Local Middle Schooler Competes in National Braille Challenge

publication date: Jun 23, 2008

 | 

author/source: Jamie Woodhead / STAFF

By Jamie Woodhead / STAFF

Twelve-year-old Aubrie Lucas is a lover of books. She reads as often as she can, and she especially loves the Harry Potter series. A few nights ago, she stayed up until 6 a.m. reading her newest novel in complete darkness. Does Aubrie have a superhuman power that lets her see without any light? No. In fact, Aubrie cannot see at all.

Aubrie Lucas is a talented and passionate reader of braille, which she assures me, is much easier than people think. She is so good, in fact, that the rising seventh-grader from Holcomb Bridge Middle School is participating in the national Braille Challenge, a two part academic contest for braille readers.

Blind students from 35 states first competed in the preliminary contest earlier in the year. The contest has five academic levels. The top 12 students in each academic level who performed the best in the preliminary round were notified that they were chosen to participate in the final part of the contest on June 28 in Los Angeles. Lucas received a letter notifying her that she would be one of the 12 students in the sophomore group, which is made up of fifth- and sixth-graders.

Lucas and her family were not shocked when they learned that Aubrie had advanced to the finals of the contest. Lucas came in third place in 2006 for her academic level, and in 2005 she was a finalist as well.

“I’m only a little nervous this year,” she explained. “But I might have a chance at winning the sophomore group because I’m in the oldest grade of group. So I think I have a better chance than if I was in fifth grade in this group.”

Aubrie, along with one of her sisters and her mother Bonnie, suffers from congenital glaucoma; she was born blind. There are no pity parties, however, at the Lucas home. Bonnie Lucas described how she resists feeling sorry for herself.

“I’d love to be able to see, but I can’t. And I have 2 choices,” she said. “I can say, ‘Woe is me, I can’t do anything.’ Or I can say ‘Hey, I can make this as pleasurable as possible and go on living like everyone else.’ I’d rather be happy than unhappy. I rarely get down about being blind anymore. It’s just not worth it. It takes away from the time I can spend being productive.”

Aubrie and her mother do not think of blindness as a disability; they see it as just one of their characteristics. “All of us have characteristics that makes our lives a little more difficult,” stated Mrs. Lucas. “Sometimes being blind is a pain, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t find ways to work through our situations. Our goal is to find ways to make things work as smoothly as possible. We just do whatever it takes to make our lives as on par with everyone else as we can.”

New advancements in technology have allowed Aubrie and other blind people to lead more successful and easy lives. In school, Aubrie downloads assignments onto her BrailleNote, a braille note-taker with a word-processor and daily planner. At home she and her mom surf the web, check e-mail, and shop on-line with the help from Jaws, computer software that talks. Technology is very different from when Mrs. Lucas was in school.

“Now, as a mom I make sure that she is doing what the other kids are doing at school – that no excuses are being made, that no one is saying that an assignment is too difficult for her. If there’s not a book that they have, we find a way to get her that book. Technology has come a long way.”

Mrs. Lucas felt proud that Aubrie is one of the top 12 fifth and sixth grade braille readers in the country. She saw the competition as “pretty exciting. Sometimes sight kids have things they compete at. It’s great to see that braille has been given such high status. Sometimes in the past braille was seen as tedious. People don’t see it as truly remarkable and a way for blind people to be on a level playing field with sight people.”

Even if Aubrie wins, she does not want a party. She would prefer just to come home and relax with a good book.