years ago, she created a lesson plan. Six people came to the first course - and learned to read again. Since then she has continued to work as a teacher.
Over the years, her eyesight deteriorated. At last she could only make out outlines. Then eight years ago it finally got dark. "I've always pushed the thought of that away from me." Even though she knew the day was coming, the darkness was still a shock. “I was surprised how much it threw me off track,” she says.
A lot of instinct
While Heidi Böhm is talking, I continue to feel my way across the paper. The longer the lesson, the faster my fingers slide over the little bumps. “You have to feel the dots, recognize the formation and then line up the letters you have read to recognize the word,” says Heidi Böhm. This makes me sweat a lot.
Although she can't see anything, she can correct my hand position. A quick touch is enough for her to see if my fingers are right.
Technical helpers
“It's 4:00 p.m.,” an electronic voice interrupts the silence. It comes from Heidi Böhm's watch. In a world without eyesight, a few technical helpers are useful. She holds a color recognition device with a small camera to her clothes in the morning. The device announces the color of the garment. "Today it said‘ bright red ’to my sweater," says Böhm.
Heidi Böhm can take notes in Braille using a rectangular template. With practiced fingers, she clamps a sheet of paper into the plastic template. The template specifies the six points for a letter. With a kind of pen, she then presses the dot code for the correct letter into the paper. It takes time.
“The blindness doesn't really limit me, but since I can't see anything, it takes me much longer for everything,” says Böhm.
Back to the job
“Among others, blind people come to me who are still working and who cannot or do not want to go to retraining,” she says. Your students depend on being able to continue reading and writing - even when they can no longer see. You have to learn to use the computer with tools. A so-called Braille line, for example, transmits the letters on the screen in Braille. You can not only have e-mails and websites read aloud to you, but also check the spelling of the words.
At the end of the lesson I recognize four letters. “But”, “Ball”, “Laab” - I can read a handful of short words with it. But for that I have to concentrate as hell. After an hour I can take off the blindfold. Little by little, my eyes get used to the light again. To my surprise, the raised dots on the paper are significantly larger than they just felt. My instincts obviously still have room for improvement.
Further information can be found on the website of the Blind and Visually Impaired Association of Bavaria (www.bbsb.org)
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