[nfb-talk] FYI Are Braille's days as the great equalizer over?
Judy Jones
jtj1 at cableone.net
Sat Nov 27 05:23:01 UTC 2010
Hi,
You're right about it becoming a tough sell, but I still get back to the
educators, starting with the profs in the classroom - no, rewind, the
authors of the books on which they choose to expound. Where to begin the
positive indoctrination!! . . .
All I can say, is that when our daughters were in grade school and didn't
feel like reading because it was too hard, or, just didn't feel like it on
general principle, it didn't matter. They knew they were expected to park
it for at least 20 minutes daily to read, read, read. And that's what
should be expected of blind students.
Having been a rehab teacher, I've seen older persons grab hold and become
fluent braille readers. These are in the minority, but I'm convinced it's
all in the attitude and the personal motivation.
Judy
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Heim" <john at johnheim.net>
To: "NFB Talk Mailing List" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, November 26, 2010 4:00 PM
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] FYI Are Braille's days as the great equalizer over?
> Well, I basically agree with you but I don't think we should totally
> dismiss the other point of view. I think the need to learn braille is
> becoming a tougher and tougher sell as young blind people get more and
> more into technology.
>
> Learning braille is really hard and for the few times you need it, its
> hard to say it's worth the effort. But in my opinion, it's like not
> having enough lifeboats on the titanic. Its like not getting your flu
> shot. Its like not buying insurance. Yeah, maybe you'll never need it.
> but if you do, you are going to be darn glad you took the time to learn
> it.
>
> this is probably the most valuable thing about the NFB philosophy. don't
> try to just slide by. Attack being blind
> Go after it. Learn how to use a computer, learn how to cross a street,
> and by all means, learn braille.
>
> This is how I approach my young friends who have lost their sight. get
> out there and get it done. Approach it like any other problem. Its going
> to take hard work. But to be the best blind guy you can be, you need
> braille.
>
>
> On Nov 26, 2010, at 2:48 PM, Ray Foret Jr wrote:
>
>> Seems to me we've all heard this same sorry song and dance before. Are
>> the days of Print through as the great equalizer? No? If not, why not?
>> I suspect I can guess how most fluent Braille readers will come down on
>> this one. I don't read Braille as fluently as I really should, but,
>> seems to me that Braille is necessary to daily life. this tired old
>> song and dance of "Braile is being replaced by technology" is the most
>> stupid thing I think I've ever come across.
>>
>>
>> Sincerely,
>> The Constantly Barefooted Ray!!!
>>
>> Now A Very Proud and very happy Mac user!!!
>>
>> Skype Name:
>> barefootedray
>>
>> On Nov 26, 2010, at 2:36 PM, Michael Hingson wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Are Braille's days as the great equalizer over?
>>>
>>>
>>> Keith Gillard taps away on his computer's Microsoft Egronomic keyboard
>>> at
>>> his home in Edmonton, Aug. 4, 2010. "Braille is not necessary to have a
>>> full
>>> and complete life as a blind Canadian," he says.
>>>
>>> Walter Tychnowicz for National Post
>>>
>>> Keith Gillard taps away on his computer's Microsoft Egronomic keyboard
>>> at
>>> his home in Edmonton, Aug. 4, 2010. "Braille is not necessary to have a
>>> full
>>> and complete life as a blind Canadian," he says.
