[nabs-l] Can't believe this about braille

Fri Feb 1 15:55:22 UTC 2013

Ari,

Yeah, only about 10% of blind or visually impaired kids are receiving
braille instruction in schools.  There has been a campaign going on
for several years to raise that number, but the main problem, even
more so than parents or teachers just not recognizing the need for
braille, is that there is a severe shortage of teachers for the
visually impaired who can teach those skills.  This means that some
areas of the country don' have a braille teacher at all, and if a
child or his or her parents want them to learn braille then they
usually have to find a blind adult or someone else who uses it to
teach them.  In other areas there may be a teacher, but the tvi will
have a very large caseload spread out over multiple districts and
parts of a city.  My county educational service center had 3 braille
teachers and each of them had a cawseload of at least 20 students
spanning from pre-school through high school and spread out across a
large city.  We need more braille teachers really badly.

Interesting fact: a girl who lives on my dorm floor went to school
with a friend of mine from back home who is also blind.  She is an
intervention specialist major and wants to get a degree to be a tvi
after she gets her undergrad done.  I keep telling her to hurry up and
graduate since we need her in the field ASAP.  :)

On 2/1/13, Kaiti Shelton <crazy4clarinet104 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Ari and all,
>
> I agree as well.  I mainly read electronic books like Sophie said as
> Bookshare is free for students and all and the braille is unlimitted,
> not to mention I can carry several with me at a time wherever I go,
> but every once in a while like over the summer between school years I
> love to read hard copy braille books.  The NLS is great and I'm happy
> that we have that resource available to us, but I wish I could keep
> certain things like the Harry Potter volumes or something.  I agree
> that we should be able to buy them for at least a similar price if not
> te exact same as the print editions, with a margin either way of about
> 20 or 25 dollars max.
>
> The thing that makes me really sad are those kids who never learn
> braille because the adults in their lives either don't teache them or
> tell them to just rely on audio because they don't expect them to be
> literate.  Sophie is exactly right that you can't rely on audio or
> technology; in my sophomore year my laptop and BrailleNote totally
> died and I don't know where I would have been for those three months I
> didn't have them if I didn't know how to use a Perkins Brailler.  The
> worst is when there is a kid who's gradually losing vision and the
> parents just push for audio, naively thinking that will solve their
> kid's problems rather than hurt their chances for academic success.
> It's really a shame braille isn't taken full advantage of.  But,
> hopefully NAPUB will fix some of that.  :)
>
> On 2/1/13, Kirt <kirt.crazydude at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Sophie,
>> That would be a fantastic idea, if our friend Ari actually lived in the
>> United States. :-)
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>> On Feb 1, 2013, at 5:39 AM, Sophie Trist <sweetpeareader at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Ari, you know you can get braille books for free from your state library
>>> for the blind (well, at least I know Louisiana has one) or from the
>>> national library in Utah. That's where I got all my braille books before
>>> I
>>> sarted using my braillenote. While I'll say that electronic reading is a
>>> lot more convenient (braille books are so heavy and clunky) I do
>>> appreciate braille. Because electronics can break. I think that's what a
>>> lot of people don't realize. And if electronics break and you don't know
>>> as a backup, you're in deep trouble. Audio is no excuse for not learning
>>> braille. My personal belief is that just as all sighted kids must learn
>>> print, all of usmust learn braille. Sorry for the long rant, but the
>>> bottom line is, I agree with you, Ari. If a print book only costs
>>> $20-30,
>>> braille shouldn't cost that much more.
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: Ari Damoulakis <aridamoulakis at gmail.com
>>> To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
>>> Date sent: Fri, 1 Feb 2013 09:47:47 +0200
>>> Subject: [nabs-l] Can't believe this about braille
>>>
>>> Hi everyone
>>> I've just seen something that makes me feel quite appalled and sad. I
>>> can't believe how much you guys have to pay simply to get or have a
>>> book in braille? I know that now many people use electronic and audio,
>>> and from what I hear many people don't even learn braille, but I
>>> actually really love braille, I love reading actual braille, and not
>>> just electronic (one line at a time I just can't stand), but paper. I
>>> love to hold a propper braille book, page through it, feel it and read
>>> it, especially for example if it is a book for learning a language or
>>> even a textbook. I know you can listen to your work with jaws etc, but
>>> I often just love actually reading. For me braille is such a  lovely
>>> thing!
>>> Anyway why I am writing is because I find it terrible how much you
>>> guys are paying for braille books, its incredibly sad. I was looking
>>> on the internet for whether there are braille books available to help
>>> me learn some French, and I couldn't believe the prices you guys have
>>> to pay, I saw for example on APH web site a book for 300 or 400
>>> dollars just for the book. I had actually heard of this before, a
>>> friend of mine wanted to find some braille maths books and he couldn't
>>> believe it was nearly 700 dollars, but I put it down to the fact that
>>> maybe it was just because maths is more difficult to do in braille.
>>> But when I saw this I couldn't believe it, even for just normal books
>>> you guys have to actually pay such high prices? I know you have to
>>> maybe pay transcribers and things, but I can't understand why these
>>> organisations can't get electronic files or just scan and print the
>>> books? I'm not talking about complex things like maths that I don't
>>> know if you can scan things like that, but normal books? Here even if
>>> I give a book in to get transcribed, OK it sometimes takes about 6
>>> months or even a year, but I never have to pay such incredible prices
>>> like what you guys are, and if I'm lucky enough to find an electronic
>>> version it costs even less. Frankly, I find it really sad and tragic
>>> and I think I can now understand why many people there just aren't
>>> bothering to learn how to read braille, because what is the point if
>>> you are having to pay such high prices for books? I know you guys have
>>> a great library but what happens if there are books you really want in
>>> braille or would just like to have brailled? If these are the prices
>>> that you are having to pay just for the pleasure of being able to read
>>> 1 book in braille this is just so terrible!
>>> Ari
>>>
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>>
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>
>
> --
> Kaiti
>

-- 
Kaiti