CITS Keeps Developing a Barrier-Free Linguistic Environment

The year 2021 was not only full of events that had already become traditional for CITS – master classes, virtual classes with our partners, meetings to promote the study of Russian Sign Language, etc. – but also brought new ideas and development areas. Thus, the Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation, supported by representatives of regional offices of the All-Russian Society of the Blind, began to learn Braille, one of the tools to communicate with the blind and deafblind. This font is becoming increasingly widespread in the public space thanks to the accessible environment policies. Braille is a system which consists of raised dots arranged in cells. A cell is made up of six dots, arranged in two columns of three dots each. Each letter has a specific combination of certain dots expressed with a symbol and a punctuation mark. Knowledge of this font makes it possible to provide a barrier-free communication with blind and deafblind people.

Representatives of CITS have already held several meetings with Aleksandr Romanov, Alina Markhabaeva and Evgeniy Shumatov, who head the regional offices of the All-Russian Society of the Blind, and agreed on future cooperation in terms of joint socially important events for the blind and visually impaired.

Besides, the CITS team not only masters the new language, but also actively immerses themselves in the blind community culture. On December 16, Yulia Polyakova, a CITS employee who coordinates the new activity within the framework of the Accessible Linguistic Environment project, attended the Braille Readings 2021, held at the library which is a center for social and cultural rehabilitation of the blind and visually impaired. It is not the first time the library has held the readings; the goal is to promote the study of Braille and broaden the participants’ horizons. This year, the contest was dedicated to a remarkable date – 310th anniversary of the birth of Mikhail Lomonosov.