Tracy Bundy
Transcription
Please tell us about yourself.
I'll start off with my name, I am Tracy Bundy. I am a, originally from Lake City, South Carolina. I have been visually impaired or blind... well, I have some usable vision but not enough to make a whole lot of difference. I've been a braille reader all my life. I went to public schools in Florence through the Project Share program, and after high school, I went to Newberry College, got my undergraduate degree there, then I went to the University of South Carolina and got my Master’s in Special Education with the emphasis on vision. And,then right after I got out of college, I got married, and I have two kids, and I have been teaching: this is my 13th year, and I taught at Creighton Middle School which is in Richland School District One here in Columbia ever since then.
Today, in your day-to-day life, what's your experience with braille?
Braille has always been there, from the get-go that's what I learned. I have, like I said, I have some vision but it was basically enough to make me think I can see better than I could. I'll turn my head to the side because I don't see straight ahead, all the vision I have is peripheral vision, and basically no color vision: I can tell if something is lighter or darker than something else, and it was never enough to read any kind of print, so I started braille when I was in kindergarten and people ask me all the time, you know, "How'd you learn braille?" I honestly cannot remember, it's just always been such an integral part of what I've done that I don't remember the process and even, you know, from a teacher’s point of view, "Well how did you do it?", and looking at the way I teach my kids I really cannot make myself think back and figure out. I remember some things we did, but I don't know the whole process, I don't remember it. But it has always been there, and it's always been something that I have always loved.
One of my favorite stories to tell is I used to come home from school and I’d have my papers with braille on ’em and I would scatter them all over my grandmother’s living room floor, and I’d tell her not to come in the living room because she was stepping on my students. And at five years old, I told her I was teaching my students, and so it's just I've known basically since then that I wanted to teach.
Got a little sidetracked along the way, decided that I couldn't do that as I got older, you know you have these thoughts, "Oh my gosh, no, I can't do that; I cannot go into a classroom with all these sighted kids, or you know, whatever the situation may be, I cannot do that. Tracy you're crazy, you don't want to do it," then you start thinking, "Well, yes, that is really what I wanna do, why can’t I do it? And then, when I hit high school, my senior year in high school as matter of fact, I took Teacher Cadets cuz I was still on that track. I was scared to death, but I still wanted to teach, and I really wanted to teach braille, but then I decided no maybe I want to teach English, no maybe I want to teach history, you know, I was wavering all around on what I wanted to teach, but teaching was still there.
And then I met Marty McKenzie. He was doing his student teaching at the same time I was doing Teacher Cadets; we did it with the same teacher as a matter of fact. And I started looking and I was like "Wait a minute, he can't see much better than I can. He's doing exactly what I want to do, well why in the world can’t I do it?", but then I still had those little doubts, so I went on to Newberry College after high school, and I got my degree in history with a minor in political science. I said, "I’m going to law school. I don't know that I can do this teaching stuff, but I can stand up in front of a court room and run my mouth all day long." Then I went as far as to taking the LSAT to get into law school now I said, "Tracy, what are you doing? That is not what you want to do, you’ve wanted to teach braille since you were little. If all these other people," and by that time Marty was doing it, and I was like "if he can do it I know I can."
So when I moved back home after I graduated from Newberry, went home told to my grandparents I'm moving to Columbia. They said "Nooo you're not, you'll get lost, you'll get hurt." I looked at my granny and said, "No, I would try my best not to get hurt, and yeah, I might get lost, but I had mobility lessons all my life, so I would try to find myself." And so I did. I came back up here, I moved up here in '96 and did not go to USC that first in August, I moved in August, so I didn't start USC until the following January in '97, got my Master’s in vision.
