Kira Erickson's Story

“Excuse me, where is your braille section?” asked 5-year-old Kira Erickson on a trip to a local bookstore with her mother, Erica. 

Braille books have become commonplace in the Erickson household in the past several years. When Kira was two, she was diagnosed with bilateral retinoblastoma (cancer of the retina in both eyes). After numerous treatments proved unsuccessful, Kira’s right eye was removed in 2008 to stop the spread of cancer, followed by her left eye in early 2009. Kira has been learning to read braille since she was three and enjoys demonstrating her reading ability. “I already know a lot of words!” she says with a big smile.

Kira is a lively chatterbox who doesn’t let her blindness — or much else — get in the way of what she wants to do. “I can do tricks on the trapeze!” she offers, her voice almost breathless with enthusiasm. “I go down the slide head first! I’m learning to ride a bike! I can make myself a sandwich! I’m teaching my baby brother how to go upstairs!”

Unfortunately, one thing she can’t do is find braille books at a regular bookstore. But thanks to the Communication Center, that doesn’t have to get in her way either. “Kira loves listening to stories,” says Erica. “Right now, I use a ‘twin book’ when I read to her. That’s a picture book that the Communication Center has cut apart and reassembled so that there’s braille on one side and print on the other. It’s helping her learn to read braille. She’s already started reading to her baby brother Isaac — though sometimes it’s just pretend.”

Kira also listens to books on tape or CDs, most ordered from the Minnesota Braille and Talking Book Library. The Communication Center supplies the tape player Kira uses to listen to books on tape. Now that Kira is in kindergarten, the Communication Center will also begin putting her schoolbooks in braille or other media as well.

She also has the help of her District 196 vision teacher, Kay Frase, who first recommended the Communication Center to Erica and her husband Kurt. “The Communication Center will do a search for any textbook one of my students needs. If it’s available elsewhere, they order it for them. If not, they put it into whichever media the student needs,” says Kay. “Without the Communication Center, I wouldn’t have as much time to spend with my students — I’d be too busy searching for books or doing the braille transcribing myself.”

“We’re very lucky in Minnesota to have the Communication Center and other services for children with vision impairments,” says Erica. “I recently helped start a Minnesota Chapter of the National Association for Parents of Children with Visual Impairments (NAPVI), and I’ve learned from other parents that some states aren’t as advanced in the type of services they provide.”

NAPVI also gives Kira the chance to spend some time with other children and adults who are blind. “She enjoys her mainstream classroom, but I think it’s also important for her to get exposure to other people who are blind and living their lives successfully,” says Erica. “The first time we had a social gathering, Kira ran over to me and said, ‘Mom! You would not believe how many canes there are here!’” (That would include not only Kira’s cane, but also a miniature version of her cane, handmade by Kira’s grandfather for Kira’s favorite doll.)

As Kira gets older, her parents assume a computer will also be an important accessibility tool, but they want her to have the experience of reading a book as well. “It’s important to have choices,” says Kira’s father Kurt. “We’re excited about some of the new technology the Communication Center is offering — we’re on the waiting list for their new digital player. But we also want Kira to have the experience of reading a book herself, of touching the braille letters, and turning the pages. None of us want to be limited to reading everything over the computer — and people who are blind want that choice as well. Kira may not have the range of reading choices most people do, because she can’t go to a regular bookstore and find books in braille. But thanks to the Communication Center, she has many more choices than she would have.”