[nabs-l] FW: National Federation of the Blind Applauds NewJersey Ruling on Braille Instruction for Blind Child
Chris Nusbaum
dotkid.nusbaum at gmail.com
Wed May 9 01:29:41 UTC 2012
Wow!!! What a compliment!! Thank you very much for these kind words!!!!
Blessings,
Chris
-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Joshua Lester
Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2012 8:46 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] FW: National Federation of the Blind Applauds
NewJersey Ruling on Braille Instruction for Blind Child
Chris!
I see NFB national president written all over you!
Keep up the good work!
I can't wait to see what happens with you, 50 years from now!
You will be a huge part of the NFB, on a national scale, in the future!
I don't have to be a prophet to say it, because judging by your posts on
these lists, the potential is there!
Blessings, Joshua
On 5/8/12, Chris Nusbaum <dotkid.nusbaum at gmail.com> wrote:
> A big amen to that! I couldn't have said it any better! I was actually
> having a similar conversation with my school librarian today, who
> asked me whether I saw Braille withering away with the advancement of
> audio technology. I told her I didn't, and even if I could see that
> happening, I wouldn't want it. Why do I not see Braille going away?
> Because there are enough blind people who are passionate about Braille
> to prevent that from happening! Why would I want Braille to continue
> as the primary source of reading and writing for the blind? Because
> reading books in audio format, although it is a good method for
> reading materials sometimes, isn't true literacy. Braille is our form
> of literacy. Without Braille, we can't read or write. This means that
> we can't get a job, or go to college, or keep up with our sighted
> peers. So, I think we definitely still need Braille because it is our
> form of literacy, and if we get rid of Braille, we should get rid of
> print too!
>
> Chris
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Arielle Silverman
> Sent: Monday, May 07, 2012 10:42 PM
> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] FW: National Federation of the Blind Applauds
> NewJersey Ruling on Braille Instruction for Blind Child
>
> It's sad that this required three years of legal contention to resolve.
> What's even sadder is that for thousands of other children, these
> battles aren't being won in the end or even being fought in the first
place.
> Parents
> capitulate to the professionals' insistence that their child doesn't
> need Braille, or they want to fight but don't have the time, energy or
> legal resources to stick it out.
> The saddest thing of all, and an irony too, is that so much of the
> denial of Braille instruction is being perpetrated by the very people
> entrusted to promote and teach Braille--teachers of the blind! I just
> read a few weeks ago about a preschool child whose TVI refused to
> provide her with Braille copies of the storybooks her classmates were
> given in school. Instead, the teacher thought it sufficient to give
> the child stuffed toys representing the characters in the stories. I
> can understand using toys to substitute for the pictures, but if the
> sighted kids are getting copies of the stories, why not give the exact
> same content to the blind child as well? I might add that in today's
> electronic world, and even before computers existed, transcribing a
> book for preschoolers is not difficult. And even in this case with the
> Millers, the NJ Commission for the Blind backed the school's decision
> not to provide Braille. If even the folks who are charged to teach us
> literacy don't stand behind Braille, who will? In my opinion a
> certified teacher of blind children who refuses to teach Braille, or
> who refuses to hold their students to competitive reading standards,
> is not deserving of that certificate.
> I sincerely hope that this victory will set a meaningful precedent to
> bring about big changes for those parents who are fighting for Braille
> today and in the future.
> Arielle
>
> On 5/7/12, Joshua Lester <jlester8462 at students.pccua.edu> wrote:
>> How old is the child?
>> I got Braille instruction, when I was just starting school!
>> Why is it, that they did this, with this child?
>> Any word on how old he is?
>> Thanks, Joshua
>>
>> On 5/7/12, Ashley Bramlett <bookwormahb at earthlink.net> wrote:
>>> I agree, how sad.
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Loren
>>> Sent: Monday, May 07, 2012 8:09 PM
>>> To: 'National Association of Blind Students mailing list' ;
>>> blindtlk at nfbnet.org ; nfb-talk at nfbnet.org
>>> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] FW: National Federation of the Blind Applauds
>>> NewJersey Ruling on Braille Instruction for Blind Child
>>>
>>> It's extremely sad that this took 3 years to come to this decision.
>>> Would
>>> anyone deny a sighted child print instruction for that long?
>>> Congrats to the Millers for sticking with it. You did a great thing
>>> for
> your child.
