[nabs-l] Washington Seminar

Thu Jan 7 02:55:25 UTC 2010

Will the leadership seminar be posted through the nfb website as a stream audio? It is for students isn't it? 

> From: albertyoo1 at hotmail.com
> To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> Date: Wed, 6 Jan 2010 21:28:49 -0500
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Washington Seminar
> 
> 
> Will the leadership seminar be posted online? Where is the leadership seminar? Is it in Baltimore? 
> 
> > Date: Thu, 7 Jan 2010 11:40:00 +1100
> > From: nabs.president at gmail.com
> > To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> > Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Washington Seminar
> > 
> > Hi all,
> > 
> > The Washington student seminar will be on Sunday, Jan. 31 from 10:00
> > a.m. to 5:00 p.m. We will also be having a mixer on Sunday evening
> > from 8:00 p.m.-midnight and a NABS student open house on Monday from
> > 10:30-noon. I will announce this again in my bulletin which will go
> > out on Monday.
> > 
> > This weekend a few of us are going to be having a small NABS
> > leadership seminar which I will also describe in my bulletin.
> > 
> > Arielle
> > 
> > On 1/7/10, Albert Yoo <albertyoo1 at hotmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > Sunday February 1
> > >
> > >> Date: Wed, 6 Jan 2010 17:18:42 -0500
> > >> From: aphelps at BISM.org
> > >> To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> > >> Subject: [nabs-l] Washington Seminar
> > >>
> > >> When is the student seminar?
> > >>
> > >> Warm regards,
> > >> Amy C. Phelps
> > >> Amy C. Phelps, CRC, NOMC
> > >> Director of Rehabilitation Services
> > >>
> > >> Phone: 410-737-2642
> > >> Mobile: 410-274-1647
> > >> E-mail: aphelps at bism.org
> > >>
> > >> "A frog in a well, can only see its piece of the sky" ~Unknown
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> Confidentiality Note: The information contained in this message may be
> > >> privileged and confidential and protected from disclosure. If the reader
> > >> of this message is not the intended recipient, or an employee or agent
> > >> responsible for delivering this message to the intended recipient, you are
> > >> hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this
> > >> communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this
> > >> communication in error, please notify us immediately by replying to the
> > >> message and deleting it from your computer.
> > >>
> > >> -----Original Message-----
> > >> From: nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> > >> Behalf Of Dennis Clark
> > >> Sent: Wednesday, January 06, 2010 4:18 PM
> > >> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
> > >> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Braille Vs Technology: is there room for only
> > >> oneintown?
> > >>
> > >> It would be helpful for me and I think most readers if those discussing
> > >> Braille could talk a little about what they do for a living and how
> > >> Braille
> > >> is an integral part of their job. The woman discussed in the article is
> > >> the
> > >> head of a New York Stock Brokerage firm and as such is earning several
> > >> million dollars per year and therefore does not need my advice about
> > >> Braille
> > >> or anything else. Her accomplishments greatly exceed mine by quite a lot
> > >> and for me to advise or criticize her would require an almost unimaginable
> > >> level of arrogance. My advice to all those earning seven figure salaries
> > >> is
> > >> keep on doing what your doing because it is working great! For the rest of
> > >> us earning 4 or 5 digit salaries, it would be interesting to hear what you
> > >> do for a living and how you use Braille in your work, and what you would
> > >> not
> > >> be able to do in your job without Braille.
> > >> Warmest regards,
> > >> Dennis
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> ----- Original Message -----
> > >> From: "Darian Smith" <dsmithnfb at gmail.com>
> > >> To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list"
> > >> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
> > >> Sent: Wednesday, January 06, 2010 10:07 AM
> > >> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Braille Vs Technology: is there room for only one
> > >> intown?
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> Joseph,
> > >>
> > >> With the advant of and advances in digital technologies would one
> > >> not argue that people are actually more likely to be employed because
> > >> access to information is better than it was even five years ago?
> > >> can it be said that the blind who knnow braille are superior to the
> > >> blind who arn't? if so, who makes this determination?
> > >> Respectfully,
> > >> Darian
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> On 1/6/10, T. Joseph Carter <carter.tjoseph at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >> > Darian,
> > >> >
> > >> > What it makes them is statistically far less likely to be employed,
> > >> > for one thing. That alone should convince parents and teachers the
> > >> > importance of Braille education.
> > >> >
> > >> > Joseph
> > >> >
> > >> >
> > >> > On Mon, Jan 04, 2010 at 07:40:41PM -0800, Darian Smith wrote:
> > >> >>I hope individuals don't mind my playing devil's advocate focused
> > >> >>upon the statement "braille readers are leaders".