While I was still going to school, I got a call from Richland School District One, asking me if I was interested in teaching in the vision program there as a long-term sub. They desperately needed a vision teacher. And, I said "Yes! I am definitely interested." So, while I was finishing my Master's degree at night, I taught during the day as a long-term sub for almost two years. I took off long enough to do my student teaching and that was it. And, I was lucky enough to be allowed to stay on in that position as a full time teacher as soon as I got my degree. And, I have been there since. It's awesome!
I love my job, and I am so glad that I went back. And now I get to teach braille. The only bad part is a lot of times, when we don't have a braille kid, I love teaching the low vision kids, too, don't get me wrong. I love what I do, but, I love the braille. I always said my dream job would be to teach nothing but braille to whoever out there in the world wanted to know how to do it. I've always loved it. It's just so cool to be able to do it and to, you know, know it. And to be able, there should be not be a person out there for any reason that cannot read this stuff, you know.
What is it about braille that you like so much?
I think it is just the ability that I know I can do it. I tell kids that one of the fun things about it is that you can always get at trouble at night like I used to when I was little. I would always get in trouble because I used to take my book to bed with me because I did not need the light on to see it. And, so, it wasn't until my grandmother came in there and I was still wide awake that she figured out that I had my book under the covers reading [Laughing] when I supposed to be asleep. So, I tell them all the time that they can read in the dark and nobody will notice. They think that is cool. They think it's hilarious.
How is it that you were in an environment growing up where there were braille resources available from such a young age?
At home, there was not until I started school. No one in my family knew braille. No one knows braille now in my family. They were encouraging in that they wanted me to do the best I could in education. That was it. My grandmother, I remember her telling me that I did not have a lot of chores at home, but I better have good grades. That was just the expectation that I was going to do this. And I did. But, once I hit school, when I started, Project Share had just started up in Florence. And,so, that was a new program and they had braille. I was forever getting...they had little bit of braille books in the library (that) I could bring those home. My beginning braille reader books. And I always had, even papers just that we had created when I was learning braille. I remember having little stories, about an elephant, and they had cut out a picture of an elephant, the shape of it, so I could have that tactual feel. (The elephant) was at the bottom. And I saved all those papers. And that was what was all over my grandmother's living room floor all the time.
What do you remember being the hardest thing about reading braille?
I don't. I don't remember. It is going to sound strange, but, I just got certified as a braille transcriptionist. And, it was not until I went through that course, that I realized that there were parts out there that I did not actually remember. Because it has always been just a part of my life. I don't remember going, "Oh, my gosh. These rules are hard," ‘cause there’s are a lot of rules pertaining to braille. I mean, there’s lots of them. And each rule is broken down into lots of different parts and sections.
And it's only recently that you thought about that?
Because I was looking at it and you had to name the rule and the section that errors were found in when you are taking this whole transcription course. And, when looking at it from that point, I was going, "Oh, my gosh. I didn't have a fit when I was school. I don't know how I ever remembered these rules." But, it was not taught to me in a way that, 'This is the rule. This is why we don't do this'. It was taught to me; 'This is the way it is done in braille'. I don't remember 'Section 45a, Rule 10.' We didn’t do it that way. That was the hardest thing for me. When I was taking my transcription course,going, "Oh, my goodness. There are specific rules as to why we do this." I know that I did not do it. Or you did it. But, the rules, I did not remember all that. [Laughter.]
When you read for pleasure, what do you like to read and how do you read?
I like to read mysteries. I like to read romance novels. I like to read. I'll read a lot of the kids' books because I have two children. I have a five year old and a ten year old. I have several different ways that I read. When my children were very little, I was determined they were going to be saturated with reading material. And, trust me, my house is and my kids' running joke is that we could open our own children’s lending library with no problem. And, what I did was, I bought a lot of books that were already produced that had the print and the braille in it ( both of our children are sighted. My husband and I both are blind) But, I wanted these books for my kids. So, I bought some that were already produced; had the braille and the print. Then, what I did, I took and bought regular print books and had somebody read them to me. I brailled the stuff on sticky labels and stuff myself and put it in there; for other books that I couldn’t get or either just some I picked up here and there and everywhere.
