Braille Week House Appeal On July 30

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31108, 11 July 1966, Page 7

Braille Week House Appeal On July 30

The annual Braille Week house-to-house appeal will be held throughout New Zealand on Saturday, July 30. About 30,000 collectors are expected to take part in the appeal and reach most of the country’s two million and a half people.

“Partners in Blindness” is the theme of Braille Week this year, which ends with the house-to-house appeal. Of the many aids for the blind the one that has done most towards re-establishing the confidence of the older person is the Braille watch. The watch is available for wrist or pocket as a standard timepiece, but the cover can be flicked open and the position of the hands traced in relation to raised dots indicating each five minutes. For the blind person it is not only the ability to tell the time that matters, but the discovery that a limitation imposed by lack of sight can be overcome. This usually helps to create the desire to try other things. The Foundation for the Blind provides occupational therapy and adult education to further this desire. The creation of some article or the learning to read Braille or Moon Script continues the good work. Many a blind per-

son has discovered that all is not lost when sight has failed, but other, facilities can be developed and life still enjoyed. This work has been made possible through the institution of Braile Week.