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News Archive
Braille Coin to be Used for ND-Navy Coin Toss
A 2009 Louis Braille Bicentennial Silver Dollar will be used in the official coin toss for the Notre Dame-Navy football game on Saturday, Nov. 7. Marc Maurer ’74, president of the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), will bring the coin to campus personally. Maurer is the Alumni Association’s 2009 Rev. John Cavanaugh, C.S.C. Award winner for his exemplary model of character and his outstanding contributions in the field of public service.
As president of the NFB, Maurer is editor of the NFB’s Kernel Book series of optimistic paperbacks written by the blind to help both blind and sighted readers gain an understanding of what it means to be blind. He has promoted new technology for the blind, such as the Kurzweil-NFB Reader Mobile, a cell phone device that scans and reads aloud most printed material, and the prototype vehicle for the Blind Driver Challenge—a car that the blind can drive independently. He has overseen the massive expansion of the NFB Research and Training Institute. The Institute, conceived for and by the blind, is developing new methods, technologies, and services to support independence for the world’s blind.
In 2009, Congress authorized the minting of 400,000 Louis Braille Bicentennial Silver Dollars to mark the two-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Louis Braille (1809–1852) and to support the efforts of the National Federation of the Blind to promote literacy among blind Americans. This coin is the first U.S. currency to feature tactile, readable Braille.Date: 11/3/2009
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