And now I do use the Victor Reader Stream, I listen to books, I have my kids listening to books, my kids are, can read, well my 5 year old's not there, he will be five soon, but he is not reading yet. My nine-year old reads, is in 4th grade, reads on 6th grade level. I was kind of hesitant at first about him listening because I wanted him to read but then, we realized that when we were pairing the reading out loud, listening and the reading of the print, I give him a print copy of the book and make him listen, he was doing a lot better because he had both feedback orally and visually. And I read books, I have my braille books, some of them in braille. A lot of them I download, and I read using the braille display. I have a computer with a braille display at work, and I use a braille display at home.
Do you prefer listening to books or reading them in braille? Do you prefer a human voice reading or is it the same as with a computerized voice?
It really depends on, and it is not because I don’t like braille, because I do, but a lot of times I will listen to something before I read it in braille. Now if it is something I've really got to glean information from and think about, then I do want it written. And I because you know, listening you can kind of, "Yes, I am focused on my book but ,yes, I can also focus somewhere else at the same time" and I fully don’t have my mind on it, but if I really need to glean information from it, then I do want the braille. Can I listen to both? Yes, I have no problem, but given my preference, I want a person to read it. Now I am bad about; I drive everybody insane because I have been doing it since I was little. I do not like to listen to it in regular speed. My mother has always called it my "chipmunks" because even the regular human voice that I prefer I speed it up. So I love with the recording devices from the library here when I get the books here I can just zip, hit the button and make them go faster, and it sounds like a chipmunk. Don’t ask me why I prefer it, but I can understand it and I have taught myself over the years. I can read a book faster, too. [Laughter] It works great.
Do your children read braille?
No. I have often been asked would I teach them or was I gonna make them learn was the question I was often asked, and no I decided I was not going to make them. If they wanted to learn and they ask "Mama, Daddy will you teach me?" then yeah, I would’ve. But neither one of them have asked, they don’t know… I think my nine-year-old can recognize a couple of letters just because he has been around it all his life and--for almost ten years, he will be ten in April--and he actually can understand JAWS on the computer, a lot better than lot of people. My mom and everybody, they don’t listen to it all the time. They come in and say, "What is the computer saying, blah, blah, blah, blah! It's too fast! It's this! It's that!" My kids can understand it, and it is because they have listened to it since day one, and we have so many computers going in my house. I have a computer, I'll be reading one thing on my computer, my husband has another computer, and we have JAWS loaded on my son’s computer, in case one of us has to help him with something. And so, you know,there is the possibility three different computers are reading three different things with JAWS at the same time. So they have been around that all their lives.
When it comes to whether or not listening to books should be considered an example of literacy or if reading braille is necessary for a person to be considered literate, what's your opinion?
I would say listening to books is all good, but if I can’t read something that you handed me in some format, then I don’t think I am literate. If I can know my print, reading is not going to get me very far but there is an alternative, it’s the braille. And if I can’t read that then I don’t consider myself literate. How am I going to write something, how am I going to communicate? Yes, I can listen to something but I have no means about listening to something other than my mouth to tell you something back. Where is my writing, where is my, you know, putting thoughts down on paper and some… No. You can’t do that. I mean I can talk to you all day, but if I can’t read, I haven’t seen how that is supposed to look, how words… I cannot spell worth two cents, never have been able to and that may not be the case with all blind people who are braille readers. I know a lot of that spell beautifully, but you know once I have "seen" in braille how a word looks, I am more apt to spell it right, but if I have just heard that, I'd have no clue how to… Think about the way our language is. We don’t write the way it sounds, and I think looking at it in braille, in print, however we want to look at it, I think it helps us.
With so many electronic devices that read information aloud to us, is there a reason to keep teaching braille? to preserve braille?
