SAN ANTONIO – From Oregon to Maryland, and all across the country, students who are blind or visually impaired rely on San Antonio’s Braille Services Center for equal access to education materials.
The center is one of four centers in the U.S. that translates and produces books in Braille, so blind and visually impaired students have equal access to education materials. It is run by the Education Service Center Region 20, which oversees school districts in the San Antonio area.
“I had what they call now retinopathy of prematurity,” said Braille proofreader Mary Jeatran.
Jeatran has been blind since she was a baby, learning to read Braille when she was 7 years old.
The Braille books at her school for the blind fostered a love of reading.
“If I get a chance, I read leisurely at home, too!” Jeatran laughed.
Her busy days are spent proofreading school textbooks from history and anatomy to Spanish and pre-calculus.
“I just want to make sure everything’s just right for the student,” Jeatran said, explaining she knows firsthand the importance of accessibility.
“Everyone here is so positive, too,” she said of her tight-knit team that has worked together for years.
Jennifer Williamson leads the team as the Coordinator of Operation Services, and she said the scope of their work spans far beyond textbooks.
“Different states reaching out to us to help transcribe the state assessment testing,” Williamson said, “or we have banks or even menus, pamphlets, etc.”
Some of their top clients include amusement parks, transit authorities and hotel chains. However, their priority is Texas Education Agency school districts.
Inside the center’s library are 30 bays, containing thousands of books in Braille.
“Sometimes a blind or visually impaired student will need a book that’s already in the library, and it can be immediately sent to them,” Williamson said. “Sometimes, the team has to make a new book.”
Once a book arrives from the Texas Education Agency, it heads to a transcriber who uses software to convert the text and graphics into Braille.
Then, it is sent to Jeatran and her sighted teammate, who proofread every single word and graphic.
KSAT got an in-depth look at the process, as Mary read each word and symbol aloud, and her teammate followed along in the textbook.
Errors are rare, but KSAT was there when they caught one. Mistakes are then sent back to the transcribers.
Once the transcripts have no errors, it’s time to print.
Text is printed in Braille on one machine, and graphics are printed on a separate machine.
A third machine separates the pages, and a fourth machine transfers the graphics onto a thermoform material, which is stronger than paper.
The graphics are then inserted into the correct sections of the books.
“Then we get it all ready to go, put a label on it and send it to the LEA that ordered it,” Williamson said.
Each binder is a volume of a textbook, and there can be up to 100 volumes in a book, depending on the number of graphic elements.
“Imagine an anatomy book,” Williamson said. “That is a lot of diagrams and graphics.”
It’s a ton of work, but every member of the team said it’s worth it.
“It is fantastic!” Williamson said. “It’s really helping everyone.”
To blind and visually impaired students, Jeatran said, “Don’t give up, give it all you have, you can do it!”
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