ASL Meets Braille Books: The Jack Series

My sister and I developed this book series.  She is deafblind with a renewed interest in learning braille. We are in our fifties and she uses tactile American Sign Language (ASL).  

This is our second book in ASL form to help smooth the learning curve for braille.  It is a fictional book based on the public domain story of "Jack and the Beanstalk".  Our first book was based on "The Gingerbread Man". 

We made the book for a new braille reader who has already been introduced to braille and whose primary language is ASL.  ASL sign images are above the words to help a visual reader remember the sign if needed.  Some feedback from mothers has been that the book was fun just for practicing ASL with all their children.  The visual braille provides a visual template for anyone brailling the pages.  The primary pages of these books are in uncontracted braille with capitalization, but without other punctuation.  This can be modified to fit your needs.

Jack and the Beanstalk

The book and description is located our ASL to Braille YouTube channel.  PDFs are available for download. 

Download the story in Word format.

Here is a video version of our book on YouTube:

We initially designed the book with Chinese symbol graphics that can have a tactile appeal with puff paint or a similar medium applied.  We received feedback that these symbols may be distracting for beginning readers with low vision or beginning tactile readers, since the graphics are decorative and do not relate directly to the text for ASL users or braille readers.  You will see the graphics in the video, but not in the documents below.