[blparent] FW: Fewer than 10 Percent of Blind Americans ReadBraille
trishs
slosser at metrocast.net
Wed Apr 8 09:05:53 UTC 2009
When my girls go out into the world, they will have the skill of
knowing braille. It will open job opportunities for them in a
great way!
> ----- Original Message -----
>From: "Jo Elizabeth Pinto" <jopinto at pcdesk.net
>To: "NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List" <blparent at nfbnet.org
>Date sent: Tue, 7 Apr 2009 14:07:15 -0600
>Subject: Re: [blparent] FW: Fewer than 10 Percent of Blind
Americans ReadBraille
>I think a big part of the problem is that many of the vision
teachers coming
>out of college these days aren't well educated in braille. I see
this
>circumstance often as a proofreader, and a person can't teach
what he or she
>doesn't know well.
>Jo Elizabeth
>"Don't throw away the old bucket until you know whether the new
one holds
>water."--Swedish proverb
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Eric Calhoun" <eric at pmpmail.com
>To: <blparent at nfbnet.org
>Sent: Tuesday, April 07, 2009 4:20 AM
>Subject: [blparent] FW: Fewer than 10 Percent of Blind Americans
Read
>Braille
>> How can you as parents change this stat? What are your thoughts
about
>> this
>> article?
>> Eric
>> Original Message:
>> From: "bkmabma at yahoo.com" <bkmabma at yahoo.com
>> To: Eric Calhoun <eric at pmpmail.com
>> Subject: Fewer than 10 Percent of Blind Americans Read Braille
>> Date:
>> Sun, 29 Mar 2009 18:32:00 -0400
>> Fewer Than 10 Percent Of Blind Americans Read Braille
>> By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, March 26, 2009
>> BALTIMORE (AP) -- Jordan Gilmer has a degenerative condition
that
>> eventually will leave him completely blind. But as a child, his
teachers
>> did not
>> emphasize Braille, the system of reading in which a series of
raised dots
>> signify letters of the alphabet.
>> Instead, they insisted he use what little vision he had to read
print. By
>> the third grade, he was falling behind in his schoolwork.
>> ''They gave him Braille instruction, but they didn't tell us how
to get
>> Braille books, and they didn't want him using it during the
day,'' said
>> Jordan's mother, Carrie Gilmer of Minneapolis. Teachers said
Braille would
>> be ''a thing he uses way off in the far distant future, and
don't worry
>> about it.''
>> That experience is common: Fewer than 10 percent of the 1.3
million
>> legally blind people in the United States read Braille, and just
10
>> percent of
>> blind children are learning it, according to a report to be
released
>> Thursday
>> by the National Federation of the Blind.
>> By comparison, at the height of its use in the 1950s, more than
half the
>> nation's blind children were learning Braille. Today Braille is
considered
>> by many to be too difficult, too outdated, a last resort.
>> Instead, teachers ask students to rely on audio texts,
voice-recognition
>> software or other technology. And teachers who know Braille
often must
>> shuttle between schools, resulting in haphazard instruction, the
report
>> says.
>> "You can find good teachers of the blind in America, but you
can't find
>> good programs,'' said Marc Maurer, the group's president.
"There is not a
>> commitment to this population that is at all significant almost
>> anywhere."
>> Using technology as a substitute for Braille leaves blind people
>> illiterate,
>> the federation said, citing studies that show blind people who
know
>> Braille
>> are more likely to earn advanced degrees, find good jobs and
live
>> independently.
>> "It's really sad that so many kids are being shortchanged," said
Debby
>> Brackett of Stuart, Fla., who pressured schools to provide
capable Braille
>> teachers for her 12-year-old daughter, Winona.
>> One study found that 44 percent of participants who grew up
reading
>> Braille were unemployed, compared with 77 percent for those who
relied on
>> print.
>> Overall, blind adults face 70 percent unemployment.
>> The federation's report pulled together existing research on
Braille
>> literacy, and its authors acknowledge that not enough research
has been
>> done. The 10 percent figure comes from federal statistics
gathered by the
>> American Printing House for the Blind, a company that develops
products
>> for the visually impaired.
>> The federation also did some original research, including a
survey of 500
>> people that found the ability to read Braille correlated with
higher
>> levels of education, a higher likelihood of employment and
higher income.
>> The report coincides with the 200th birthday of Louis Braille,
the
>> Frenchman who invented the Braille code as a teenager.
Resistance to his
>> system was
>> immediate; at one point, the director of Braille's school burned
the
>> books
>> he and his classmates had transcribed. The school did not want
its blind
>> students becoming too independent; it made money by selling
crafts they
>> produced.
>> The system caught on, but began declining in the 1960s along
with the
>> widespread integration of blind children into public schools.
It has
>> continued with the advent of technology that some believe makes
Braille
>> obsolete.
>> "Back in about 1970 or so, I was heading to college, and
somebody said
>> to me, 'Now that you've got the tape recorder, everything will
be all
>> right.
>> In the early 1980s, somebody else said, 'Now that you've got a
talking
>> computer, everything will be all right,' " said Marc Maurer,
president of
>> the federation.
>> "They were both wrong. And the current technology isn't going
to make
>> everything all right unless I know how to put my hands on a page
that has
>> words on it and read them."
>> Audio books are no substitute, said Carlton Walker, an attorney
and the
>> mother of a legally blind girl from McConnellsburg, Pa. Walker
once met a
>> blind teenager who had only listened to audio books; the teen
was shocked
>> to discover that "Once upon a time'' was four separate words.
>> Walker also had to lobby teachers to provide Braille for her
8-year-old
>> daughter, Anna, instead of just large-print books.
>> "At 3 years old, Anna could compete with very large letters.
When you
>> getolder, you can't compete," Walker said. She once asked a
teacher,
>> "What are you going to do when she's reading Dickens?' She said,
'Well,
>> we'll
>> just go to audio then.'
>> ''If that were good enough for everybody, why do we spend
millions of
>> dollars teaching people to read?''
>> Gilmer, now an 18-year-old aspiring lawyer, worked on his
Braille in a
>> summer program when he was in middle school and can now read 125
words a
>> minute, up from his previously rate, an excruciatingly slow 20
words a
>> minute.
>> ''Just try it,'' Carrie Gilmer said. ''Go get a paragraph, get
a
>> stopwatch
>> and try to read 20 words a minute. Try and read that slow and
see how
>> frustrating it is.''
>> Fluent Braille readers can read 200 words a minute or more, the
>> federation
>> says.
>> Carrie Gilmer is president of a parents' group within the
federation for
>> the
>> blind. She believes poor or haphazard instruction is largely
responsible
>> for
>> the decline in Braille literacy, but she says sometimes teachers
push
>> Braille only to meet resistance from parents.
>> ''They're afraid of their child looking blind, not fitting in,''
Gilmer
>> said.
>> The report outlines ambitious goals for reversing the trend,
including
>> lobbying all 50 states to require teachers of blind children to
be
>> certified
>> in Braille instruction by 2015. But its immediate goal is to
simply make
>> people aware that there's no substitute for Braille. It's not
just a tool
>> to
>> help people function -- it can bring joy, Maurer said.
>> ''The concept of reading Braille for fun is a thing that lots of
people
>> don't know,'' Maurer said. ''And yet I do this every day. I
love the
>> beautiful, orderly lines of words that convey a different idea
that can
>> stimulate me or make me excited or sad. ... This is what we're
trying to
>> convey.''
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