> > >> >> What does this make those who arn't very good braille readers,
> > >> >>don't want to know, or don't know braille?
> > >> >>
> > >> >> Do you feel the Organization (the nfb) frowns upon non-braille readers?
> > >> >> respectfullly,
> > >> >> Darian
> > >> >>
> > >> >>On 1/4/10, Kerri Kosten <kerrik2006 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >> >>> Hi:
> > >> >>>
> > >> >>> Just thought I'd share my opinions for what it's worth.
> > >> >>>
> > >> >>> I was taught braille, and am very good at reading it.
> > >> >>> However, I admit with devices like the Victor Reader Stream, I really
> > >> >>> don't read in braille much. I have a Pacmate notetaker with a braille
> > >> >>> display, so I could and probably should download more books and read
> > >> >>> them digitally, but just listening to a book on the tiny stream is
> > >> >>> much easier than lugging around a note taker and reading on a braille
> > >> >>> display.
> > >> >>> So, I admit even as a great braille reader I don't use braille as much
> > >> >>> as I should.
> > >> >>>
> > >> >>> I do use it at my work though, for when I write previews I take my
> > >> >>> notes in braille and that helps tremendously...so it definitely has
> > >> >>> it's uses and children should definitely be taught it.
> > >> >>>
> > >> >>> Braille readers are leaders!
> > >> >>>
> > >> >>> Kerri+
> > >> >>>
> > >> >>> On 1/4/10, Beth <thebluesisloose at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >> >>>> Wow. I admit to having been taught Braille as a child and my vision
> > >> >>>> teacher was wonderful, but it doesn't surprise me that a lot of
> > >> >>>> today's children are not taught that way. Braille readers are
> > >> >>>> leaders, they say.
> > >> >>>> Beth
> > >> >>>>
> > >> >>>> On 1/4/10, Darian Smith <dsmithnfb at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >> >>>>> This
> > >> >>>>> Listening to Braille
> > >> >>>>>
> > >> >>>>> By RACHEL AVIV
> > >> >>>>>
> > >> >>>>> Published: December 30, 2009
> > >> >>>>>
> > >> >>>>> AT 4 O'CLOCK each morning, Laura J. Sloate begins her daily reading.
> > >> >>>>> She calls a phone service that reads newspapers aloud in a synthetic
> > >> >>>>> voice, and she
> > >> >>>>> listens to The Wall Street Journal at 300 words a minute, which is
> > >> >>>>> nearly twice the average pace of speech. Later, an assistant reads
> > >> >>>>> The
> > >> >>>>> Financial Times
> > >> >>>>> to her while she uses her computer's text-to-speech system to play
> > >> >>>>> The
> > >> >>>>> Economist aloud. She devotes one ear to the paper and the other to
> > >> >>>>> the
> > >> >>>>> magazine.
> > >> >>>>> The managing director of a Wall Street investment management firm,
> > >> >>>>> Sloate has been blind since age 6, and although she reads
> > >> >>>>> constantly,
> > >> >>>>> poring over the
> > >> >>>>> news and the economic reports for several hours every morning, she
> > >> >>>>> does not use Braille. "Knowledge goes from my ears to my brain, not
> > >> >>>>> from my finger to
> > >> >>>>> my brain," she says. As a child she learned how the letters of the
> > >> >>>>> alphabet sounded, not how they appeared or felt on the page. She
> > >> >>>>> doesn't think of a
> > >> >>>>> comma in terms of its written form but rather as "a stop on the way
> > >> >>>>> before continuing." This, she says, is the future of reading for the
> > >> >>>>> blind. "Literacy
> > >> >>>>> evolves," she told me. "When Braille was invented, in the 19th
> > >> >>>>> century, we had nothing else. We didn't even have radio. At that
> > >> >>>>> time,
> > >> >>>>> blindness
> > >> >>>>> was a disability. Now it's just a minor, minor impairment."
> > >> >>>>>
> > >> >>>>> A few decades ago, commentators predicted that the electronic age
> > >> >>>>> would create a postliterate generation as new forms of media
> > >> >>>>> eclipsed
> > >> >>>>> the written word.
> > >> >>>>> Marshall McLuhan claimed that Western culture would return to the
> > >> >>>>> "tribal and oral pattern." But the decline of written language has
> > >> >>>>> become a reality for
> > >> >>>>> only the blind. Although Sloate does regret not spending more time
> > >> >>>>> learning to spell in her youth - she writes by dictation - she says
> > >> >>>>> she thinks that
> > >> >>>>> using Braille would have only isolated her from her sighted peers.
