[nabs-l] Braille Vs Technology: is there room for only one in town?
Steve Jacobson
steve.jacobson at visi.com
Fri Jan 8 22:46:41 UTC 2010
Where I have a little trouble saying braille is just one of our tools is with kids in school. As long as sighted kids learn print and print is not an option, I think blind kids
need to have access to braille because that comes the closest to conveying multiple levels of information at once, punctuation, spelling, and some elements of
formatting as does print. Of course I recognize that not all of the formatting is represented in braille, but awareness of paragraphs and some other elements are.
Certainly kids who truly cannot learn braille for some reason deserve an education, and with other tools do have a chance to succeed, but I think we are right to not
accept that braille should be optional or one of the tools that a blind child may or may not learn. DAISY books are helpful because we get access to some of these
elements, but in general, one gets a sense of various text elements through braille without having to request them as do sighted kids through print.
Best regards,
Steve Jacobson
On Thu, 7 Jan 2010 22:48:26 -0600, Dave Webster wrote:
>Exactly. Just remember what Dr. Jernigan taught us in the Nature of
>Independence that we shouldn't be dogmatic and that braille, computers. live
>readers and all sorts of tools are tools not ends. they are a means and
>they are ways in which we get things done.
>--------------------------------------------------
>From: "David Andrews" <dandrews at visi.com>
>Sent: Thursday, January 07, 2010 5:26 AM
>To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list"
><nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
>Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Braille Vs Technology: is there room for only one in
>town?
>> For one I thought the New York Times article about Braille was quite good.
>> On the whole, it was balanced, even though we might not always like what
>> it said. In our zeal to promote Braille, in the NFB, I do think we
>> sometimes make people feel like they are on the outside. The one thing
>> the article, and people generally don't do is talk about how Braille is
>> one tool we have, so is audio, so are computers etc. People tend to paint
>> very black and white pictures, then declare those who don't match those
>> pictures as losers. It is a grey world out there. There isn't just one
>> answer or solution. I use Braille all the time, and it is a part of my
>> success. I also use computers, love my Stream, use human readers, OCR,
>> the KNFB Reader etc. There isn't just one answer.
>>
>> Dave
>>
>> At 10:31 AM 1/6/2010, you wrote:
>>>What I'm about to say may sound harsh, but here it goes. Literacy matters,
>>>and those who have the capacity for literacy need to be able to read the
>>>written word for success. that does not mean that those who are, by means
>>>of some disability, unable to read won't be successful. Quite the
>>>contrary. But reading definitely makes a difference in the lives of those
>>>who can do it. For the sighted, reading means print. For the blind,
>>>reading means Braille. That does not mean that either group shouldn't make
>>>use of audio materials or other technologies to access the printed word.
>>>However, these new technologies should not be an excuse not to learn to
>>>read. Those who feel disenfranchised or chastized by certain members of
>>>the federation because they don't use Braille even though they could ought
>>>to give Braille a second thought rather than complain that support for
>>>Braille is unyielding to the point of exclusion. Yes, learning to read is
>>>painstaking and challenging, but that doesn't mean that it can't or
>>>shouldn't be done. granted, if there is a disability that really does
>>>prevent written literacy, then the circumstances are totally different.
>>>But for most blind people, that simply isn't the case. Does that mean that
>>>non-readers should blame themselves for not reading Braille? No. There may
>>>be a number of reasons why Braille isn't a part of their lives. However,
>>>there are sufficient resources available to individuals wanting to learn
>>>that there really is no excuse not to. Respectfully, Jedi Original
>>>message: > 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 Oƒ?TCLOCK
>>>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
>>>computerƒ?Ts 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. ƒ?oKnowledge goes
>>>from my ears to my brain, not >>>>> from my finger to >>>>> my brain,ƒ?_
>>>she says. As a child she learned how the letters of the >>>>> alphabet
>>>sounded, not how they appeared or felt on the page. She >>>>> doesnƒ?Tt
>>>think of a >>>>> comma in terms of its written form but rather as ƒ?oa
>>>stop on the way >>>>> before continuing.ƒ?_ This, she says, is the future
>>>of reading for the >>>>> blind. ƒ?oLiteracy >>>>> evolves,ƒ?_ she told me.
>>>ƒ?oWhen Braille was invented, in the 19th >>>>> century, we had nothing
>>>else. We didnƒ?Tt even have radio. At that time, >>>>> blindness >>>>>
>>>was a disability. Now itƒ?Ts just a minor, minor impairment.ƒ?_ >>>>> 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 >>>>> ƒ?otribal and oral pattern.ƒ?_ 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 >s >>>>> she
>>>thinks that >>>>> using Braille would have only isolated her from her
>>>sighted peers. >>>>> ƒ?oItƒ?Ts an arcane means of communication, which for
>>>the most part should >>>>> be abolished,ƒ?_ >>>>> she told me. ƒ?oItƒ?Ts
>>>just not needed today.ƒ?_ >>>>> 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 thereƒ?Ts >>>>> 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 ƒ?otoo much sightƒ?_ >>>>> for Braille >>>>> and
>>>because the causes of blindness have changed over the decades - in >>>>>
>>>rrecent 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. ƒ?oWhat weƒ?Tre >>>>>
>>>finding are students who are very smart, very verbally able - and >>>>>
>>>illiterate,ƒ?_ Jim >>>>> Marks, a boardd member for the past five years of
>>>the Association on >>>>> Higher Education and Disability, told me. ƒ?oWe
>>>stopped teaching our >>>>> nationƒ?Ts 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.ƒ?_ >>>>> 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. >>>>> ƒ?oIf all
>>>you have in the world is what you hear people say, then your >>>>> mind is
>>>limited,ƒ?_ Darrell Shandrow, who runs a blog called Blind >>>>> Access
>>>Journal, told >>>>> me. ƒ?oYou need written symbols to organize your mind.
