American Printing House for the Blind

American Printing House for the Blind
I spent several hours taking a tour at this fascinating place.

They begin in the lobby to show how much a part of the city of Louisville they are:

On this list of wonderful things Louisville has contributed to American life, this printing house is ranked #9.  You might want to blow up the list to see some of the surprising things they claim for Louisville's own.










The historical marker on the left explains the importance of the printing house; the one on the right explains the history of the School for the Blind immediately next door.

This printing house, a private non-profit organization, is the official publisher of aids for the blind for all US states and territories, a substantial reach.

I guess the main reason I was interested in coming here is that my mom spent thousands of hours over nearly 25 years volunteering for Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic, which records school textbooks for the reading-impaired.  This place is focused on producing materials for people with vision problems who need help in (figuratively) navigating publications and (literally) navigating walking around town and living an ordinary life.

Of course they show basic information about some of the various causes of vision impairment.  It can be caused not only by a birth defect, but by anything that disrupts an image from making its way to the brain.  Traumatic injuries after birth, such as Shaken Baby Syndrome, are an example of a disruption.  Louis Braille himself was blinded as a child by an accident with a tool in his father's leatherworking shop.  (I didn't realize there was an actual person named Braille, though I guess I should have.)

Braille was born in 1809 in France and was saved from a life of poverty (due to his blindness) by having a good brain.

The photo at left is a timeline of developments in education of the blind, including Louis Braille.

This sign (right) compares the Barbier Code, using 12 dots, with the 6-dot modified system Braille came up with.  Because Braille's code is more flexible, has less to memorize, and is easier to use, it was eventually adopted everywhere.

But that didn't happen quickly.  By the early 1900s, there were at least 5 modifications of Braille's original code in use.  A dominant one in US schools was called the New York Point system (having originated in NY).

The problem for an average reader was in needing to know all these various systems because a book could be printed in any of them.  It would be as if when I went to the library, I'd need to know French and Italian and Polish to be able to read the various books I wanted.

In 1892, a new kind of printing machine began to change the situation.  This machine printed the New York Point system, and for a while it was the most widely used.  However, in 1910, the American Printing House (where I was) voted to print half its books in American Braille.  And in 1917, talks between the US and England to establish a unified English language system broke down, and the Americans decided on a Revised American Braille System, which is what's in use today.

The innovations have been remarkable.  They included this 1915 printing machine (below) that allowed blind people to operate it and go through emerging computer technology, where IBM partnered with the printing house to computerize translation of ordinary English into Braille.

using a keypunch to translate into Braille

1915 printer

advances in materials for the blind

Advances weren't limited to Braille materials.  In 1913, for instance, an Ohio company began to produce books in large print, reasoning they would help low-vision students attend mainstream schools.  Of course, now all kinds of books are produced in large print editions - mysteries, biographies - it's not limited to textbooks.

Another innovation was what we now think of as Talking Books - books recorded on audio equipment.  The American Printing House produces a number of these books, much as Recordings for the Blind does.  Part of the tour included showing me their recording and proofreading studios being used while I was there.

The printing house produces much more than books now.  They recognized the need for blind people to have aids that would allow them to live full lives within the community - something they call orientation and mobility (O&M).  The street plan at right that they produce helps a person who has never been able to see understand what a street is, what an intersection is, what a roundabout is, and how to navigate through them.

skeleton teaching aid

it looks just as intimidating to me with Braille dots added

gives new meaning to having the world at your fingertips

The machines on the right are various ways to use computer chips to read and listen to recorded materials.

The machine at left produces Braille letters on the center pad as it "reads" something, so the blind reader can read without it being produced as a separate Braille document.  I've seen a fancy version of this in movies - Sneakers, for instance (a Redford movie).

Talking Books, by the way, were originally produced on vinyl records, then on cassettes, and now (skipping CDs altogether) on flash drives.  They are available on loan or for sale from the National Library Service for the Blind, a part of the Library of Congress.  These "books" can be used by anyone who is print-disabled, including those who can't hold a book for one reason or another.

The Blind Boys of Alabama

information about hymnals for the blind

The exhibit on music makes the point that though blind people often have an increased ability to hear, they don't necessarily have an increased ability to sing.  Music is as important to them as to anyone, and hymnals help them participate more fully in daily life.  (Again, not something I'd ever thought of.)

Using a cane to help navigate in the world seems obvious to us now but was yet another technique that developed slowly.  The printing house has an exhibit explaining how that happened, and a similar one about guide dogs.

Per Wikipedia, the dog's handler is like an airplane's navigator who knows how to get from one place to another, and the dog is like the pilot that gets them there safely.

development of guide dog use

guide dog at work

development of cane use by the blind

a convenience the early users
of canes never dreamed of

Helen Keller's 1947 desk and photos of her

explains the safe

gorgeous safe used by the printing house

The printing house and next-door School for the Blind are in an established residential neighborhood in Louisville.  There are sidewalks on both sides of the street for pedestrians.  But the street is a main thoroughfare and there's a railroad track nearby, so this is not an easy area for a blind person to navigate, though it certainly gives them practice in the real world.

There's a great deal more information presented on this tour than I was able to really appreciate.  Innovations such as figuring out how to print Braille dots on both sides of a piece of paper, for instance.  It all developed slowly over time, making life for a vision-impaired person today far easier than in the past.  Nonetheless, this place gave me a real appreciation for what my eyesight does for me, and how very much more difficult life is for people who can't see it.  I hope mine holds out for another 35 years.