Geek Central

I was recently walking through an outdoor shopping area in downtown St. Augustine, Florida and discovered the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum. The “museum” was a little alcove sandwiched between two stores, hardly big enough to call a room. It displayed letters from famous people protected by thick glass. One letter immediately caught my eye because the penmanship was so perfect and distinct. And that letter was written by Helen Keller. So, how is it that a blind person had neater handwriting than me?

Helen Keller learned handwriting at the Perkin’s School for the Blind in Watertown, MA, a suburb of Boston. She later learned braille and used a braille typewriter to write letters. To read and write letters rather than braille, the school used Tactile Text which are letters embossed in paper.  This post shows an example of a tactile book:

https://www.perkins.org/tactile-books/#:~:text=Samuel%20Gridley%20Howe%2C%20director%20of,and%20at%20the%20Pennsylvania%20Institute.

Here is an example of tactile letters combined with braille:

https://www.perkins.org/what-did-helen-keller-use-to-read-and-write/

Here is a YouTube video showing devices that blind people use to keep their writing in a straight line:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrk5fSUJA9o

Here is another YouTube video where a historian talks about Helen Keller learning to write:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIHFgYRKaCE