The idea that this Gulfview Middle School eighth-grader and Marco Island resident is referring to has materialized in the form of a patented invention that's likely to bring joy to millions of visually impaired individuals and their sighted friends and relatives.

Danielle's invention is not an object, per se, but more of an application. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) refers to her creation as a "game board apparatus" that can be used to redesign Candyland, Chutes and Ladders and other progressive path games. Game boards redesigned with this "apparatus" have spaces marked with instructions in both ink and Braille, so that both sighted and visually impaired individuals who know Braille can play the game together.

"Playing games by yourself is boring," Danielle said. "I like games that don't exclude people because of their disability."

The basic idea for the "game board apparatus" was first mentioned during a brainstorming session that Danielle was involved in shortly before the Invention Convention science fair at Tommie Barfield Elementary three years ago. After a couple of her friends abandoned the initial concept in their quest for a winning science project, Danielle picked up the idea, improved it, named it The Braille Trail and took it all the way to the science fair championship.

Danielle and her mom, Shelli, both credit a teacher's aide at Tommie Barfield with pushing her to get the invention patented following the fair.

"She strongly encouraged me to pursue a patent," Danielle said.

"If it wasn't for her," Shelli confirmed, "we wouldn't have gone any farther with it."

Danielle and her family did extensive research on whether anything similar to her invention had already been patented. Convinced that the idea was unique, Danielle filed for a provisional patent which protected her idea from being stolen by other would-be inventors for up to a year before filing for the non-provisional patent itself. During that period, she and Shelli met with an attorney who was so impressed with Danielle's efforts that she contracted a professional search for anything that might be similar to Danielle's invention. Shortly after the professional search turned up negative, Danielle filed the summary and drawing of her invention that was required to receive the non-provisional patent. Although it was rejected the first time around, efforts to pare down and reword the summary to make it more specific proved successful the second time around. Danielle only recently received a notice of allowance from the USPTO on being granted a patent and, subsequently, submitted her issuance fee. The patent certificate should be arriving in the mail any day now.

As Shelli notes, however, this is not the end of Danielle's invention adventure.

"You don't just hang something like this on the wall," she said. "Now is the time to put the work into it. It's important to keep improving on the invention, otherwise someone else will do it and make what you've invented obsolete. And if a company is interested, it would serve their public relations well to use this."

Danielle and Shelli admit that apart from a letter writing campaign to game companies and organizations working on behalf of visually impaired persons, they're not exactly sure how to effectively market the invention.

"We'd welcome suggestions from anyone out there who has information on how to pursue this," Shelli said. "It's very involved."

Meanwhile, Danielle continues to get good grades in the gifted program at school, practice the piano and oboe as a member of the Naples Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and take dance classes.

She and Shelli recently sat in as observers at a monthly meeting of the Edison Inventors Club. One of the club members presented his invention: sticky notes with sticky stuff on both sides of the paper so that a person can post an envelope, list or other light-weight correspondence along with his or her note. Although some people might believe that it takes a lot of thought to come up with good ideas for inventions, Danielle points out that something as simple as the "game board apparatus" that she invented or the double-sided sticky note is more often the result of mere observation on how to satisfy a particular need.

"You don't have to be a brain surgeon to invent something," she said. "Inventing can happen to anyone. It's usually right there in front of your face."

She then turned and smiled in Shelli's direction and added: "You just need someone behind you encouraging you to do it."