> > >> >>>>> "It's an arcane means of communication, which for the most part
> > >> >>>>> should
> > >> >>>>> be abolished,"
> > >> >>>>> she told me. "It's just not needed today."
> > >> >>>>>
> > >> >>>>> Braille books are expensive and cumbersome, requiring reams of
> > >> >>>>> thick,
> > >> >>>>> oversize paper. The National Braille Press, an 83-year-old
> > >> >>>>> publishing
> > >> >>>>> house in Boston,
> > >> >>>>> printed the
> > >> >>>>> Harry Potter
> > >> >>>>> series on its Heidelberg cylinder; the final product was 56 volumes,
> > >> >>>>> each nearly a foot tall. Because a single textbook can cost more
> > >> >>>>> than
> > >> >>>>> $1,000 and there's
> > >> >>>>> a shortage of Braille teachers in public schools, visually impaired
> > >> >>>>> students often read using MP3 players, audiobooks and
> > >> >>>>> computer-screen-reading software.
> > >> >>>>>
> > >> >>>>> A report released last year by the National Federation of the Blind,
> > >> >>>>> an advocacy group with 50,000 members, said that less than 10
> > >> >>>>> percent
> > >> >>>>> of the 1.3 million
> > >> >>>>> legally blind Americans read Braille. Whereas roughly half of all
> > >> >>>>> blind children learned Braille in the 1950s, today that number is as
> > >> >>>>> low as 1 in 10,
> > >> >>>>> according to the report. The figures are controversial because there
> > >> >>>>> is debate about when a child with residual vision has "too much
> > >> >>>>> sight"
> > >> >>>>> for Braille
> > >> >>>>> and because the causes of blindness have changed over the decades -
> > >> >>>>> in
> > >> >>>>> recent years more blind children have multiple disabilities, because
> > >> >>>>> of premature
> > >> >>>>> births. It is clear, though, that Braille literacy has been waning
> > >> >>>>> for
> > >> >>>>> some time, even among the most intellectually capable, and the
> > >> >>>>> report
> > >> >>>>> has inspired
> > >> >>>>> a fervent movement to change the way blind people read. "What we're
> > >> >>>>> finding are students who are very smart, very verbally able - and
> > >> >>>>> illiterate," Jim
> > >> >>>>> Marks, a board member for the past five years of the Association on
> > >> >>>>> Higher Education and Disability, told me. "We stopped teaching our
> > >> >>>>> nation's blind children
> > >> >>>>> how to read and write. We put a tape player, then a computer, on
> > >> >>>>> their
> > >> >>>>> desks. Now their writing is phonetic and butchered. They never got
> > >> >>>>> to
> > >> >>>>> learn the
> > >> >>>>> beauty and shape and structure of language."
> > >> >>>>>
> > >> >>>>> For much of the past century, blind children attended residential
> > >> >>>>> institutions where they learned to read by touching the words.
> > >> >>>>> Today,
> > >> >>>>> visually impaired
> > >> >>>>> children can be well versed in literature without knowing how to
> > >> >>>>> read;
> > >> >>>>> computer-screen-reading software will even break down each word and
> > >> >>>>> read the individual
> > >> >>>>> letters aloud. Literacy has become much harder to define, even for
> > >> >>>>> educators.
> > >> >>>>>
> > >> >>>>> "If all you have in the world is what you hear people say, then your
> > >> >>>>> mind is limited," Darrell Shandrow, who runs a blog called Blind
> > >> >>>>> Access Journal, told
> > >> >>>>> me. "You need written symbols to organize your mind. If you can't
> > >> >>>>> feel
> > >> >>>>> or see the word, what does it mean? The substance is gone." Like
> > >> >>>>> many
> > >> >>>>> Braille readers,
> > >> >>>>> Shandrow says that new computers, which form a single line of
> > >> >>>>> Braille
> > >> >>>>> cells at a time, will revive the code of bumps, but these devices
> > >> >>>>> are
> > >> >>>>> still extremely
> > >> >>>>> costly and not yet widely used. Shandrow views the decline in
> > >> >>>>> Braille
> > >> >>>>> literacy as a sign of regression, not progress: "This is like going
> > >> >>>>> back to the 1400s,
> > >> >>>>> before Gutenberg's printing press came on the scene," he said. "Only
> > >> >>>>> the scholars and monks knew how to read and write. And then there
> > >> >>>>> were
> > >> >>>>> the illiterate
> > >> >>>>> masses, the peasants."