>>>
>>> Loren Wakefield
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org]
>>> On Behalf Of Chris Nusbaum
>>> Sent: Monday, May 07, 2012 5:54 PM
>>> To: blindtlk at nfbnet.org; 'National Association of Blind Students
>>> mailing list'; nfb-talk at nfbnet.org
>>> Subject: [nabs-l] FW: National Federation of the Blind Applauds New
>>> Jersey Ruling on Braille Instruction for Blind Child
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> From: Freeh, Jessica [mailto:JFreeh at nfb.org]
>>> Sent: Monday, May 07, 2012 8:57 AM
>>> To: Undisclosed recipients:
>>> Subject: National Federation of the Blind Applauds New Jersey Ruling
>>> on Braille Instruction for Blind Child
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> CONTACT:
>>>
>>> Chris Danielsen
>>>
>>> Director of Public Relations
>>>
>>> National Federation of the Blind
>>>
>>> (410) 659-9314, extension 2330
>>>
>>> (410) 262-1281 (Cell)
>>>
>>> <mailto:cdanielsen at nfb.org> cdanielsen at nfb.org
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> National Federation of the Blind Applauds New Jersey Ruling on
>>> Braille Instruction for Blind Child
>>>
>>>
>>> After Three-Year Battle, Hank Miller Will Receive Braille
>>> Instruction
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Oceanport, New Jersey (May 7, 2012): After a three-year
>>> administrative and legal battle against their local school board,
>>> the Oceanport Board of Education, Jeffrey and Holly Miller obtained
>>> a ruling (docket number:
>>> 2011
>>> 17218) from an administrative law judge that their eleven-year-old
>>> son Henry "Hank" Miller was improperly denied instruction in
>>> Braille, the reading and writing code for the blind. The legal
>>> victory, obtained with the assistance of the National Federation of
>>> the Blind <http://www.nfb.org/> (NFB), comes on the heels of
>>>
> <http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/speced/Letter%20to%20Secretary%20Dunca
> n%20re
>>> %20Braille%20Literacy.pdf> a letter from 26 U.S. Senators urging the
>>> Department of Education to take steps to ensure that blind children
>>> who need Braille instruction receive it.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Holly and Jeffrey Miller brought the legal case on behalf of their
>>> son, Hank, whom they adopted from China and who is blind due to
>>> albinism and nystagmus. Hank has limited vision that allows him to
>>> read enlarged print for short periods of time, but he is unable to
>>> read for sustained periods of time. Although Hank's parents
>>> continued to tell school officials that their son was experiencing
>>> visual fatigue and was having difficulty reading, the school board
>>> and its consultant, the New Jersey Commission for the Blind and
>>> Visually Impaired (CBVI), insisted that Hank was a proficient print
>>> reader, notwithstanding his continued placement in a special
>>> resource room for language arts. In a nearly ten-day hearing, held
>>> under the due process provisions of the Individuals with
>>> Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004, Mrs. Miller
>>> testified that she watched Hank routinely struggle with his
>>> homework, suffering from eye strain and fatigue, but was unable to
>>> convince school officials or the CBVI that Hank needed Braille
>>> instruction.
>>> She also testified that Hank's schoolwork was not of the same
>>> quantity and quality as that of his classmates. Although experts
>>> from the school and the commission claimed that Hank was a "visual
>>> learner" and should participate in the "sighted world," experts
>>> hired by the Millers and the NFB concluded after thorough assessment
>>> that Hank could not read print for extended periods of time without
>>> eye strain, neck and back pain, fatigue, and loss of reading speed
>>> and comprehension.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> In her order, Administrative Law Judge Lisa James-Beavers found that
>>> the school board and the commission displayed a clear "bias against
>>> Braille."
>>> She found that the school board and the commission had failed to
>>> assess Hank's "sustained reading ability" with print, relying
>>> instead on reading assessments involving only brief passages, and
>>> citing Hank's alleged failure to complain about struggling to read
>>> print. The judge was unconvinced by the board and CBVI's contention
>>> that Hank could rely on audio technology as reading demands
>>> increased through his school years, noting that "as pointed out by
>>> all of petitioners' well-qualified experts, listening does not
>>> equate to reading. One does not enhance the active skill of
>>> comprehending text by passively listening, even if one is following
>>> along with the reading."
>>> The
>>> order noted that "the CBVI failed to do what Oceanport relied on
>>> them to do, which is to help construct a program that would give
>>> H.M. meaningful educational benefit considering H.M.'s future
>>> needs." Judge James-Beavers ordered that Hank Miller be provided
>>> with Braille instruction for forty-five minutes, five days a week,
>>> and that the school board provide compensatory instruction because
>>> of the three years that Hank was not provided with Braille
>>> instruction, in the form of intensive Braille summer programs or
>>> tutoring.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind,
>>> said:
>>> "Based on the experience of countless parents of blind children and
>>> blind adults who had never learned Braille and have contacted us
>>> over the years, the National Federation of the Blind has
>>> consistently argued that blind children are being improperly
>>> assessed and denied Braille instruction when it is clearly
>>> appropriate. Now after a thorough and comprehensive examination of
>>> the evidence in Hank Miller's case, an independent judge has
>>> confirmed what we always knew. We hope that school and agency
>>> officials across the nation take note of this landmark ruling and
>>> commit to giving blind children access to Braille, the true key to
>>> literacy for the vast majority of children who are blind or losing
>>> vision. The National Federation of the Blind will continue to stand
>>> with families like the Millers who find themselves pitted against
>>> the educational establishment in obtaining the equal education to
>>> which their children are entitled and which they deserve."
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Holly Miller, Hank's mother, said: "I am obviously thrilled with
>>> this ruling, although I am still saddened that it took such a
>>> prolonged battle to achieve it. I am stepping forward to tell
>>> Hank's story in hopes that other parents of blind children will not
>>> have to struggle as we did. I thank the National Federation of the
>>> Blind and all of the individuals and experts who came forward to
>>> assist in this case. I plan to strongly and publicly advocate with
>>> the National Federation of the Blind for Braille instruction for
>>> blind children."
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> The plaintiffs are represented in this matter by Sharon
>>> Krevor-Weisbaum of the Baltimore firm Brown, Goldstein, and Levy,
>>> and Jayne M. Wesler of the Cranbury firm Sussan and Greenwald.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> For more information about the National Federation of the Blind,
>>> please visit www.nfb.org <http://www.nfb.org/> . For more
>>> information about Braille, the reading and writing code for the
>>> blind, please visit www.braille.org <http://www.braille.org/> .
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ###
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> About the National Federation of the Blind
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> With more than 50,000 members, the National Federation of the Blind
>>> is the largest and most influential membership organization of blind
>>> people in the United States. The NFB improves blind people's lives
>>> through advocacy, education, research, technology, and programs
>>> encouraging independence and self-confidence. It is the leading
>>> force in the blindness field today and the voice of the nation's
>>> blind. In January 2004 the NFB opened the National Federation of the
>>> Blind Jernigan Institute, the first research and training center in
>>> the United States for the blind led by the blind.
>>>
>>>
>>>
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