>>>If you canƒ?Tt feel >>>>> or see the word, what does it mean? The
>>>substance is gone.ƒ?_ 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: ƒ?oThis
>>>is like going >>>>> back to the 1400s, >>>>> before Gutenbergƒ?Ts printing
>>>press came on the scene,ƒ?_ he said. ƒ?oOnly >>>>> the scholars and monks
>>>knew how to read and write. And then there were >>>>> the illiterate >>>>>
>>>masses, the peasants.ƒ?_ >>>>> 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 symbool >>>>> is represented by a
>>>pattern of one to six dots on a matrix of three >>>>> rows and two >>>>>
>>>columns - aand added abbreviations for commonly used words like >>>>>
>>>ƒ?oknowledge,ƒ?_ ƒ?opeopleƒ?_ and ƒ?oLord.ƒ?_ 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 ƒ?ogodlike courage,ƒ?_ Helen Keller wrote, Braille built
>>> >>>>> a ƒ?ofirm stairway for millions of sense-crippled human beings to
>>>climb >>>>> from hopeless >>>>> darkness to the Mind Eternal.ƒ?_ >>>>> 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, ƒ?oThe >>>>> Blind in School
>>>and Society,ƒ?_ 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 ƒ?overbal
>>>unreality.ƒ?_ 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
>>> >>>>> ƒ?olook,ƒ?_ ƒ?otouchƒ?_ and ƒ?osee.ƒ?_ 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 childrenƒ?Ts cognitive development,
>>>as >>>>> the visual cortex >>>>> takes more than 20 percent of the brain.
>>>Given the brainƒ?Ts plasticity, >>>>> it is difficult to make the argument
>>>that one kind of reading - >>>>> whetheer the information >>>>> is
>>>absorbed by ear, finger or retina - is inherently better than >>>>>
>>>another, at leastt 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 werenƒ?Tt 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 onne of >>>>> the few
>>>studies of blind peopleƒ?Ts 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 didnƒ?Tt >>>>> 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 ƒ?osleep bombsƒ?_: >>>>> 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 revissit 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, ƒ?oas if all of their ideas are crammed into a >>>>>
>>>container, shaken >>>>> and thrown randomly onto a sheet of paper like
>>>dice onto a table.ƒ?_ 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, ƒ?oIt just
>>>doesnƒ?Tt seem to reflect the qualities of organized >>>>> sequence and
>>>complex >>>>> thought that we value in a literate society.ƒ?_ >>>>> 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 bliind people would >>>>> no longer be >>>>> ƒ?odespised or
>>>patronized by condescending sighted people,ƒ?_ 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 ƒ?oone of the advantages of >>>>> being poor.ƒ?_ >>>>>
>>>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 slowlly or
>>>by holding the page an inch or two >>>>> from their >>>>> faces - are
>>>generally frowned upon by the Nationaal 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 ƒ?olistening is not literacyƒ?_ >>>>> repeated everywhere,
>>> >>>>> from panels on the Braille crisis to conversations among
>>>middle-school >>>>> girls. Horror stories circulating around the
>>>convention featured >>>>> children who donƒ?Tt >>>>> know what a paragraph
>>>is or why we capitalize letters or that ƒ?ohappily >>>>> ever afterƒ?_ 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. ƒ?oI >>>>> am now over 50 years old, and it wasnƒ?Tt
>>>until two months ago that I >>>>> realized that ƒ?~dissent,ƒ?T to
>>>disagree, is different than ƒ?~descent,ƒ?T to >>>>> lower something,ƒ?_
>>> >>>>> he told me. ƒ?oIƒ?Tm functionally illiterate. People say, ƒ?~Oh, no,
>>>youƒ?Tre >>>>> not.ƒ?T Yes, I am. Iƒ?Tm sorry about it, but Iƒ?Tm not
>>>embarrassed to admit >>>>> it.ƒ?_ >>>>> 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
>>>ƒ?ooverassimilatedƒ?_ and told me that as a child he was >>>>>
>>>ƒ?omainstreamed so much that I psychologically got the message that Iƒ?Tm
>>> >>>>> not really supposed >>>>> to be blind.ƒ?_) 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 didnƒ?Tt know Braille
>>>were >>>>> sometimes made >>>>> to feel like outsiders. ƒ?oThere is
>>>definitely a sense of peer pressure >>>>> from the older guard,ƒ?_ James
>>>Brown, a 35-year-old who reads using >>>>> text-to-speech >>>>> software,
>>>told me. ƒ?oIf we could live in our own little Braille world, >>>>> then
>>>thatƒ?Td be perfect,ƒ?_ he added. ƒ?oBut we live in a visual world.ƒ?_
>>> >>>>> 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
>>>peopleƒ?Ts sense of what is >>>>> physically natural, >>>>> because bodies
>>>can so often be tweaked until ƒ?ofixed.ƒ?_ 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
>>>ƒ?ojust another piece of technology.ƒ?_ >>>>> The modern history of blind
>>>people is in many ways a history of >>>>> reading, with the scope of the
>>>disability - the extent tto which you >>>>> are viewed as ignorant >>>>>
>>>or civilized, helpless or independent - determined largely by youur >>>>>
>>>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."-
>>
>>
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