> > >> >>>>>
> > >> >>>>> UNTIL THE 19TH CENTURY, blind people were confined to an oral
> > >> >>>>> culture.
> > >> >>>>> Some tried to read letters carved in wood or wax, formed by wire or
> > >> >>>>> outlined in felt
> > >> >>>>> with pins. Dissatisfied with such makeshift methods, Louis Braille,
> > >> >>>>> a
> > >> >>>>> student at the Royal Institute for Blind Youth in Paris, began
> > >> >>>>> studying a cipher
> > >> >>>>> language of bumps, called night writing, developed by a French Army
> > >> >>>>> officer so soldiers could send messages in the dark. Braille
> > >> >>>>> modified
> > >> >>>>> the code so that
> > >> >>>>> it could be read more efficiently - each letter or punctuation
> > >> >>>>> symbol
> > >> >>>>> is represented by a pattern of one to six dots on a matrix of three
> > >> >>>>> rows and two
> > >> >>>>> columns - and added abbreviations for commonly used words like
> > >> >>>>> "knowledge," "people" and "Lord." Endowed with a reliable method of
> > >> >>>>> written communication
> > >> >>>>> for the first time in history, blind people had a significant rise
> > >> >>>>> in
> > >> >>>>> social status, and Louis Braille was embraced as a kind of liberator
> > >> >>>>> and spiritual
> > >> >>>>> savior. With his "godlike courage," Helen Keller wrote, Braille
> > >> >>>>> built
> > >> >>>>> a "firm stairway for millions of sense-crippled human beings to
> > >> >>>>> climb
> > >> >>>>> from hopeless
> > >> >>>>> darkness to the Mind Eternal."
> > >> >>>>>
> > >> >>>>> At the time, blindness was viewed not just as the absence of sight
> > >> >>>>> but
> > >> >>>>> also as a condition that created a separate kind of species, more
> > >> >>>>> innocent and malleable,
> > >> >>>>> not fully formed. Some scholars said that blind people spoke a
> > >> >>>>> different sort of language, disconnected from visual experience. In
> > >> >>>>> his 1933 book, "The
> > >> >>>>> Blind in School and Society," the psychologist Thomas Cutsforth, who
> > >> >>>>> lost his sight at age 11, warned that students who were too rapidly
> > >> >>>>> assimilated into
> > >> >>>>> the sighted world would become lost in "verbal unreality." At some
> > >> >>>>> residential schools, teachers avoided words that referenced color or
> > >> >>>>> light because,
> > >> >>>>> they said, students might stretch the meanings beyond sense. These
> > >> >>>>> theories have since been discredited, and studies have shown that
> > >> >>>>> blind children as
> > >> >>>>> young as 4 understand the difference in meaning between words like
> > >> >>>>> "look," "touch" and "see." And yet Cutsforth was not entirely
> > >> >>>>> misguided in his argument
> > >> >>>>> that sensory deprivation restructures the mind. In the 1990s, a
> > >> >>>>> series
> > >> >>>>> of brain-imaging studies revealed that the visual cortices of the
> > >> >>>>> blind are not
> > >> >>>>> rendered useless, as previously assumed. When test subjects swept
> > >> >>>>> their fingers over a line of Braille, they showed intense activation
> > >> >>>>> in the parts of
> > >> >>>>> the brain that typically process visual input.
> > >> >>>>>
> > >> >>>>> These imaging studies have been cited by some educators as proof
> > >> >>>>> that
> > >> >>>>> Braille is essential for blind children's cognitive development, as
> > >> >>>>> the visual cortex
> > >> >>>>> takes more than 20 percent of the brain. Given the brain's
> > >> >>>>> plasticity,
> > >> >>>>> it is difficult to make the argument that one kind of reading -
> > >> >>>>> whether the information
> > >> >>>>> is absorbed by ear, finger or retina - is inherently better than
> > >> >>>>> another, at least with regard to cognitive function. The
> > >> >>>>> architecture
> > >> >>>>> of the brain is
> > >> >>>>> not fixed, and without images to process, the visual cortex can
> > >> >>>>> reorganize for new functions. A 2003 study in Nature Neuroscience
> > >> >>>>> found that blind subjects
> > >> >>>>> consistently surpassed sighted ones on tests of verbal
> > >> >>>>> memory
> > >> >>>>> , and their superior performance was caused, the authors suggested,
> > >> >>>>> by
> > >> >>>>> the extra processing that took place in the visual regions of their
> > >> >>>>> brains.
