Why I Love Braille - Kelly Barton

And to finish off the "Why I Love Braille" mini series for National Braille Week, let's hear from my friend Kelly Barton. I connected with Kelly on Twitter after launching Dotty and then she invited me to become a volunteer for Greater Manchester Sight Loss Council, where she is the Engagement Manager for the North West.

I have so much love for Kelly, she's so funny and friendly, and so super coordinated with her colourful canes, breaking the myth that canes must be white. I'm actually going to copy her when I've had cane training and get a pink one hehe!

Kelly leaning against a wall with 10 different coloured canes next to her.

She's recently ran ANOTHER marathon in Berlin, she's completed over 250 park runs (one of which was untethered!) and in 2023, she married her guide runner, Mike. I've just been reading about this again whilst creating this blog post and I still get choked up haha, I'm a sucker for a love story! I've added some links at the end so you can read more about this and watch a very funny video of Kelly and Mike having a race!

Kelly and Mike getting married, Kelly is wearing a pale pink wedding gown and Mike is placing the ring on her finger, both are smiling and look very happy.

Now let's hand over to Kelly...

I've always been severely sight impaired so I learned braille when I was little, I'm now registered blind and braille for me is empowering, it gives me independence, for instance in my job role, I'm able to deliver presentations more easily because I can have all my notes in braille, that is the best way for me.

I also find it handy around the house, when I'm trying to locate the correct medication, because I have different inhalers and things like that, so when I'm looking at the boxes, I can just read them myself and know that I've got the right thing. I can find paracetamol and all those things, it's just so useful for me.

I would love to see more braille around, it gives you such independence but also I love it when somebody gives me anything with braille on, I'm always really excited about it because you don't get it all the time.

A couple of weeks ago, I did a 5k event in London and it was an inclusive event, and at the end they gave you a medal with braille on and I thought that was brilliant, it made it feel like it was genuinely inclusive because I could read some aspects of that medal myself.

It's important in all areas of life and in ways that people might not ever think about.