WDH gives Braille group new home

Published by Richard Lord for Wakefield & District Housing in Education and also in Communities, Health, Housing, Local Government

A community group that translates the written word into Braille for blind people has been given a new place to hold their workshops after they were forced to leave their previous venue.

The Braille Guild, which meets twice weekly in Featherstone, West Yorkshire, to convert children’s books, greetings cards, instruction manuals and exam revision material into Braille, have been invited to use Wakefield and District Housing's (WDH) facilities free of charge for their weekly meeting.

The group has been translating for nearly 30 years and is made up of 20 volunteers that use special typewriters to convert literature of any kind into a format that can be read by the blind.

With nowhere to go, WDH approached them to say they could use their community centre at the Halfpenny Lane Independent Living Scheme. Group secretary May Nock said the offer was a ‘godsend’.

"We’ve been going a long time and there are no other groups in the region that do the kind of work we do,” says Mrs Nock, 76. “Everyone who works for us is a volunteer and we exist entirely on donations.

“We work hard to secure grants to buy materials and look after our equipment. Each typewriter we use to translate books into Braille costs £500 so we’re not in a position to pay rent as well.

“For WDH to offer us their facility free of charge is a godsend. It means everything to us because otherwise we really would be out on the streets with nowhere to go.”

The Braille Guild trains volunteers how to translate books into customised learning material for the blind – placing the Braille over pictures so that carers are still able to help the reader with troublesome words.

Val Trickey, WDH Scheme Manager at Halfpenny Lane, said: “Reading brings a lot of pleasure to people and it’s great that volunteers of this group are willing to spend their free time translating literature for the blind to enjoy.

“There are a lot of people who use the group so the least WDH could do was to support them in continuing their good work and we are delighted to help in this way.”