Page 138 - The Exceptional Harley Fetterman

JUDY K JOHNSON

Figure 92: A thoughtful portrait of Harley, comfortable at
the very edge of Niagara Falls.

Incidentally, Harley also read a total of five books while his family
journeyed between predetermined destinations on this trip. As Beth
and Kevin navigated their way with maps from their google location
searches, Harley rode along preoccupied in the back seat. He was
busy reading Braille books, some he had on loan from Seedlings
Braille Books, a non-profit organization which offers free or low-cost
kids Braille books. They offer Print-Braille-and-Picture Books for
children under five and Print-and-Braille-Easy-Readers for kids 4-9
which are printed strictly in Braille.
Braille reading materials aare not easily identifiable to anyone not
familiar with Braille printing and binding. There are no colored titles
or illustrations—only thick, off-white papers embellished with
countless, protruding, punched dots covering each page. Even a short
story would be a thick volume of pages often held together with spiral
binding. At this age, Harley would also check out interesting kids'
books from the National Library Service (NLS) or even get books
brailled for him by Austin I.S.D. (As he grew older, he downloaded
books from Bookshare to his BrailleNote computer device.)

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