[il-talk] [Isvialumni] News Article About Braille

[LeAnne Mayne]

Received this frtom president of ISVI Alumni Assoc. and thought I'd pass it
along. 
LeAnne Mayne


This featured story was on the front page of The State Journal Register
paper.  The web site is
http://www.sj-r.com/news/x1194172199/The-end-of-Braille-Blame-it-on-technolo
gy.


The end of Braille: Blame it on technology
Only 10 percent of the 1.3 million legally blind people in the United
States read it

Allan J. Rupel has been teaching braille at the Mary Bryant Home for the
Blind. T.J. Salsman/The State Journal-Register


Bettye Odem-Davis had a college degree and was teaching high school English
when she lost her sight, at age 22, in the early 1970s.

"It was necessary for me to learn Braille," she said. "My motivation was to
go back to work, and it was my entry into the employment arena."

But according to a recent study released by the National Federation of the
Blind, Odem-Davis, now chief of the Bureau of Blind Services in the state
Department of Human Services, is in a minority.

The report says that fewer than 10 percent of the 1.3 million legally blind
people in the United States read Braille * a code or system of writing in
raised dots to be read with the fingers * and just 10 percent of blind
children are learning it.

In the 1950s, more than 50 percent of the nation's blind children were
learning Braille.
Odem-Davis said the statistics haven't changed much in the past 10 years.

"I certainly do agree that fewer people are using Braille," she said. "In
one sense, that's a negative, but I understand why that is. 

"We get more and more advanced technology. It used to be a big deal if you
had a cassette tape player."

If a person has any residual vision, the education system encourages the use
of large-print books, special magnifiers, television audio description
services and other technology, such as voice-recognition software, she said.

"Many people feel Braille isn't necessary any longer," Odem-Davis said. "I'm
not of that mindset. I think every person who is legally blind needs to
learn Braille."

At the Illinois School for the Visually Impaired in Jacksonville, the
percentages are much better.
ISVI has about 70 students, and 25 are enrolled in Braille class, said Darla
Chambers, who has been at ISVI for 16 years and has been the Braille
instructor for the past two years. 
Including those who previously learned Braille, about 40 ISVI students have
Braille skills, she said.

The school takes students to the annual Braille Challenge, and this year
ISVI senior Brando Collins, 18, of Hickory Hills won the regional
competition in Chicago.

"We prefer to teach Braille," Chambers said. "We have students who may not
lose all their sight until they are adults, but they need to learn it now."

She said teaching Braille letters and contractions is a way for students to
know how to spell the words they hear.

"You can always fall back to Braille if the technology fails," Chambers said.

Odem-Davis said legally blind people with residual vision can see to read
maybe five to 10 words a minute.

"That's not enough for successful employment or continued education," she
said.

Fluent Braille readers can read 200 words per minute or more, the federation
says. Odem-Davis thinks that's being generous.

"I feel I'm proficient, and I believe accuracy is most important," she said.
"I know people who read between 60 and 120 words a minute. We tell people to
concentrate not on speed but on reading accurately and on the rules. The
speed will pick up as you read and practice."

She subscribes to various Braille magazines in addition to using Braille at
work.

The Hope Institute in Springfield is "a tad bit atypical" when it comes to
teaching Braille in that most of its students have multiple impairments,
said communications director Mark Schmidt.

"We have five students on campus who have a severe enough visual impairment
that if they were normal in other areas would be able to benefit from
Braille," he said. "Our students usually have some cognitive defect, and
most wouldn't be able to read anyway."

"With the older children, we make them aware of it (Braille)," he said. "If
a student comes to us from a public school or Illinois School for the
Visually Impaired, we'll continue to work with them."

"We try to work with them to use their hands to understand the world around
them," Schmidt said. "Second, we expose them to Braille because it is out
there in the real world."|

The institute uses Braille on the nametags that the students wear, on the
calendar and to label items around the classroom, he said.

"We want to get them used to the concept," he said.

The institute has one Braille teacher, Catherine Courtney.

"She's seeing technology changing the way Braille might be used," Schmidt
said. For example, Braille readers can be attached to a computer so students
can do things on the Internet.

"But in math, the big, old clunky Braille writer is still an excellent way
to do problems," he said. "It may take a whole sheet of paper, but it
enables them to show their work, and we can see if they are grasping the
concept."
"We're not seeing any loss in the importance of Braille; we're just using it
in different ways," he added.

The federation also surveyed 500 people and found that the ability to read
Braille correlated with higher levels of education, a higher likelihood of
employment and more income. Another study found that 44 percent of
participants who grew up reading Braille were unemployed, compared with 77
percent of those who relied on print. Blind adults face 70 percent
unemployment overall.

Odem-Davis agrees that those who use Braille have a much higher level of
success in employment and education.

"It all comes back to literacy," she said. "Braille has a lot to do with
what we can reduce to memory. It's a cognitive thing."

Odem-Davis said the 200th anniversary of Louis Braille's birth this year has
put a renewed spotlight on the system the French student invented.

"We hope the educational system won't just look at the money it costs to
teach Braille," she said. "I don't think technology will ever replace the
joy and thrill of being able to sit quietly at home and just read."

Chris Dettro can be reached at 788-1510.

What is Braille?

Louis Braille, a teenager, invented the code while living in a home for the
blind in France in 1821. 

The system was based on a method of communication originally developed in
response to Napoleon's demand for a code that soldiers could use to
communicate silently and without light at night.

Charles Barbier's system was rejected by the military because it was too
difficult to learn
In 1821, Barbier visited the National Institute for the Blind in Paris,
where he met Louis Braille. 

Braille found that the main problem with Barbier's code was that the human
finger couldn't encompass the whole symbol without moving, and therefore
couldn't move quickly among symbols.

Braille modified it to use to use a six-dot cell that revolutionized written
communication for the blind.

The system met with resistance, in part because it was hard for sighted
people to learn, and also because the schools didn't want their blind
students to become too independent.

* Various Internet sources

Four recognized for Braille proficiency

The Bureau of Blind Services within the state Department of Human Services
on Tuesday presented awards to four Illinois School for the Visually
Impaired students for excellence on a Braille proficiency exam.

Those honored were Connie Back of Spring Grove, Brando Collins of Hickory
Hills, Kari Kinnett of Camargo and Michal Nowicki of Rolling Meadows.

Kinnett is a junior, and the others are seniors at ISVI.




  LeAnne Mayne     KB9ZEF      leanne at uddle.com
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