News

Year 3 student Declan Lee has recently participated in the Prime Minister's Spelling Bee, along with his peers.

Declan, who has been blind since birth, was able to participate using Braille. Declan is the first ever Braille-assisted participant to have taken part.

Declan was able to complete the practice test a few times, so that he would know what to expect on the day. On the day of the competition, Declan was assisted by ESO Carolyn Jones, and guided by his teacher Narelle Drew. Declan was set up in a quiet space with his Perkins Braille Writer and the laptop so he could hear the words.

Carolyn used the laptop to guide him through the test, as it is online, and Declan used his braille writer to record the answers.

Declan got to hear the same as other students who competed, the only difference for him, was that instead of typing the answers directly into the competition website, he wrote in braille which was then transcribed by Carolyn afterwards. Declan’s entry was also filmed so that judges could see that he was not assisted at all to spell the words.

Declan had outstanding results, and got 23 out of 30 words correct, however one word was not written inside the allocated time, making his total score 22 out of 30. As the first ever student to compete using braille, hopefully this will pave the way in the future for students who need an adjustment to the format to be able to compete.

Congratulations Declan on your outstanding achievement!