[il-talk] Teachers don't bail on Braille.

[Bill Reif]

Hello,

The following article appeared in today's Jacksonville Journal-courier, 
available on the web at www.myjournalcourier.com.

Bill Reif


Teachers: Don't bail on Braille
January 17, 2010 12:00 AM
JAKE RUSSELL
Journal-Courier
With advancements in text-to-speech technologies, many people in the blind 
community
are concerned that it may undermine Braille literacy.
Though Braille books are bulkier and more expensive, the Illinois School for 
the
Visually Impaired makes an effort to emphasize the importance of Braille 
while encouraging
students to use assistive technologies.
"As far as Braille reading, there are people who never read Braille well and 
never
cared to read," said Dan Thompson, assistive technology teacher at the 
Illinois School
for the Visually Impaired. "If you want a well-paying job, you have to read 
Braille.
If you cannot read that as a blind person, I would consider you illiterate. 
Braille
is a 'must' part of a blind person's success."
Many students come into the school who have not received Braille services in 
public
schools or only received it one or two days a week, said Darla Chambers, 
Braille
Educator at the Illinois School for the Visually Impaired.
Chambers exposes her students to Braille five days a week, she said. She has 
21 students
in her Braille class. About 30 more kids on campus can read Braille and don't 
need
the class.
Braille books are bulkier and more expensive, Chambers said. One volume of a 
print
book may be six volumes in Braille, which makes it difficult to carry 
around. For
example, the softback Braille edition of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's 
Stone"
lists for $23.75 and comes in a set of four books, while the regular 
paperback edition
lists for $10.99.
"Even with the new technology, people are still going to pick up a book and 
read
it, so that should be available to Braille students," Chambers said.
While text-to-speech programs are useful, they are not always accurate, 
Thompson
said. A student could listen to a word and not know how to spell it. There 
are also
many incidents in which the programs pronounce the words wrong.
"I make it a point to read," Thompson said. "You need to feel it and see 
what it
looks like."
For some students who come into Chambers' class later, at the age of 17 or 
18, getting
through the entire Braille code before they graduate can be a challenge, 
Chambers
said.
"It's a concern because they are relying on that technology but that doesn't 
teach
them the specific rules to write Braille," Chambers said.
For example, the rules for contractions require certain words to be put 
together.
A sentence that reads "and the" would have the two words together in 
Braille.
"We've found that even some of our own students are dependent on 
 technology," Chambers
said. "They are slower at reading. That's the thing. The more you read 
Braille, the
faster a Braille reader you will be."
Teaching Braille depends on each student and how quickly he or she learns 
the code,
Chambers said. A good student could learn the code in about two to three 
years.
Some students learn Braille while they still have their vision because they 
have
an illness where they will lose their vision, said Marsha Schoth, school 
development
director.
Chambers' youngest student is 6 years old, Chambers said.
"Braille doesn't change," Chambers said. "Once they learn Braille code, we 
work on
reading and writing rates to increase those."
Assistive technologies are important because it gives the blind a 
competitive edge
with sighted peers, Thompson said.
"Blind people are getting in the business of making notetakers and screen 
readers
at a reasonable cost," Thompson said. "It gives us our independence and puts 
us on
equal footing with the rest of the world."
Thompson's assistive technology class focuses on figuring out how to use 
popular
modern technology, like iPhones, he said.