> > >> >>>>>
> > >> >>>>> Learning to read is so entwined in the normal course of child
> > >> >>>>> development that it is easy to assume that our brains are naturally
> > >> >>>>> wired for print literacy.
> > >> >>>>> But humans have been reading for fewer than 6,000 years (and
> > >> >>>>> literacy
> > >> >>>>> has been widespread for no more than a century and a half). The
> > >> >>>>> activity of reading
> > >> >>>>> itself alters the anatomy of the brain. In a report released in 2009
> > >> >>>>> in the journal Nature, the neuroscientist Manuel Carreiras studies
> > >> >>>>> illiterate former
> > >> >>>>> guerrillas in Colombia who, after years of combat, had abandoned
> > >> >>>>> their
> > >> >>>>> weapons, left the jungle and rejoined civilization. Carreiras
> > >> >>>>> compares
> > >> >>>>> 20 adults
> > >> >>>>> who had recently completed a literacy program with 22 people who had
> > >> >>>>> not yet begun it. In
> > >> >>>>> M.R.I.
> > >> >>>>> scans of their brains, the newly literate subjects showed more gray
> > >> >>>>> matter in their angular gyri, an area crucial for language
> > >> >>>>> processing,
> > >> >>>>> and more white
> > >> >>>>> matter in part of the corpus callosum, which links the two
> > >> >>>>> hemispheres. Deficiencies in these regions were previously observed
> > >> >>>>> in
> > >> >>>>> dyslexics, and the study
> > >> >>>>> suggests that those brain patterns weren't the cause of their
> > >> >>>>> illiteracy, as had been hypothesized, but a result.
> > >> >>>>>
> > >> >>>>> There is no doubt that literacy changes brain circuitry, but how
> > >> >>>>> this
> > >> >>>>> reorganization affects our capacity for language is still a matter
> > >> >>>>> of
> > >> >>>>> debate. In moving
> > >> >>>>> from written to spoken language, the greatest consequences for blind
> > >> >>>>> people may not be cognitive but cultural - a loss much harder to
> > >> >>>>> avoid. In one of
> > >> >>>>> the few studies of blind people's prose, Doug Brent, a professor of
> > >> >>>>> communication at the University of Calgary, and his wife, Diana
> > >> >>>>> Brent,
> > >> >>>>> a teacher of
> > >> >>>>> visually impaired students, analyzed stories by students who didn't
> > >> >>>>> use Braille but rather composed on a regular keyboard and edited by
> > >> >>>>> listening to their
> > >> >>>>> words played aloud. One 16-year-old wrote a fictional story about a
> > >> >>>>> character named Mark who had "sleep bombs":
> > >> >>>>>
> > >> >>>>> He looked in the house windo that was his da windo his dad was
> > >> >>>>> walking
> > >> >>>>> around with a mask on he took it off he opend the windo and fell on
> > >> >>>>> his bed sleeping
> > >> >>>>> mark took two bombs and tosed them in the windo the popt his dad
> > >> >>>>> lept
> > >> >>>>> up but before he could grab the mask it explodedhe fell down asleep.
> > >> >>>>>
> > >> >>>>> In describing this story and others like it, the Brents invoked the
> > >> >>>>> literary scholar Walter Ong, who argued that members of literate
> > >> >>>>> societies think differently
> > >> >>>>> than members of oral societies. The act of writing, Ong said - the
> > >> >>>>> ability to revisit your ideas and, in the process, refine them -
> > >> >>>>> transformed the shape
> > >> >>>>> of thought. The Brents characterized the writing of many audio-only
> > >> >>>>> readers as disorganized, "as if all of their ideas are crammed into
> > >> >>>>> a
> > >> >>>>> container, shaken
> > >> >>>>> and thrown randomly onto a sheet of paper like dice onto a table."
> > >> >>>>> The
> > >> >>>>> beginnings and endings of sentences seem arbitrary, one thought
> > >> >>>>> emerging in the
> > >> >>>>> midst of another with a kind of breathless energy. The authors
> > >> >>>>> concluded, "It just doesn't seem to reflect the qualities of
> > >> >>>>> organized
> > >> >>>>> sequence and complex
> > >> >>>>> thought that we value in a literate society."
