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Housed in Milwaukee Public Library's Central branch is the nonprofit Audio and Braille Literacy Enhancement (ABLE). ABLE transcribes materials into braille, tactile and audio formats for blind and print disabled individuals to not only enhance literacy but give people the tools they need to lead productive, independent and dignified lives.
ABLE has been doing this work for nearly 60 years, according to its Executive Director Cheryl Orgas. "We started in 1965 out of a woman's passion to make sure that her blind students had braille materials at the same time as their sighted peers. Sister Melmarie Stoll became a teacher of the visually impaired and she worked with other community leaders to find a space where Braille materials could be made," she explains.
Sister Stoll formed a relationship with the Milwaukee Public Library, and soon after volunteer services for the visually handicapped was established — now known as ABLE. Over 50 volunteers do everything from audio reviewers, audio narrators, braille proofing and printing and much more. ABLE supplies materials in braille and tactile formats in southeastern Wisconsin and throughout the state. When resources allow, they will also supply braille throughout the country. Audio services, including books recorded for the Wisconsin Talking Book & Braille Library are available throughout the country through the National Library service.
"I actually was one of those first students back in 1965 to get my Braille books at the same time that sighted children had their print books for me," Orgas notes. "This organization is a passion and a dedication because I know how much it meant to me to have my materials at the same time as my sighted peers. And I'm so grateful that now we are making materials available to blind and low vision students throughout our area."
Orgas notes that the time it takes to make braille or tactile transcriptions depends on the complexity of the materials given to ABLE. "The way that we do our work is through a complex relationship between our staff and volunteers," she explains. "So we have volunteer braille transcribers, we have volunteer tactile graphic artists, we have proofreaders, we have our staff to oversee the projects. So an assignment could be five to seven people having their hands on that one particular piece of work."
Xinyue Hippe has been a board member of ABLE since 2023, but she has been a recipient of materials from the organization since she became a Milwaukee Public Schools student in 2013. "From sixth grade to twelfth grade when I graduated, ABLE did a lot of work for me. I did Latin and Spanish in high school so ABLE did a lot of foreign language transcription for me because I wasn't able to read that correctly — you can't always find those materials online to download. And then aside from that ABLE did so many tactiles for science... it was probably a hard year for ABLE with all of the stuff I sent them," Hippe jokes. "ABLE has gone above and beyond."
The wider implications of not having access to braille and tactile materials if not often considered if you don't personally have a sight or print disability, or know someone who does. For Hippe, she thinks about this from two perspectives: the practical risk in school and the psychological for the individual struggling with keeping up with their sighted peers.
"You can't really imagine concepts that you've never really gotten to experience and so there's this practical implication of falling behind, and then the other side of that is the psychological and this is something that I struggled with a lot especially before I joined Milwaukee Public Schools," she recalls. When Hippe's family first moved to Milwaukee she spent a year in private school, where she did not have a teacher for the visually impaired since private schools are not obligated to fund these services.
"I just didn't have the same resources and I always thought psychologically I'm not as smart as my other peers because I know, I can tell, you know you're very aware of what you're missing out on when you're not getting the same materials and in a way that you can read them. So I had a lot of insecurity about you know, where am I and I'm never going to catch up because I know that I'm missing out... The mental impact on a student's self esteem can be quite detrimental when you ... don't have the services that ABLE provides to sort of help you catch up or help you stay caught up with the rest of your class," Hippe explains.
Orgas says her goal when she started to work at ABLE 18 years ago was to get the word out about their services so the onus wasn't on the individual or their family to get the materials they needed. ABLE's signature service is working first with Milwaukee Public Schools as well as schools in the West Allis and West Milwaukee area to supply braille and tactiles to students. Through partnerships with organizations they also supply materials for programs for the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Marcus Center, Ex Fabula, Milwaukee County Transit System, the Milwaukee Public Museum and many more.
"This is really crucial work we are doing. This is life-changing work we are doing," Orgas says.
This work could not be accomplished without volunteers like Mike Brown, who is an audio reader for ABLE. His father lost his eyesight suddenly about 10 years ago, "so it was just a cascade of challenges for him to kind of manage through life," Brown says. "The one thing I did notice though was you know his passion for books blossomed because there was material configured for him... I saw it fill a big hole in his life to be honest, and his connection to the outside world was really maintained by that."
Thinking about the community of people who help the visually impaired motivated Brown to join them so that he could help make a difference in people's lives, much like his father's was improved.
"The first book that I recorded here was an unusual book about the history of of high profile crimes in Milwaukee... I was able to send [a copy] up to my father in Canada, and he listened to it beginning to end and it's like a son reading a book to his father. I think about that whenever I come in here, I feel like I'm reading to someone and I think that's kind of nice," Brown says.
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