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

Fri Feb 1 20:58:23 UTC 2013

Ari, for one, I am so sorry I didn't know you don't live in the 
U.S. Also, I didn't know blind people could learn print. I mean, 
I can sign my name, but other than that, I do not know any print 
letters and have no desire or need to learn them. Don't feel bad 
because you don't know print. As long as you know braille you 
should be good.

 ----- Original Message -----
From: Ari Damoulakis <aridamoulakis at gmail.com
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Fri, 1 Feb 2013 17:41:20 +0200
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Can't believe this about braille

Hi Sophie and Carly
Its not a rant Sophie, its absolutely true. I have seen at uni 
for
example, there was a person who never learned braille. He does 
use
jaws at uni, but he can't spell properly because when you use 
audio
you obviously aren't learning individual lettres. It isn't just 
that,
but because I learned braille from young, what I love is that 
even now
when I'm writing, I don't know how to explain, but I visualise 
what
I'm typing in braille, which I really like. If a blind person 
doesn't
learn braille and just works on audio, how do they imagine what 
an
alphabet looks like. For them, when they type an l, do they then 
just
somehow think of it as this sound, that is obviously assuming 
they
haven't learned the shapes of the lettres in sighted or some 
other
way. For me unfortunately, I must confess that since I never use
sighted writing much I'm always forgetting what many lettres and
numbers look like. The only ones I obviously don't forget are for
example things I use in daily life like to sign my name, but the 
rest,
even though I've learned them and felt their shapes, I just do 
forget.
But I can't actually understand, if it is true that blind people 
in
the US from birth now aren't even learning braille, how does the
teacher even start teaching them how to read and write, how 
lettres
fit together to make words, or for those people are lettres just 
sort
of abstract sounds?
Ari

On 2/1/13, 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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