A TUMBLE on the pavement in Grahamstown and a helping hand from a blind person was the catalyst that started South Africa’s first Braille newspaper.
Rhodes University journalism student Lisa Brigham told the Dispatch how she had walked past the South African Library for the Blind hundreds of times over the past three years without ever going inside.
But that all changed three months ago when she was walking along High Street.
“I tripped and fell and a blind person helped me up…I followed him into the library and that is how it all started.”
Although still in the pilot phase, it is hoped the three-way partnership between Brigham, the internationally acclaimed library, and South Africa’s oldest independent newspaper, Grocott’s Mail, could lead to similar collaborations with other community publications across the country.
Blind library production manager Karen Marechal said they had also been thinking of starting a Braille newspaper – when Brigham “walked in and kicked it off”.
“It was perfect timing. Lisa brought it all together brilliantly. She really got us motivated,” Marechal explained.
Marechal added that the job was made easier thanks to the enthusiasm and skills of the third-year student.
“It helps when someone who does journalism approaches you…we are hoping she will help us do it nationally.”
With three weekly editions already done, the biggest challenge is deciding on what content to select from the twice- weekly instalments of Grocott’s Mail – and condensing it into two A4 pages.
“At the moment the library is funding the paper as a pilot project for three months, but we do want to get sponsorship.
“Our long term plan is to do a national newspaper in Braille.”
And, just like newspapers for sighted people, the Braille version is also looking for advertising to help cover the much higher production costs involved in putting the weekly package together.
The 25 copies punched onto heavier quality paper costs R80 a time to produce two A4 pages – just for the paper.
The news is “summarised down” because Braille takes up more space than traditional words on the page .
Two pages of written news translate to five Braille pages if used word for word.
Grocott’s editor Steven Lang praised Brigham for taking the “initiative to produce a Braille version of Grocott’s Mail”.
“If this project becomes financially self- sustaining it will be fantastic – fantastic for the blind people in our community and fantastic for Grocott’s Mail.”
Besides the fledgling newspaper, the 90-year- old library turns 300 book titles into Braille a year and produces more than 700000 “printed” pages annually for the blind – free of charge.
It also transcribes 65 copies a month of the South African edition of Oprah Winfrey’s popular O Magazine into Braille .
Partially funded by government, the library stays afloat through donations. Noluvuyo Yona said she started working as a volunteer 10 years ago and was now a full- time staff member helping with the newspaper concept. “We are very excited about the Braille. Thanks to Lisa for coming along – it was perfect timing.”
Story by By DAVID MACGREGOR, Port Alfred Bureau
Picture Caption: Noluvuyo Yona, Section Head of the Braille Production Department (SA Library for the Blind) and Lisa Bingham, a Rhodes third year Journalism student at the printer used to print the braille version of Grocott's