Tasha Chemel is a blind artist and writer. She is currently pursuing her Master’s degree at Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she will study adolescent literacy and creative writing. She also hopes to develop innovative opportunities for  blind people to participate in visual culture. Her poems have been published in Barking Sycamores, Subliminal Interiors, Elephant Journal, and Wordgathering.

When I mention that I am a visual learner, even though I am blind, most sighted people give me the verbal equivalent of a raised eyebrow. But if you’re blind, you might know exactly what I mean. Is it easier and more enjoyable for you to read a book in Braille or using text to speech, rather than an audio book? Do you prefer reading tactile maps to listening to auditory directions? If you answered yes to either of those questions, you’re probably a visual learner, too. You might be wondering why I call text-to-speech visual, when it is clearly auditory.

When I was in elementary and middle school, I was totally fine using audiobooks as sources for reports and presentations. But as texts grew more complex, I realized that I preferred using Braille because I had much more control over how I interacted with a text. For example, I could pause on a particular word and concentrate on its spelling. In addition, as I used text-to-speech more, I and more, and at faster and faster rates, I found that I could exercise that same level of control. There is something about being able to scroll through a text document or a Webpage, letter by letter and word by word, that makes this kind of listening feel more like visual reading.

In fact, according to a recent study, ultra-fast text-to- speech comprehension activates the primary visual cortex in blind people. That article would have come in handy a few years ago, when I had to convince the disability services office at Boston College that listening to a textbook on tape and having a screenereader read it to you are very different experiences. Another area where my visual learning style made itself known was my preference for tactile maps.

For eight years, I was lucky to have Beezy Bentzen as my orientation and mobility teacher. Beezy was my only mobility instructor who knew Braille. Often, when she described a route, she’d use a Braille cell as a reference point. She might say something like, “These two hallways look like a V. Right now, you’re at the dot 3 of the V.” She also quickly discovered that tactile maps helped me conceptualize my surroundings, from my elementary school lobby to T-intersections. Unfortunately, after Beezy retired, there was a long period of time in which I did not have access to tactile maps, and my travel skills deteriorated as a result.

For the first time in my life, I was able to form a comprehensive map of an area that spanned about eighteen blocks.

It was not until I left Smith College and started my junior year at Brown University that I was given a tactile map once again. Though she was not trained as a mobility instructor, my friend Shlomiya intuitively knew the best way to orient me to campus. Using a tracing wheel to draw raised lines, she created a tactile map that was spread over five pages. Each page was a different section of campus, but from the Brailed explanations she gave, it was easy to see how all the pieces fit together.

For the first time in my life, I was able to form a comprehensive map of an area that spanned about eighteen blocks. This was a huge accomplishment for me. I had been told early in life that I was a route traveler (a person who can only utilize set routes), as opposed to an area traveler (a person who can orient and problem- solve without having learned a specific route). Shlomiya’s map empowered me to see past these limiting assumptions.

My story illustrates why a product like the inTACT Sketchpad is so invaluable for blind students and the people who work with them. If all of my mobility teachers had had access to the sketchpad, they would have been able to produce tactile maps cheaply and efficiently. All students need opportunities to get to know themselves as learners, and part of this process is exposure to a wide range of instructional tools. Blind students are no exception. That is why I am so supportive of E.A.S.Y.’s mission to increase graphical fluency in children who are blind. If you are blind, have you ever thought of yourself as a visual learner? Have you ever used tactile maps? How were they helpful or not helpful? Let us know in the comments!

Image Source: The Blindo Diaries