[Blind-rollers] Blind-rollers Digest, Vol 26, Issue 4

[Kerry Thompson]

Re (braille) literacy: Here's a novel concept. how about if kindergarten teachers and those who specialize in teaching reading were routinely trained in teaching print *and* braille reading? Better yet, how about if all children were taught from the gitgo to read Grade 1 braille and all children who are capable of doing so are taught to read print? You know, all small sighted children start out with large, often extremely large, print. Some children continue to need large print as they grow up. There should be no stigma attached to this need. At the same time, it distresses me that some advocates for blind children insist that any degree of vision loss mandates braille only. The ability to read print, even if it's a skill one can't employ for reading large amounts of material, is very valuable. A partially sighted person who cannot read print is functionally illiterate, no matter how fluent a braille reader he might be.

Legally blind equals braille only reminds me strongly of the old laws that decreed that if you had so much as one drop of Negro blood, no matter how white you looked, you were Negro and thus were bound by all the Jim Crow laws. Similarly, there seem to be blind people who believe that any degree of vision loss makes you blind and thus for you to read print or do anything visually at all makes you some kind of filthy traitor. I believe very firmly that blind and partially sighted children should, indeed must, be taught to read and write braille. I feel just as strongly that partially sighted children who can be taught to read and write print (and handwriting) must be taught this as well. Only so, as Dr. Moorer points out, can they participate fully in society.

I'm tired of being discriminated against as a disabled person. At the same time, I find some of the Federation's ideas just as hidebound and restrictive of a partially sighted person's freedom of action and ability to achieve her/his full potential.

*sigh* End of rant.
Kerry