[nabs-l] Learning to learn faster

Mon Feb 24 23:40:07 UTC 2014

Good afternoon, Sophie,

         Growing up,I admit, I took braille very much for granted, 
couldn't fathom those blinks I heard about who, didn't read braille. 
Served the Federation's summer program as the braille instructor, was 
a devotee of this page slate I have. Was beginning to learn Grade 3, 
the whole bit. I forgot, in studying Japanese language, I, with the 
help of a key my Dad found for me On-line, began teaching myself 
nihongo tenji (Japanese braille) Then, at age 19, I was hit by a car 
which caused severe brain damage, a symptom of which has been acute 
tactile appraxia which for me, refers to an inability of hand to 
perceive that which is sent to it via the brain. thus reducing 
braille reading pretty much to a very rich and stimulating  pipe 
dream. And, It isn't about the spacing of the dots, like you see with 
neuropathy people, as if anything was produced in jumbo braille, 
anyway. I just don't perceive what my finger feels!
But, I say aoll this to make the point of my also not retaining, 
during the time i did use hard copy braille as well as a Braille 
Light 40 purchased by the school district and, having no alternative, 
I have forced myself to learn audotorally on the comput as well as 
talking books.... so, it can be possible in case, got help you, you 
find yourself in this way.
for today, Car
408-209-3239

Courtney, I have to disagree with you on braille textbooks. I 
actually find them more useful than audio textbooks. Granted, I'm in 
high school, so I'm probably not moving at as fast a pace as college 
students, but still. If you read a braille book in an electric format 
with a notetaker (I use a braillenote apex), you can use the Find 
command to search for important keywords if you're trying to look up 
something quickly. You can also move by paragraph and by page if you 
wish to skip irrelevant material. For me at least, I comprehend more 
when I read braille. I do okay with audio, but when I read it with my 
fingers, I tend to absorb more of the information, whereas when I'm 
listening to it, I occasionally zone out and miss something. This is 
more important for some classes than others, but reading braille 
tells us how to spell things. Braille also allows us to see what's 
underlined or italicized, which may be important for some lessons. 
These are just my thoughts. Have a great day!

>Sincerely,
>Sophie
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Courtney Stover <liamskitten at gmail.com
>To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
>Date sent: Mon, 24 Feb 2014 14:20:35 -0600
>Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Learning to learn faster
>
>Antonio,
>
>I'll return with more thoughts later tonight when I've properly read
>the article, but I thought I'd answer your questions, because they
>interest me on a philosophical level.
>
>This is one of the ways that, frankly, my life experience simply
>hasn't jived with NFB philosophy.  NFB philosophy emphasizes the
>importance of fast Braille reading, which I agree with; practice
>absolutely must be maintained.  However, they also seem to strongly
>insist on Braille textbooks, which I don't get behind so much.
>Doing
>college-level reading; I have never had to consume material as quickly
>as I am right now.  And, at least for me, reading textbooks in Braille
>is simply impractical, even if that Braille has shifted to electronic
>instead of hardcopy.  I can read loads faster, even with something
>like RFBD and the Bookmarks function on my player to find important
>material again, than I ever thought about with Braille, particularly
>because I can quickly skim over superfluous material like map
>descriptions, vocabulary I already remember, or excerpts from outside
>documents that are meant to enhance the readings, which are always
>located at the end of the page, by simply going to the next one with
>the press of a button.  With books read by a screen reader,
>particularly if they're from somewhere like Bookshare and have Daisy
>navigation, this is even more true.
>
>I think your point is very true, about Braille readers only reading at
>the pace of sighted ones.  I went in recently to take a test in
>Braille (the one reason I keep my Braille skills sharp; my test
>performance plummets when I have to have a reader), and was noted as
>one of the fastest Braille readers the proctor had ever seen.
>However, someone was taking the same test with a screen reader, and
>was finished in half the time I was.  So, learning to take tests with
>screen and human readers is something I wish to become proficient at.
>After all, I may have Braille accommodation now, but I doubt a
>workplace, such as a call center, that has a training process before
>proper work begins, is going to allow me to have a Braille display.
>
>Now, this says nothing about leisure activities, in which I vastly
>prefer Braille to audio, save in rare cases.  If I'm going to read a
>book, I want to actually be reading it.  Also, any proofing task would
>be made immensely more difficult without the use of Braille.
>
>I hope this at least provides an interesting perspective on your
>questions, as you certainly provided a very interesting article I'm
>looking forward to diving in to.
>Warmly,
>Courtney
>
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