In Seattle, what happens when funding cuts close a braille library?
Marci Carpenter reconnected with his love to read his fingers. When his vision became more limited, learning Braille gave him a new way of discovering the world. She always remembers how the words of Robert Frost’s poems returned through sweet bumps in relief on thick paper.
But it was the Washington Talking Book & Braille Library in Seattle that gave it a place to connect.
“It was the first time that I have known shelves and shelves of books in Braille. It was this really liberating experience, ”recalls Ms. Carpenter. Over the next five decades, she has repeatedly returned to browse the calendar of major baseball leagues, consult the Constitution – and science fiction – and discover new volumes.
Why we wrote this
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Braille and speaking book libraries are a life buoy for blind people. But budget cuts mean that these services face an uncertain future. How does staff work to help customers stay connected to reading, education and daily life?
Today, Ms. Carpenter, who is now president of the National Federation of Washington, faces a new urgent need.
On July 1, the doors of the Washington Talking Book & Braille library turned to the public for exploration and collection in person due to a lack of state financing. While the needs increases and the growth in revenues slows down, Washington’s state faces a budget deficit. Ms. Carpenter, who was one of those who worked with the legislators to ensure the funding of libraries, came empty -handed.
“We were not the only community whose services were cut,” she says. “There were a lot of programs that did not obtain funding this year.”
With some states in economically difficulty, more braille libraries and books could find themselves in the same way. In addition, the budget budget offered in 2026 includes screening for the services of the Institute of Museums and Libraries in the context of efforts to reduce government size. With the approval of the congress, by October 1, state subsidies can no longer be available to support libraries.
Hannah Goeke / The Christian Science Monitor
The Seattle Library is one of the nearly 100 libraries and awareness centers of the country which form the National Library Service network for the blind and printed disabled, which provides free braille and audio documents through the Congress Library.
A small staff is determined to operate the library. Since July 1, he has offered appointments by appointment only. “We receive our normal number of calls,” writes Danielle Miller, director of the library, in an email. “We had to refuse people who wanted to come and use the library, so physical closure had an impact on people wishing to visit or use the space.”
Customers say they are very saddened by this loss. Thanks to workshops in person and programming, the library offers a feeling of belonging and community. According to experts and educators. Reading is not a privilege, they say; It is a right.
“In fact, people told me that the library saved their lives because when they thought they could not read, they became very depressed,” explains Ms. Carpenter. “When they discovered … All the resources available, it really gave them hope.”
According to the National Braille Press in Boston, the vast majority of 26% of the blind are Braille readers. However, despite the reading of Reading with higher education and employment in the United States, only 12% of blind children in school age in the United States can read the Braille, estimates the NBP.
Although recorders-magnetophones and synthesized speeches are useful tools, they do not teach the possibility of reading, writing and speaking, explains Kim Charlson, executive director of the Perkins library in Watertown, Massachusetts.
“Why do you need to learn Braille?” I often challenge people and I will say, “Well, why do you need to learn the impression?” “, Explains Ms. Charlson, who lost her sight when she was a child.
Hannah Goeke / The Christian Science Monitor
Braille opens the door to independence, not only on a large scale but also in small ways. What is usual for lights becomes an important obstacle for the blind, explains Ms. Charlson. For example, be able to note a phone number, take a note or create labels to find the guarantee of your new stove.
Ms. Charlson shares a lesson she learned about the daily importance of using the Braille after adding an unconventional ingredient to her Chile recipe.
“I just opened it and launched it. I added my tomato sauce, ”she said laughing. “My husband [who is also blind] took a bite and said, “It’s a bit interesting”. And I said, “What do you mean? It’s chili. And he says, “Well, there is a fruit cocktail.” »»
Ms. Charlson now adds braille labels to her pots and kitchen cans.
Although the financing of uncertainty has braille libraries at the forefront, at the National Braille Press, President Brian Mac Donald said that the request for Braille books remains high. He expects it to continue.
“It is a shame that few people have learned the Braille, but I don’t think it disappears,” said Mac Donald. “We have parents who wrote testimonies that say:” I would have liked you to see the excitement of my son when he read his first book with us … in Braille. »»
Hannah Goeke / The Christian Science Monitor
During a recent day of the week, the NBP presses are buzzing, as usual, in a brown-Pierre building in the Fenway district of Boston. In the basement, Elizabeth Bouvier links books with the precision practiced as the rhythmic clicking of the machines pressing on thick paper resonates concrete walls.
Ms. Bouvier is blind. The same goes for many of his NBP colleagues, where a small staff produces millions of Braille pages each year, including children’s books.
The closure of the Seattle library means the trigger for the room of its children. It also means the end of the Braille introduction workshops and hours of history with children’s books featuring added Braille pages that allow blind children and seen to read together.
“These services are so essential, that they are much more than reading and pleasure. For many people, [library programs are] A life buoy. It is health, it is well-being, it is well-being, it is the link with the world, ”says Ms. Miller.
Like many, Ms. Carpenter was the only blind child in her public school. The closure of the children’s room “is a loss of community,” she says. “It is important for blind children to meet other blind children.”
The reception boxes of Ms. Miller and Ms. Carpenter were flooded with requests for information on how people can help. Ms. Carpenter tells them to wait until the right time. When the financing of talks for the next state budget cycle will start in 2026, it is no doubt that the blind community will present itself in large numbers to explain why access to the services of the library is essential to them.
“You know that the most impactful action that people have is their story,” she says. “Everyone can ask to speak with a legislator.”
