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Donate menu search taking on disability together Who We Are History News FAQs Stories of Hope Leadership Mission and Values Board of Directors Partners Financials Careers at Easterseals Contact Us Locations Perking Up Y Members A trio of Easterseals Arc consumers operate a coffee cart at Parkview Family YMCA as part of the Employment Readiness Academy. read more Our Programs Live Community Living 24-Hour Support Group Homes Structured Family Caregiving Wellness Coordination Natural Supports Learn Behavior Solutions Transitions Adult Day Center Family Support Program Dream Teens Pre-Employment Transition Services Work Community Employment Employment Readiness Academy Projects Drive Group Enclaves Play Recreation Respite Mini Dreamers Ways to Give Donate Now Monthly Giving Matching Gifts Legacy Giving Workplace Giving Other Ways to Give Fulfilling a Dream Destany had a manageable goal: Go on a shopping spree. Amanda Cross made it happen. read more Get Involved Advocacy Personal Fundraising Events Dancing with the Arc Stars Volunteer Love Keeps 'Grandma' Coming Back After decades of volunteering at Easterseals Arc, Liz Dixie is known as "Grandma" to most consumers and staff. read more Connect Locally Easterseals Arc of Northeast Indiana You can reach us at: 4919 Coldwater Road Fort Wayne, Indiana 46825 260-456-4534 260-745-5200 (Fax) Contact Us View our other locations Change Your Location Please use the forms below to identify another Affiliate Location. 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View Jobs Our Purpose Easterseals changes the way the world defines and views disability by making profound, positive differences in people’s lives every day. We are dedicated to helping individuals become as independent as possible, while also providing support and resources for family members. Show Me Information For Children Young Adults Adults Caregivers Support Our Services Easterseals Arc provides essential support services to individuals with disabilities. Your gift helps bridge the gap between government funding and the true cost of helping people live full lives in our community. Give Now Get in Touch With Us Easterseals Arc of Northeast Indiana 4919 Coldwater Road Fort Wayne, IN 46825 Phone: 260-456-4534 Contact us Online Latest News Our Blog What's New At Easterseals Arc of Northeast Indiana Easterseals Arc, Passages Plan Merger Easterseals Arc is growing again by planning to merger with Passages to expand services for people with disabilities in Whitley County. The goal is to complete the merger by March 2021. Read More Kroger Supports Easterseals Arc If you're cooking holiday meals at home this year, your Kroger purchases can support Easterseals Arc through the Community Rewards program. Just visit krogercommunityrewards.com to enroll. Join Our Team If you or someone you know has "New Job" at the top of their 2021 goals, check out our current openings! Full and part time positions are available. Recent Posts From Easterseals Speech Software, Smartphones: Why Braille Still Matters January 14, 2021 Lewis Braille was born on January 4, 1809. His birthday is now annually recognized as World Braille … Lewis Braille was born on January 4, 1809. His birthday is now annually recognized as World Braille Day, and January is Braille Literacy Awareness Month. I have long been aware of World Braille Day, but it’s only recently that I learned that the entire month is dedicated to Braille — how cool is that?! A page written in Braille along with standard characters and words. Though I don’t use Braille as often as I used to, it’s still a part of my life. I first learned Braille when I started preschool at age 3. My memories of this are foggy at best, but I do remember the first Braille book I read was called Go and Do. It introduced me to contractions, which are letters or symbols that are used to substitute for actual words. For example, the letter G by itself stands for the word “go.” Braille has a symbol for the word “and,” similar to how in print, you use the symbol “&” to mean “and.” The letter D by itself stands for the word “do.” This makes typing easier, as you do not need to type the entire word. I read a lot of Braille in my school years. As far back as middle school, I remember textbooks being several volumes. Braille books are heavier, and the dots can take up so much space that the average print textbook is split up into several volumes when converted to Braille. This made for some accommodating in middle and high school — for my school presentations, I often needed to know ahead of time what pages we’d be working on so I could see if I needed to retrieve another volume of the textbook. If this concept confuses you, don’t worry; it confused my teachers when I’d try to explain it. They’d ask, “Doesn’t your textbook there just have all the pages like ours does?”…not in a patronizing way, but out of simple confusion. Braille books can be very expensive, especially when they come in several volumes. So, you can imagine that this is why, when I’m reading books for pleasure at home, I prefer to listen to audio books. I read a lot of books (I love reading!) but after reading Braille for quite a while, my fingers can actually get tired. Sometimes, they hurt! When I went to college, most of my assignments were done electronically. I could read textbooks using VoiceOver (the speech synthesizer on my iPhone), but I often took tests in Braille. I was given the option to either have them read tests to me in person or provide them to me in audio format. If I chose the audio format, someone from the Disability Resource Center would record the exam, I listen to the recording and write my answers in Braille. Later, my Braille answers would be transcribed into print for the professors to grade. Audio format seemed like it took too much time, so I arranged to have my exams provided in Braille instead. The professors simply emailed the exam to the Disability Resource Center and they’d provide it in Braille. That way I wouldn’t have to rewind the audio or ask someone to re-read something if need be — I could simply use my fingertips to reread the question if I needed to. To take notes in class, I’d use a Braille Note Apex (it essentially looks like a screen-less laptop). Similar to how words appear on the screen when you type on a laptop, the words would appear at the bottom on a Braille display. I could have used my laptop to take notes, but I would’ve had to use headphones so my classmates wouldn’t hear the screen-reading software on my computer. You can see the problem there: it’s hard to hear a class lecture with headphones on! Using just one earbud in my ear meant I might be too focused on the speech software and miss something the professor said. So I went with Braille. As you might know from previous posts, I graduated from Northern Illinois University in December 2019. Most people think of Braille as a way to read books, but now that I’m done with school, I use it in ways you might not...