EXAMS. PASSED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 292, 9 December 1936, Page 9

EXAMS. PASSED.

; GIRL WITHOUT SIGHT. SHORTHAND AND TYPING. FIRST IN DOMINION. A few weeks ago a large section of the Auckland public listened to an excellent concert in the Town Hall by the band of the New Zealand Institute for the Blind. All of the performers— instrumentalists, - singers and elocutionists alike—were blind. present could hardly have failed to be'impressed, and expressions of wonder were heard in all parts of the hall. Now the public has fresh cause to be amazed, for a pupil of the institute, Miss Rina Bedogni, has passed the junior and senior Government shorthand typists' examinations. Through the kindness of the chairman of the institute, Mr. A. J. Hutchinson, Miss Bedogni has been attending, a commercial college in the city for the past eight months. As a result she has achieved the distinction of being the first blind person in tlie Dominion to pass the {examinations. Born in Auckland 20 years ago and accidentally blinded at the age of three years, Miss Bedogni entered the institute school when six years of age and has always been a capable all-round pupil. She is an accomplished pianist and violinist and possesses her proficiency certificate. During the past two or three years she has studied Braille shorthand, an extremely intricate form of Braille, necessitating a very keen touch. It is written on a special small machine which runs off the Braille shorthand on a paper tape. Miss Bedogni then runs her fingers a'.ong the tape to read the shorthand and transcribes on a typewriter in the usual way. ,