POLISH NATIONAL ELECTRONIC BRAILLE CONTEST

Płock, Poland, 9 April 2016

The Polish national final event of the "International Braille Contest 2016 for the Visegrad blind community" was held in Płock, 9th April 2016, at the Training and Conference Center of Hotel Herman. The contest is co-financed by the International Visegrad Fund and is organized by the partnership of NGOs from Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. 

"De Facto" Association is the leader of the partnership. The project Partners are the following: 1) Sjednocená organizace nevidomých a slabozrakých České republiky (Czech Republic) 2) Fond pomoci, Občianske združenie (Slovakia) 3) Informatika a látássérültekért Alapítvány (Hungary). Two companies are sponsors of the contest: Harpo from Poland and Spektra from the Czech Republic.

The aim of the contest is to promote the knowledge of Braille and encourage the use of Braille IT devices in education. Contestants compete using iPhones and BraillePen 12 T in 4 disciplines: reading, editing, dictation and sending messages via e-mail. The Polish final was attended by Maciej Kapczyński, Mariusz Koczorowski, Maciej Malecki, Aneta Pińkowska and Małgorzata Wiecha.

The results of the Polish national final event of the "International Braille Contest 2016 for the Visegrad blind community" are as follows:

1st place - Małgorzata Wiecha 2nd place ex aequo – Maciej Kapczyński and Mariusz Koczorowski 3rd place - Aneta Pińkowska 4th place - Mariusz Malecki

Mrs. Małgorzata Wiecha – the winner of the Polish national final event said: "In my opinion, the number of such competitions, which "call” directly for Braille is still too low. The Braille has been used by the blind for many years. With the ability to use this alphabet, blind people can read fluently, write correctly, and what is most important, are able to learn and discover the secrets of spelling, immersing themselves in the correct Polish language. Stylus and slate get, unfortunately, already forgotten. Big volumes of Braille are rarely present at our homes and Braille libraries are usually far away. We read a lot of books in audio format. This is a good solution and I like it as well, but every now and then it’s good to have something under your fingers. First of all to be able to write correctly, secondly in order to feel the taste of smooth reading and finally to be able to cope with acquisition of foreign languages, etc. Therefore, the idea of making the blind acquainted with IT devices, encouraging them to use Braille monitors, which makes the same old Braille served in a different way more attractive, deserves a medal.”