Offenders are Learning Skills to Help the Visually Impaired

Developing production skills and a work ethic in offenders while providing valuable services to state agencies and Texas school districts at a reduced cost is one of the goals of Texas Correctional Industries, which is a department within the agency.

Since 1999, female offenders at the Mountain View Unit have transcribed textbooks into Braille for visually-impaired students across Texas and the nation.

All Texas textbooks must have a Braille version which includes tactile graphics by order of the Texas Education Agency. With such a demand, there is a curriculum to teach offenders Braille and tactile graphics.

They begin by learning the Braille alphabet and typing on a Perkins Braillewriter. This instrument is similar to an old manual typewriter except it only has six keys to represent the six cells that make up Braille.

Once students have mastered it, they advance to computers with software that enables them to work faster and more efficiently.

Nearly 100 offenders annually produce approximately 160,000 pages of Braille and tactile graphics at the Mountain View Braille Facility in Gatesville which has become one of the largest prison Braille programs in the country.

Upon release, there are opportunities for former offenders to become self-employed as Braille transcriptionists, as well as opportunities to work for existing Braille providers throughout the nation.

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