Associated Press

When some people retire, they travel the world or start a second career. Jean Mayhew went back to school -- in Braille.

For the past seven years, the 59-year-old Glastonbury resident has been transcribing textbooks, novels, test review books and maps into the Braille system of raised dots, which allows blind and visually impaired people to read.

After a 30-year career as a head librarian at United Technologies, Mayhew accepted an early retirement package and then sat down to figure out what to do with the rest of her life. She flipped through the newspaper and found an advertisement for a volunteer Braille transcribing position. She was immediately hooked.

"I love what I do," she said. "When you stop working, you always wonder what value you have to society. Every day, my goal is to get up and make a difference for someone. And I'm doing that here. I don't know the students, but I know the teachers, and they are a group that goes out of their way to help students get the materials they need.

"I'm constantly learning. It's like going back to school and taking refresher courses," she added. "With Braille you are trying to simplify things like maps, paintings and graphics and get the essential information out. Sometimes you have to think like a seventh-grader. Plus, you haven't lived until you've tried to do chemical rings in Braille."

Mayhew recently was given the 2009 distinguished service award by the Northeast chapter of the Association for the Education of the Blind and Visually Impaired. The group, a nonprofit organization of professionals who work with blind and visually impaired children and adults, hands out one award a year at each chapter.

Mayhew works at the Braille Unit at the State Board of Education offices. On a recent day, she was at the computer converting a Latin textbook into Braille. She said that with advances in technology, converting text is easy. She uses a Perkins Brailler, an instrument similar to a typewriter with keys that type the dots.

"If you can type, you can do Braille," she said. "You take a novel home and you can put it into Braille. You don't need to know or understand Braille to make a difference in someone's life."

The Braille Unit and its 55,000-volume library serves 100 blind students across the state who depend on it for their educational materials. The agency has been serving the blind and visually impaired since 1893, making it the oldest in the country, according to Executive Director Brian Sigman. He said volunteers like Mayhew save the state more than $50,000 a year.

"They are a huge value not only to this agency, but also to the students they serve," he said. "There's a strong tradition in this state of supporting blind students."

"She's always looking for something to do," Braille coordinator Nancy Mothersele says of Mayhew. "She keeps learning more and more and loves the challenges. Not everyone who volunteers gets it. But Jean gets it and it's nice to have someone like that around. To have a textbook in the hands of students is critical and she does everything in her power to make that happen."

And although she says that she is enjoying her "retirement," Mayhew admits to bringing her laptop with her on vacation.

"The value in all of this is making a difference with the student," she said. "For me this is about another form of literacy. If it's taught in the school, I've done it in Braille."