Members of the National Federation of the Blind know Barbara Pierce as the editor of the Braille Monitor. I had the opportunity to interview her while on a bus ride to the Jernigan Institute. As we bounced over bumps, and talked in rather loud voices to hear one another over the clammer, she told me the story of how she survived in college with just a tape player, a cane that reached only to her waste, and a slate and stylus!
Barbara has had retinitis Pigmentosa since age two. She attended a regular public school, and read print. It wasn’t until the summer of her seventh grade year that she learned Braille. However, the only book that she had available to her was a high school physics book. “It definitely was not an ideal situation for someone who had just learned to read Braille. When people are first learning to read they really need something that captures their interests,” she said.
Despite having limited access to Braille she was able to keep up her skills. While in college she changed majors several times and finally decided to pursue English, although she had disliked it in school. Through her college career she had only that Braille which she wrote for her own personal use’ mostly notes for classes. “In college I had the best notes of anyone in the class. I would take notes with my slate and then record them so that they would be coherent.
After graduating from college she married and pursued a career in English. She heard about the NFB while reading a magazine which ironically had been printing some disparaging things about the Federation. . It wasn’t until several years later when someone gave her a voluminous pile of recordings done by the NFB that she became engrossed in the work of the federation. “It was like finding a family that I didn’t know existed!” Barbara remembers. She attended her first convention in 1975 and hasn’t missed one since!
It was a great pleasure meeting Barbara and I hope as the week progresses that I can get to know her better!