[Faith-Talk] Follow-up on use of accessible Bibles and books

[Judy Jones]

Hi, Christopher,

I have no idea, but I do know what you are talking about, at least, I think I do.

I understand why you are hesitant to learn to read again, (this time in braille), but had you taken it early on, you would probably be pretty proficient in many areas by now.

You are right that many people who lose their vision later in life decide to make this same choice, but, having worked in rehab, I know several who have embraced braille, and very glad they did.

Reading, be it text with the eyes, or text with fingers, utilizes a different part of the brain than absorbing audio, (this is my teacher background coming out)  😊 

Because my main mode is braille and not audio, although I certainly take advantage of listening, I have not developed the skill of speaking as fast at the same time someone is speaking to me.

I saw an old TV show, where a contestant actually had developed the skill, and demonstrated it to the show panelists.  This person had no disabilities, but had honed the skill so much that, during the demo, sounded like either a short echo, very close to simultaneous speech, with the contestant just a hair behind the speaker.  I was really impressed.

Judy

“Embrace each day with His mercies and blessings.”

-----Original Message-----
From: Faith-Talk <faith-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of The Rev. Christopher L. Smith via Faith-Talk
Sent: Saturday, August 17, 2024 8:21 AM
To: Faith-talk, for the discussion of Blindness in faith and religion <faith-talk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: The Rev. Christopher L. Smith <Rev at ChristopherLSmith.us>
Subject: [Faith-Talk] Follow-up on use of accessible Bibles and books

This may be a dumb question but the recent exploration of accessible Bibles and memory of a discussion of accessible hymnals brings up a related question for me. 

Before getting to the question, a little pertinent background. My legal blindness came about because of a rare degenerative neurological condition (PCA) that I was diagnosed with in my 40s. At the time of diagnosis, given the degenerative nature of the condition, the best estimate was 8-12 years to live (which I am now expected to exceed). Given these realities and the availability of other accommodations, I decided not to learn braille. This is a decision a fair number of people who are blind whose vision loss occurred later have also chosen.

Having material read to me is a different experience than reading it myself. There is a difference if having someone else’s voice, take on what is being read, choice of pauses, etc. Just in regular reading, this leads me to pause or even repeat parts of what I have heard, or even to allow parts to pass by if I think they may not be critical to what I am trying to get from a text (particularly in some academic reading).

Hymns, reading Scripture allowed when leading worship, or even following liturgy/congregational readings throw a different level of complexity for me. If I preached from a text, I would likely have the same issue. In these settings, people usually speak as they read. When using accessible means to the text, you are left to speak after something is read while the next part is also being read to you. This is a skill I never learned and still throws me, making accessible text not helpful for me when leading worship. Have others found a way to deal with this issue?

Christopher


------
The Rev. Christopher L. Smith
New York, USA

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