In Saul Valdivia’s preschool classroom, a neon green light emanates from underneath the opaque surface of a wooden table. An assortment of plastic bugs and wooden shapes lay scattered across its ...

Teacher Jennifer Martinez works with Head Start students Arya, left, Baruc and Noah at the Blind Children's Center in East Los Angeles. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times) In Saul Valdivia’s preschool ...

A symphony of metal keys clicking and chiming echoes through the nearly empty classroom. As each key clatters, a corresponding hole punches through the thick, waxy paper, leaving a slight indentation ...

Yet the Braille writer that Olivia uses is small and has only a few keys, which she holds down in different combinations to create the Braille letters and signs that indicate capitalization or numbers ...