>>>
>>> * Comments <http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/#Comments>
>>> * Twitter
>>> <http://twitter.com/home?status=RT+@nationalpost%3a+Are+Braille%27s+days+as+
>>> the+great+equalizer+over%3f+http%3a//www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/Braill
>>> e%2bdays%2bgreat%2bequalizer%2bover/3369651/story.html>
>>> * LinkedIn
>>> <http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=http%3a//www.nationalpos
>>> t.com/news/canada/Braille%2bdays%2bgreat%2bequalizer%2bover/3369651/
>>> story.ht
>>> ml&title=National+Post%3a+Are+Braille%27s+days+as+the+great
>>> +equalizer+over%3
>>> f>
>>> * Digg
>>> <http://digg.com/submit?url=http%3a//www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/Braill
>>> e%2bdays%2bgreat%2bequalizer%2bover/3369651/
>>> story.html&title=National+Post%3
>>> a+Are+Braille%27s+days+as+the+great+equalizer+over%3f>
>>> * Buzz
>>> <http://www.google.com/buzz/post?url=http%3a//www.nationalpost.com/news/cana
>>> da/Braille%2bdays%2bgreat%2bequalizer%2bover/3369651/
>>> story.html&message=Nati
>>> onal+Post%3a+Are+Braille%27s+days+as+the+great+equalizer+over
>>> %3f&image-url=h
>>> ttp%3a//www.nationalpost.com/3369607.bin%3fsize%3d620x465>
>>> * Email
>>> <http://www.nationalpost.com/ajax/email/story.xml?url=http%3a//www.nationalp
>>> ost.com/news/canada/Braille%2bdays%2bgreat%2bequalizer%2bover/
>>> 3369651/story.
>>> html&id=3369651&title=National+Post+Story%3a++Are+Braille%27s+days
>>> +as+the+gr
>>> eat+equalizer+over%3f>
>>> *
>>> Kenyon Wallace, National Post . Friday, Aug. 6, 2010
>>>
>>> The publication in 1829 of a small booklet explaining how a series of
>>> raised
>>> dots arranged in a line could teach the world's blind to read is one of
>>> modern history's great, if often overlooked, turning points.
>>>
>>> Once hailed as the great intellectual equalizer, Louis Braille's
>>> development
>>> of a new alphabet that could be read with the fingers is now at risk of
>>> being consigned to history, overtaken by the rapid pace of changing
>>> technology.
>>>
>>> Only 10% of blind school-aged children are taught Braille today;
>>> compared to
>>> about 50% in the 1960s, according to the U.S. National Federation of
>>> the
>>> Blind. The statistic is roughly the same for Canada.
>>>
>>> The prospect of Braille becoming obsolete has sparked a polarizing
>>> debate
>>> between advocates, educators and individuals over the causes of the
>>> code's
>>> decline and what to do about it.
>>>
>>> Advocates blame funding shortages, not enough qualified teachers, and
>>> decisions by administrators to deny Braille instruction to children
>>> with low
>>> vision because of an emphasis on encouraging these students to read
>>> print.
>>> Educators say this assessment couldn't be further from the truth and
>>> argue
>>> that today's diagnostic tools have honed the art of identifying those
>>> who
>>> truly require Braille instruction and those who don't.
>>>
>>> Others still - including many blind people - say advances in assistive
>>> technology, such as audiobooks, voice recognition software and computer
>>> screen-readers, have rendered Braille unnecessary in daily life. They
>>> say
>>> its cumbersome nature - a single Harry Potter book printed on Braille
>>> paper
>>> will fill a moving box - makes it impractical and unaffordable.
>>>
>>> "Braille is not necessary to have a full and complete life as a blind
>>> Canadian," said Edmonton resident Keith Gillard, who was born with
>>> retinitis
>>> pigmentosa, a degenerative eye condition that rendered him legally, but
>>> not
>>> completely, blind at birth. As a child, he was encouraged to use what
>>> vision
>>> he had to learn print, but not Braille. "They taught me how to touch
>>> type
>>> rather than learn Braille."
>>>
>>> By his mid-20s, the blurry fog obscuring his peripheral vision began to
>>> creep toward the centre of his eyes as his condition worsened. Mr.
>>> Gillard
>>> gauged the severity of his increasing blindness by his ability to see
>>> the
>>> lines on the ice at his local hockey rink each winter while playing on
>>> a
>>> blind hockey team.
>>>
>>> Now 49 and completely blind, he says he has contemplated learning
>>> Braille,
>>> but probably never will given the plethora of technological aids he
>>> uses at
>>> work as a federal civil servant and at home.
>>>
>>> "Adaptive technology has opened up the world of education and
>>> employment for
>>> blind Canadians. Braille hasn't done that," he said.