We have so many devices, they are great. They are awesome. What if they are broken? How many times have we walked into a classroom as teachers, our computer does not work, and we can still pull our pencils out. You can write stuff down. If you don’t have braille, then what are you going to do?
Does braille benefit the way you think? Are you a smarter person, a more capable person if you can use braille instead of just listening to texts?
I think you are because you have another tool in your toolbox. If for nothing else, you have a tool that you have in there and it gives you choices. You have the choice of listening, you have the choice of brailling, or reading braille. If you only have one way of doing something, you’re limiting yourself. You’ve got every available option out there, then your opportunities and your choices are that much more open.
When you write, how do you do it? Would you describe what tools you use, what steps you take?
I used to do it, I used to do everything on a Perkins brailler. That means, I would take my braille writer, I would braille in college. Braille takes about twice as much paper as print, you have about two pages of braille for one page of print. I would braille everything out because erasing in braille, I could just scratch it out with my fingers or with a braille eraser, you’d just push down the dots and fix it, I would get it just like I wanted it in braille and then I would go through the whole process of typing it. It has just been, probably within the last five or six years, that I can, I will sit down at a type--, at a keyboard and type up a paper I need to type. And I did it that way so long because I wanted to see "how it looked." And it really wasn’t until I had a braille display on my computer, that I could see it and edit it using that, that I really quit writing everything out.
Was it difficult to make that shift?
Once I got a braille display, no, it was awesome, because I thought at first, when we first got our braille display, in Richland One, when Marty brought it out I was like, "What in the world am I going to do with this? I don’t need this." He’s like, "Yes you do, it’s cool, you’ll like it. Just learn how to do it." And I said, "Okay, whatever." I started playing around with it and I was like, "Oh cool, I can just, yes, I can see, I forgot the comma here, I need to put my cursor back over here," instead of trying to listen, and I would, let me make sure my thing, my little cursor’s where it needs to be so I can put my comma, I could actually reach up there, put my finger where I needed my comma and make sure my cursor was there, then put my comma. And it made life so much easier and now, it was not until then that I would not put everything in braille.
Aside from Marty McKenzie, were there other visually impaired adults you saw as role models when you were growing up?
Honestly, no. When I was growing up, I was, at the very beginning stages of Project Share in Florence, so there was a couple of other kids, but no adults that I ever remember until I met Marty and he’s, you know, Marty’s not that much older than I am, but he was still, he was ahead of me in this whole process, but it was, I never doubted, I think that came with, you know, just my personality, with my family’s personality and pushing me to excel in education. But I never doubted my abilities, except to go, "Oh my gosh, can I do this? I know I know the information, but can I function and do this in a sighted world out there as a career?" But it wasn’t until I was in high school that I met Marty and saw that, yes he was, he was going and trying to do the same thing I wanted to do. And then once I moved to Columbia, there was a whole group of college kids and older people that I met and I started hanging around with and I was like, "You know what, they’re doing it, they’re living, they have lives just like everybody else, they have good careers," and it was, it was really not until I was out of, in college and beyond that I had more role models.
Do you feel like you are a role model yourself for young people you know?
I hope so. I mean, that is, that is, I see that as part of my job as a teacher. You know, teachers, in my opinion, are role models anyway. I think my kids have an added advantage when they walk into my classroom, and I can’t see either. A lot of my kids honestly see better than I do. And I get, like Clay was saying earlier, I get the questions, how do you do that? They were totally amazed when I had my children, you would not believe the kind of questions I got: how do you do this? How do you do that? Because they’re in the same boat that I was in. They didn’t have role models. And I’m really honest with the kids that I run into, the kids I see, my kids I teach, about how to do things. Because I figure, when I tell them, I may be the only person that will tell them at some point how to do things or how another blind person does it. Now that doesn’t mean my way’s right, by no means, may not be right, it’s right for me. But it may not be right for them. And as long as they see that there are ways to do it, and they realize there are more than one way to do things, then I feel like yes, I have been a role model to them.