Rhianna Wins Braille Challenge Second Time Around!
August 2008
Golf may have Tiger Woods but we have Rhianna, who won her second Braille Challenge
Championship in Los Angeles on June 28th. Rhianna, who is supported by her vision teacher Beth
Newman, is moving on to grade 7 this fall in Campbell River. She is a very enthusiastic and committed student.
Rhianna offered the following insights on preparing for, and attending the event:
The National Braille Challenge is a competition for visually impaired students from grades 1 to 12 from all over the United States and Canada. About 500 entries were sent in to the Braille Challenge and the top 12 or 13 students in each of the 5 levels were invited to the finals. The levels are: grades 1 and 2, grades 3 and 4, grades 5 and 6, grades 7, 8, 9 and grades 10, 11, and 12.
The Braille Challenge takes part in 2 stages. The first stage is the preliminary contest which you can do in your hometown. The top 12 or 13 students in each level, which is 60 in all, are invited to attend the finals in Los Angeles, California. I was invited to go and compete in the finals this year. My level was Sophomore, which is grades 5 and 6.
There are 4 contest categories that I had to compete in: Reading Speed and Comprehension, Speed and Accuracy, Proofreading and Spelling. For the preliminary contest, each exam lasted 25 minutes. In the finals, each exam lasted 50 minutes.
For Reading Speed Comprehension, you are given a few stories you to read. There are 10 multiple choice questions after each story.
For proofreading, in each question, you are given a paragraph with one or more mistakes in it that you have to identify. The mistake could be contraction, punctuation, spelling or grammar mistakes.
For speed and accuracy, you listen to an audio story and type it down on the Perkins brailler. To pause and play the tape, you press a foot pedal. This exam was hard in my hometown because my vision teacher couldn't find a workable foot pedal because nobody uses them anymore.
Spelling was the easiest exam for me to write. The proctor calls out the words and you have 30 seconds to write each word in uncontracted and contracted braille. There are about 100 words but you only get to about 70 or 75. These exams all have time limits.
The finals happen on the last Saturday in June. On the Friday night before, there is a welcome dinner for all the contestants. They usually have a special guest there. This year's special guests were Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. In the past, it has been a TV star or a singer.
On Saturday morning, you take a shuttle to the Braille Institute, where you take the tests. In the morning, there is an opening ceremony for all the contestants. Each group marches up to the stage and sits down in their row. When everyone is seated, we sing the American National Anthem and the Canadian National Anthem. The University Pipe Band plays the music for the anthems. During the day, the contestants take their exams.
That night, in the hotel where all the contestants stay, there is an awards banquet. It is pretty fancy.
At the banquet, there is always a special guest to hand out the awards. This year's guest was Mark Hamill, also known as Luke Skywalker. He is also the voice of the Joker on the Batman cartoon.
In each category, there are 3 winners. They announce the 3rd place winner first. It was very exciting when Mark Hamill announced my name for first place. When I won, I walked on to the stage and got a picture taken with Mark Hamill. I also got a trophy that said: Sophomore - First Place
After the awards banquet, my parents had to sign a lot of papers and I received my Pac Mate.
Because of donations, the two dinners and the hotel room are free. You can also fundraise in your hometown for the plane fare. I was lucky enough to receive donations from a few service groups and my school PAC (Parent Advisory Council).
To prepare for the Braille Challenge, I read a lot, studied words in a braille dictionary and a dictionary of Braille symbols and rules that my Vision Teacher made me and she quizzed me on grammar rules and gave me practice tests.
The Braille Challenge was lots of fun. I think lots of other kids would enjoy it too.
Images used by permission - Courtesy of Lisa Fletcher, Braille Institute Photographer