A N D R E W S
U N I V E R S I T Y
Ray McAllister holds the Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award for his work in coding Braille.
By Danni Francis and Andrew McChesney
First Adventist Awarded
“Nobel Prize for
Blindness”
Ray McAllister helps blind students read ancient biblical texts.
I
n a first, a Seventh-day Adventist has received the “Nobel Prize for Blindness” for coding braille in ancient biblical languages that allow blind students to study original texts on their own. Ray McAllister, a blind adjunct teacher at Andrews University and a licensed massage therapist, and his organization, the Semitic Scholars, were awarded the prestigious Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award by the National Federation of the Blind. The award, which came with the highest possible cash prize of $20,000, recognizes individuals and organizations that have made significant contribu-
tions toward integrating blind people into society. “It is my prayer that this award will give me the recognition I need to negotiate with scholars around the world so I can have access to the text materials I need,” McAllister said. The National Federation of the Blind praised the Semitic Scholars for their achievement. “A cash prize of $20,000 went to the Semitic Scholars, a group of three blind academics who created a braille code for ancient biblical languages so that source documents of religious texts can be studied independently by blind students in their original con-
text, a feat that was previously impossible,” it said in a statement. The Semitic Scholars is comprised of McAllister; Sarah Blake LaRose, a braille transcriber and professor of Hebrew and alumna of Anderson University in Anderson, Indiana; and Matthew Yeater, president of the Michiana, Indiana, chapter of the National Federation of the Blind. This award, known in many circles as “the Nobel Peace Prize of Blindness,” is named after Jacob Bolotin, a hardworking blind physician and strong advocate for blind individuals, who practiced in Chicago from 1912 until his death in 1924 at the age of 36. Being the first Adventist to receive the award is not McAllister’s first achievement. In 2010 he became the first blind person to earn a doctorate with a concentration in Old Testament from the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary on the campus of Andrews University. He currently works as an adjunct teacher for the university’s School of Distance Education and International Partnerships in Berrien Springs, Michigan. For the braille project, McAllister initially used a computer to convert his own version of Greek and Hebrew symbols into braille letters and show them on a braille display, a device with something similar to magnetic pins that pop up in the shape of braille words. But he said that he realized that he needed something that would appear more like braille Greek and Hebrew, just with extra symbols. So he developed coding for those symbols not already established in braille. Hebrew, for example, has accent marks that help the reader know Continued on next page
November 2016 | Adventist World
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