> > >> >>>>>
> > >> >>>>> OUR DEFINITION of a literate society inevitably shifts as our tools
> > >> >>>>> for reading and writing evolve, but the brief history of literacy
> > >> >>>>> for
> > >> >>>>> blind people makes
> > >> >>>>> the prospect of change particularly fraught. Since the 1820s, when
> > >> >>>>> Louis Braille invented his writing system - so that blind people
> > >> >>>>> would
> > >> >>>>> no longer be
> > >> >>>>> "despised or patronized by condescending sighted people," as he put
> > >> >>>>> it
> > >> >>>>> - there has always been, among blind people, a political and even
> > >> >>>>> moral dimension
> > >> >>>>> to learning to read. Braille is viewed by many as a mark of
> > >> >>>>> independence, a sign that blind people have moved away from an oral
> > >> >>>>> culture seen as primitive
> > >> >>>>> and isolating. In recent years, however, this narrative has been
> > >> >>>>> complicated. Schoolchildren in developed countries, like the U.S.
> > >> >>>>> and
> > >> >>>>> Britain, are now
> > >> >>>>> thought to have lower Braille literacy than those in developing
> > >> >>>>> ones,
> > >> >>>>> like Indonesia and Botswana, where there are few alternatives to
> > >> >>>>> Braille. Tim Connell,
> > >> >>>>> the managing director of an assistive-technology company in
> > >> >>>>> Australia,
> > >> >>>>> told me that he has heard this described as "one of the advantages
> > >> >>>>> of
> > >> >>>>> being poor."
> > >> >>>>>
> > >> >>>>>
> > >> >>>>> Braille readers do not deny that new reading technology has been
> > >> >>>>> transformative, but Braille looms so large in the mythology of
> > >> >>>>> blindness that it has assumed
> > >> >>>>> a kind of talismanic status. Those who have residual vision and
> > >> >>>>> still
> > >> >>>>> try to read print - very slowly or by holding the page an inch or
> > >> >>>>> two
> > >> >>>>> from their
> > >> >>>>> faces - are generally frowned upon by the National Federation of the
> > >> >>>>> Blind, which fashions itself as the leader of a civil rights
> > >> >>>>> movement
> > >> >>>>> for the blind.
> > >> >>>>> Its president, Marc Maurer, a voracious reader, compares Louis
> > >> >>>>> Braille
> > >> >>>>> to
> > >> >>>>> Abraham Lincoln
> > >> >>>>> . At the annual convention for the federation, held at a Detroit
> > >> >>>>> Marriott last July, I heard the mantra "listening is not literacy"
> > >> >>>>> repeated everywhere,
> > >> >>>>> from panels on the Braille crisis to conversations among
> > >> >>>>> middle-school
> > >> >>>>> girls. Horror stories circulating around the convention featured
> > >> >>>>> children who don't
> > >> >>>>> know what a paragraph is or why we capitalize letters or that
> > >> >>>>> "happily
> > >> >>>>> ever after" is made up of three separate words.
> > >> >>>>>
> > >> >>>>> Declaring your own illiteracy seemed to be a rite of passage. A vice
> > >> >>>>> president of the federation, Fredric Schroeder, served as
> > >> >>>>> commissioner
> > >> >>>>> of the Rehabilitation
> > >> >>>>> Services Administration under President Clinton and relies primarily
> > >> >>>>> on audio technologies. He was openly repentant about his lack of
> > >> >>>>> reading skills. "I
> > >> >>>>> am now over 50 years old, and it wasn't until two months ago that I
> > >> >>>>> realized that 'dissent,' to disagree, is different than 'descent,'
> > >> >>>>> to
> > >> >>>>> lower something,"
> > >> >>>>> he told me. "I'm functionally illiterate. People say, 'Oh, no,
> > >> >>>>> you're
> > >> >>>>> not.' Yes, I am. I'm sorry about it, but I'm not embarrassed to
> > >> >>>>> admit
> > >> >>>>> it."
> > >> >>>>>
> > >> >>>>> While people like Laura Sloate or the governor of New York,
> > >> >>>>> David A. Paterson
> > >> >>>>> , who also reads by listening, may be able to achieve without the
> > >> >>>>> help
> > >> >>>>> of Braille, their success requires accommodations that many cannot
> > >> >>>>> afford. Like Sloate,
> > >> >>>>> Paterson dictates his memos, and his staff members select pertinent
> > >> >>>>> newspaper articles for him and read them aloud on his voice mail
> > >> >>>>> every
> > >> >>>>> morning. (He
> > >> >>>>> calls himself "overassimilated" and told me that as a child he was
> > >> >>>>> "mainstreamed so much that I psychologically got the message that
> > >> >>>>> I'm
> > >> >>>>> not really supposed
> > >> >>>>> to be blind.") Among people with fewer resources, Braille-readers
> > >> >>>>> tend
> > >> >>>>> to form the blind elite, in part because it is more plausible for a
> > >> >>>>> blind person
> > >> >>>>> to find work doing intellectual rather than manual labor.