>>>
>>> "I recognize the benefits. Would I be better off as a blind Canadian if
>>> I
>>> was a proficient Braille reader? I think I would be. Is it necessary
>>> for me
>>> to be successful? No."
>>>
>>> Up until nine years ago, Sarah Empey, 35, had full eyesight. When she
>>> was
>>> 26, the Type 1 diabetic suffered complications due to high blood
>>> pressure
>>> and started to go blind. Despite several operations, she now has only
>>> 15%
>>> vision in her right eye.
>>>
>>> She intends to learn Braille one day, but hasn't found the need for it
>>> yet,
>>> and has learned only numbers.
>>>
>>> "It's not something I would use at this point," says Ms. Empey, a
>>> Calgary
>>> resident and short film director.
>>>
>>> She uses a program on her computer called ZoomText, which magnifies
>>> text and
>>> uses an audio device called a VictorReader to listen to books.
>>>
>>> "Some people are fine with technology doing everything for them. I do
>>> see
>>> Braille as slightly dying off, but for me, Braille still means more
>>> independence [in the future]."
>>>
>>> Twenty years ago, the predominant philosophy governing education of the
>>> blind was to maximize the efficiency of whatever vision students had in
>>> a
>>> regular classroom with their sighted peers. This required partially
>>> blind
>>> children to use a myriad of tools such as monocular telescopes to see
>>> the
>>> blackboard, magnifying glasses, bold markers and large-print books.
>>> These
>>> tools evolved through the 1980s to include small cameras students could
>>> roll
>>> over text that would be blown up on a closed circuit television.
>>>
>>> "Braille was never given to them as an option because if you had
>>> vision, you
>>> were supposed to use vision," said Dr. Carol Farrenkopf, coordinator of
>>> the
>>> Toronto District School Board's Vision Program.
>>>
>>> It wasn't until the mid-1990s that teachers began using a tool called a
>>> "learning media assessment," using observations and timed-readings to
>>> determine if Braille should be introduced.
>>>
>>> Another factor driving down the rate of Braille use is the fact that
>>> those
>>> who go blind later in life due to medical conditions, such as diabetes
>>> and
>>> macular degeneration, already have literacy skills and are therefore
>>> less
>>> likely to be inclined to learn a new writing system.
>>>
>>> "A 60-year-old woman working who already knows how to read and write
>>> and
>>> then loses her vision, why does she need to learn Braille when she can
>>> keep
>>> going with technology?" said Ms. Farrenkopf.
>>>
>>> She stresses that not all blind children need to be taught Braille.
>>>
>>> "Legal blindness is not the same thing as being totally blind," said
>>> Ms.
>>> Farrenkopf, noting that 20/200 vision - legal blindness - is still
>>> functional vision. (Someone with 20/200 can see a letter at 20 feet
>>> while a
>>> person with normal vision can see the same letter from 200 feet.)
>>>
>>> "Kids with 20/200 vision don't need to be reading Braille."
>>>
>>> That opinion is not shared by all Braille advocates, who wonder at the
>>> logic
>>> of not teaching the system to children when many eye conditions are
>>> degenerative.
>>>
>>> "They're in the school system where people are being encouraged to use
>>> the
>>> technology and their remaining vision at the expense of learning
>>> Braille
>>> that will prepare them for vision loss as they get older," said CNIB
>>> spokeswoman Ellie Shuster.
>>>
>>> Advocates also say the integration of blind children within the regular
>>> school system means less one-on-one time between teachers and students
>>> and
>>> therefore less consistent Braille instruction. The result, they say, is
>>> that
>>> many students end up being functionally illiterate.
>>>
>>> "School districts across the country, in general, don't adequately
>>> support
>>> Braille instruction," said Betty Nobel, president of the Canadian
>>> Braille
>>> Authority. "In the primary grades, kids should have daily Braille
>>> instruction, but they're not getting that."
>>>
>>> Forty years ago, Canada was home to several residential schools for the
>>> blind, where all students were expected to learn Braille. There is only
>>> one
>>> such school remaining today: W. Ross Macdonald School for the Blind and
>>> Deafblind in Brantford, Ont.
