The document discusses a toddler named Tommy interacting with and enjoying the SMART Brailler, a device that teaches braille through audio feedback when letters are typed. It also discusses the benefits of the SMART Brailler for both children who are blind and their sighted parents/teachers in learning braille. Families will have the opportunity to participate in a program where they can borrow and blog about their experiences using the SMART Brailler at home.

1. As easy as A, B, C: Toddler Tommy takes
on the SMART Brailler® – and proves
you’re never too young to learn
Also inside:
• The formula for successful
transition planning
• NDBEDP and iCanConnect.org
offer technology with training
• First-of-its-kind trip
offers up-close look at
Perkins’work in India
SPRING 2013
Perspectives

2. 20 PerkinsPerspectives PerkinsPerspectives 21
play with the Brailler, which features real-time
audio feedback when braille letters are typed.
“The sounds were hysterical to him. And he
was really hitting letters! He knows his ABCs,
so I felt like it was a meaningful connection
for him.”
The Kovacs family is the first of six families
participating in the Backpacking SMART
Brailler event: a program that gives parents
and children the opportunity to experiment
with the SMART Brailler at home for two
weeks and blog about the experience online
before shipping it off to the next family.
The program is an effort to introduce
families across the country to this cutting-
edge product, which combines a digital
screen and audio feedback for an interactive,
intuitive way to learn braille. The machine
announces each letter as it is typed, giving a
braille learner immediate confirmation as to
their accuracy or mistake.
For Tommy, who was not typing letters
intentionally, the audio feedback was a
completely new, exciting way to help him
make these connections.
“He hits an A, and it says ‘A.’ He hits an E, and
it says ‘E,’” said Amber Bobnar, founder of
WonderBaby.org, a Perkins partner that is
promoting the Backpacking SMART Brailler
program. “He’s just playing, but he’s getting
this immediate audio reinforcement of
what’s an A or an E.”
Once Kovacs realized that the SMART
Brailler talks back, she knew it was perfect
for Tommy. The toddler has Persistent Fetal
Vasculature syndrome, a condition in which
his eyes did not develop correctly before
birth. With the help of five surgeries on his
eyes, he now has some light perception.
Despite that gain, he still tosses aside silent
stuffed animals and prefers toys with music
and activity.
“He’s a mover and a shaker, that’s for sure,”
said Kovacs, who has been blogging about
her son and their experiences as a family at
ThomasMarshallDoesItAll.blogspot.com
since 2011. “He needs sounds, motion –
stuff going on. That’s why this Brailler was
so perfect.”
But Tommy wasn’t the only one hooked.
Kovacs, who is sighted and has been trying to
learn braille, discovered the SMART Brailler
was the solution to her struggle. The digital
screen gave her visual confirmation that she
had, indeed, brailled a sentence using the
correct punctuation and contractions.
“Before, I would worry about not getting it
right. Then how would I teach him?” said
Kovacs, who is already anticipating the
future when she’ll need to help Tommy
with homework and reading. “But with this
Brailler you have that comfort, knowing that,
yes, I did braille it correctly.”
The SMART Brailler can bridge the gap
between a child of any age who is blind and
a sighted parent or teacher, added Bobnar. A
child in a mainstream classroom, who works
with a specialized teacher for only a few
hours a week, can benefit from the audio
cues and encouragement. A parent who is
sighted and doesn’t know braille can check
the child’s homework with confidence.
And thanks to the Backpacking SMART
Brailler program, selected families will have
the chance this spring to discover the
benefits themselves.
“They get to interact with the Brailler one on
one and see what works,” said Bobnar.
Families interested in participating in the
program still have the chance to volunteer
by visiting WonderBaby.org/articles/back-
packing-smart-brailler-event. Households
must have a school-age child who is learning
or is expected to learn braille; have a blog or
website where they can post their experiences;
and share photos and video online of their
family using the Brailler.
And in case there wasn’t enough to like
about the SMART Brailler, the program offers
one more incentive: the chance to keep it.
Bobnar will post the participating families’
blog entries on WonderBaby.org, and readers
will have the chance to follow along and
ultimately vote for the family they believe
got the most out of it.
Now that she knows the SMART Brailler’s
benefits, the chance to win one is thrilling,
said Kovacs.
“The way Tommy got into it, I could really
see this as being something helpful for him,”
she said. “He really had fun with it.”
You can read more about Tommy’s
experience with the SMART Brailler by visiting
WonderBaby.org. To learn more about the
SMART Brailler, click on SmartBrailler.org.
B is for Brailler
Toddler’s encounter with Perkins SMART Brailler® is time well spent
When the box containing the Perkins
SMART Brailler® arrived at her Pittsburgh,
Penn., home last March, Jessica Kovacs
was more than a little skeptical. What, she
wondered, could her 3-year-old son
Tommy, who is blind, possibly do with this
technological machine?
She got her answer when the curious
preschooler quickly discovered that the
SMART Brailler talks back.
“He was hitting buttons and giggling,”
laughed Kovacs, recalling Tommy’s joyous
By REBECCA FATER
“He knows
his ABCs, so I
felt like it was
a meaningful
connection
for him.”
Jessica Kovacs

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Founded in 1829 as the nation’s first school for the blind, Perkins today impacts more than 600,000 individuals, including
infants and children in their homes; school-age students on campus and in the community; and children who are blind or
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