> > >> >>>>>
> > >> >>>>> A 1996 study showed that of a sample of visually impaired adults,
> > >> >>>>> those who learned Braille as children were more than twice as likely
> > >> >>>>> to be employed as
> > >> >>>>> those who had not. At the convention this statistic was frequently
> > >> >>>>> cited with pride, so much so that those who didn't know Braille were
> > >> >>>>> sometimes made
> > >> >>>>> to feel like outsiders. "There is definitely a sense of peer
> > >> >>>>> pressure
> > >> >>>>> from the older guard," James Brown, a 35-year-old who reads using
> > >> >>>>> text-to-speech
> > >> >>>>> software, told me. "If we could live in our own little Braille
> > >> >>>>> world,
> > >> >>>>> then that'd be perfect," he added. "But we live in a visual world."
> > >> >>>>>
> > >> >>>>> When deaf people began getting
> > >> >>>>> cochlear implants
> > >> >>>>> in the late 1980s, many in the deaf community felt betrayed. The new
> > >> >>>>> technology pushed people to think of the disability in a new way -
> > >> >>>>> as
> > >> >>>>> an identity
> > >> >>>>> and a culture. Technology has changed the nature of many
> > >> >>>>> disabilities,
> > >> >>>>> lifting the burdens but also complicating people's sense of what is
> > >> >>>>> physically natural,
> > >> >>>>> because bodies can so often be tweaked until "fixed." Arielle
> > >> >>>>> Silverman, a graduate student at the convention who has been blind
> > >> >>>>> since birth, told me that
> > >> >>>>> if she had the choice to have vision, she was not sure she would
> > >> >>>>> take
> > >> >>>>> it. Recently she purchased a pocket-size reading machine that takes
> > >> >>>>> photographs of
> > >> >>>>> text and then reads the words aloud, and she said she thought of
> > >> >>>>> vision like that, as "just another piece of technology."
> > >> >>>>>
> > >> >>>>> The modern history of blind people is in many ways a history of
> > >> >>>>> reading, with the scope of the disability - the extent to which you
> > >> >>>>> are viewed as ignorant
> > >> >>>>> or civilized, helpless or independent - determined largely by your
> > >> >>>>> ability to access the printed word. For 150 years, Braille books
> > >> >>>>> were
> > >> >>>>> designed to function
> > >> >>>>> as much as possible like print books. But now the computer has
> > >> >>>>> essentially done away with the limits of form, because information,
> > >> >>>>> once it has been digitized,
> > >> >>>>> can be conveyed through sound or touch. For sighted people, the
> > >> >>>>> transition from print to digital text has been relatively subtle,
> > >> >>>>> but
> > >> >>>>> for many blind people
> > >> >>>>> the shift to computerized speech is an unwelcome and uncharted
> > >> >>>>> experiment. In grappling with what has been lost, several federation
> > >> >>>>> members recited to
> > >> >>>>> me various takes on the classic expression Scripta manent, verba
> > >> >>>>> volant: What is written remains, what is spoken vanishes into air.
> > >> >>>>>
> > >> >>>>> Rachel Aviv is a Rosalynn Carter fellow for mental-health journalism
> > >> >>>>> with the Carter Center and writes frequently on education for The
> > >> >>>>> Times.
