Onkyo International Braille Essay Contest
Braille is the key to inclusion
The Onkyo Braille Contest is a worldwide initiative planned and sponsored by Onkyo Corporation and The Braille Mainichi, two Japanese firms actively engaged in the promotion of braille. Its European strand is run by the European Blind Union.
2011 Onkyo World Braille Essay Contest
The European strand of the Contest was run by EBU for the fifth consecutive year.
Applicants from across Europe were asked to write an essay, sharing their personal experience to tell how braille empowers them and improves their lives.
The contest has once again raised much interest amongst European braille users. 15 countries have taken part and contributed 44 essays altogether. The quality of the submitted essays was excellent and the jury had a hard job selecting the winners!
The First Prize winner is Teresa Bornez Abascal from Spain, for whom "the sensation of being able to read and write once more... is something close to happiness".
The seven winning essays are available in .doc format by clicking on the links in the list below.
Otsuki First Prize: Despite my age, Braille changed my life, by Teresa Bornez Abascal (Spain)
Excellent Works Prize
Junior Category: The Summit of Kilimanjaro, by Marine Delachaussée (France)
Senior Category: An unbiased look at the Braille system, by Ana Maria Almeida Fontes (Portugal)
Fine Works Prize
Junior Category:
- Braille - The Importance of advocacy in the digital era, by Davy Kager (The Netherlands)
- Braille has changed my life, by Normantas Prusinskas (Lithuania)
Senior Category:
- From the darkness to the light, by Marin Sandu (Romania)
- The light of knowledge, by Nikolay Antonov (Russia)
Five very good essays that could not get into the winning list were highly commended:
- How Braille literacy changed my life, by Badema Sirotanovic (Montenegro)
- Cascading dots, by Anna Barham (UK)
- Braille literacy changes my way of life, by Alba Salvador Perez (Spain)
- Braille in my life, by Julia Bodakova (Russia)
- A chat with the Braille code, by Graça Maria Martins Brito Gerardo (Portugal)