> > >> >>>>>
> > >> >>>>> --
> > >> >>>>> The National Federation of the Blind has launched a nationwide
> > >> >>>>> teacher
> > >> >>>>> recruitment campaign to help attract energetic and passionate
> > >> >>>>> individuals into the field of blindness education, and we need your
> > >> >>>>> help! To Get Involved go to:
> > >> >>>>> www.TeachBlindStudents.org
> > >> >>>>>
> > >> >>>>>
> > >> >>>>> "And if you will join me in this improbable quest, if you feel
> > >> >>>>> destiny
> > >> >>>>> calling, and see as I see, a future of endless possibility
> > >> >>>>> stretching
> > >> >>>>> before us;
> > >> >>>>> if you sense, as I sense, that the time is now to shake off our
> > >> >>>>> slumber, and slough off our fear, and make good on the debt we owe
> > >> >>>>> past and future generations,
> > >> >>>>> then I'm ready to take up the cause, and march with you, and work
> > >> >>>>> with
> > >> >>>>> you. Together, starting today, let us finish the work that needs to
> > >> >>>>> be
> > >> >>>>> done, and
> > >> >>>>> usher in a new birth of freedom on this Earth."- Baraq Obama
> > >> >>>>>
> > >> >>>>> _______________________________________________
> > >> >>>>> nabs-l mailing list
> > >> >>>>> nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> > >> >>>>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
> > >> >>>>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info
> > >> >>>>> for
> > >> >>>>> nabs-l:
> > >> >>>>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/thebluesisloose%40gmail.com
> > >> >>>>>
> > >> >>>>
> > >> >>>> _______________________________________________
> > >> >>>> nabs-l mailing list
> > >> >>>> nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> > >> >>>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
> > >> >>>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> > >> >>>> nabs-l:
> > >> >>>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/kerrik2006%40gmail.com
> > >> >>>>
> > >> >>>
> > >> >>> _______________________________________________
> > >> >>> nabs-l mailing list
> > >> >>> nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> > >> >>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
> > >> >>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> > >> >>> nabs-l:
> > >> >>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/dsmithnfb%40gmail.com
> > >> >>>
> > >> >>
> > >> >>
> > >> >>--
> > >> >>The National Federation of the Blind has launched a nationwide teacher
> > >> >>recruitment campaign to help attract energetic and passionate
> > >> >>individuals into the field of blindness education, and we need your
> > >> >>help! To Get Involved go to:
> > >> >>www.TeachBlindStudents.org
> > >> >>
> > >> >>
> > >> >>"And if you will join me in this improbable quest, if you feel destiny
> > >> >>calling, and see as I see, a future of endless possibility stretching
> > >> >>before us;
> > >> >>if you sense, as I sense, that the time is now to shake off our
> > >> >>slumber, and slough off our fear, and make good on the debt we owe
> > >> >>past and future generations,
> > >> >>then I'm ready to take up the cause, and march with you, and work with
> > >> >>you. Together, starting today, let us finish the work that needs to be
> > >> >>done, and
> > >> >>usher in a new birth of freedom on this Earth."- Baraq Obama
> > >> >>
> > >> >>_______________________________________________
> > >> >>nabs-l mailing list
> > >> >>nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> > >> >>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
> > >> >>To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> > >> >> nabs-l:
> > >> >>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/carter.tjoseph%40gmail.com
> > >> >
> > >> > _______________________________________________
> > >> > nabs-l mailing list
> > >> > nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> > >> > http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
> > >> > To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> > >> > nabs-l:
> > >> > http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/dsmithnfb%40gmail.com
> > >> >
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> --
> > >> The National Federation of the Blind has launched a nationwide teacher
> > >> recruitment campaign to help attract energetic and passionate
> > >> individuals into the field of blindness education, and we need your
> > >> help! To Get Involved go to:
> > >> www.TeachBlindStudents.org
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> "And if you will join me in this improbable quest, if you feel destiny
> > >> calling, and see as I see, a future of endless possibility stretching
> > >> before us;
> > >> if you sense, as I sense, that the time is now to shake off our
> > >> slumber, and slough off our fear, and make good on the debt we owe
> > >> past and future generations,
> > >> then I'm ready to take up the cause, and march with you, and work with
> > >> you. Together, starting today, let us finish the work that needs to be
> > >> done, and
> > >> usher in a new birth of freedom on this Earth."- Baraq Obama
> > >>
> > >> _______________________________________________
> > >> nabs-l mailing list
> > >> nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> > >> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
> > >> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> > >> nabs-l:
> > >> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/dennisgclark%40sbcglobal.net
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> _______________________________________________
> > >> nabs-l mailing list
> > >> nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> > >> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
> > >> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> > >> nabs-l:
> > >> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/aphelps%40bism.org
> > >>
> > >> _______________________________________________
> > >> nabs-l mailing list
> > >> nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> > >> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
> > >> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> > >> nabs-l:
> > >> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/albertyoo1%40hotmail.com
> > > 
> > > _________________________________________________________________
> > > Hotmail: Trusted email with Microsoft’s powerful SPAM protection.
> > > http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/196390706/direct/01/
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > nabs-l mailing list
> > > nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> > > http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
> > > To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> > > nabs-l:
> > > http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/nabs.president%40gmail.com
> > >
> > 
> > 
> > -- 
> > Arielle Silverman
> > President, National Association of Blind Students
> > Phone: 602-502-2255
> > Email:
> > nabs.president at gmail.com
> > Website:
> > www.nabslink.org
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > nabs-l mailing list
> > nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> > http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
> > To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for nabs-l:
> > http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/albertyoo1%40hotmail.com
> 
> _________________________________________________________________
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