>>>
>>> The Atlantic Provinces Special Education Authority, which provides
>>> educational services to students from birth to 21 years of age with
>>> sensory
>>> impairments, has also established several successful short-term,
>>> intensive
>>> Braille courses that can be taken during the regular school year.
>>>
>>> But it's not enough, says Ms. Nobel, who is also department head of the
>>> Program for the Visually Impaired at Vancouver Community College and a
>>> CNIB
>>> library board member. She says teachers in the regular school system
>>> may not
>>> have blind children in their classes every year, meaning they lack the
>>> opportunity to stay proficient in Braille.
>>>
>>> "If this means lowering the workloads for teachers that have blind
>>> students,
>>> that's what we need," she said.
>>>
>>> The implications for an illiterate blind population are profound.
>>>
>>> A study by Dr. Ruby Ryles, a blindness researcher at Louisiana Tech
>>> University, found that visually impaired people who learned Braille at
>>> a
>>> young age were more likely to be employed, financially independent and
>>> better educated than those who relied primarily on print -- this in a
>>> world
>>> where blind adults already face an unemployment rate of over 70%.
>>>
>>> Diana Brent, a teacher of visually impaired students, and her husband,
>>> Doug
>>> Brent, a University of Calgary communications professor, are the
>>> authors of
>>> one of the only studies comparing the writings of blind people who
>>> learned
>>> Braille at a young age and those who didn't. Non-Braille users were
>>> asked to
>>> type stories on a keyboard using audio software.
>>>
>>> Their findings were alarming. The Brents described the prose of the
>>> non-Braille group as "jumbled and confused."
>>>
>>> "It's as if all of their ideas are crammed into a container, shaken,
>>> and
>>> thrown randomly onto a sheet of paper like dice onto a table," the
>>> authors
>>> concluded. "The process of making connections, linking one idea to
>>> another
>>> is tenuous at best."
>>>
>>> While preliminary, the results suggest that blind children relying
>>> solely on
>>> an oral education have virtually no means of literacy in the sense that
>>> society has come to understand it.
>>>
>>> "It's still well worth teaching children Braille, even if they choose
>>> later
>>> to drift away from it," said Mr. Brent. "To not have access to a way of
>>> organizing thought that depends on a system of written record, to not
>>> be
>>> formed by that arguably makes people think differently and puts them at
>>> a
>>> significant disadvantage."
>>>
>>> kewallace at nationalpost.com
>>>
>>> - - -
>>>
>>> Who was Louis Braille?
>>>
>>> Louis Braille was born fully sighted on Jan. 4, 1809 in a small town
>>> near
>>> Paris, France.
>>>
>>> He lost his sight as a small boy after accidentally stabbing himself in
>>> the
>>> eye with a stitching awl his his father's shoemaking workshop. An
>>> infection
>>> in one eye spread to the other, rendering him completely blind.
>>>
>>> A creative and intelligent boy, Braille earned a scholarship to the
>>> Royal
>>> Institution for Blind Youth in Paris when he was 10.
>>>
>>> While there, he learned to read using a system of raised letters by
>>> pressing
>>> shaped copper wire onto paper. But this cumbersome system made it
>>> impossible
>>> for blind people to write by themselves.
>>>
>>> In 1821, French army captain Charles Barbier de la Serre visited the
>>> school
>>> to share his invention, which he called "Night Writing." The invention
>>> was a
>>> series of 12 raised dots combined to form words that soldiers could use
>>> to
>>> communicate in the night without talking.
>>>
>>> The code proved too difficult to understand, so Braille modified the
>>> system
>>> to a series of six raised dots, with characters representing each
>>> letter of
>>> the alphabet. In 1829 he published his system in the booklet, "The
>>> Method of
>>> Writing Words, Music and Plain Song by Means of Dots, for Use by the
>>> Blind
>>> and Arranged by Them."
>>>
>>> This new system of reading and writing - Braille - did not catch on
>>> immediately. Braille, who eventually became a teacher at the Institute,
>>> died
>>> of tuberculosis on Jan. 6, 1852, before even his own school adopted his
>>> code.
>>>
>>> The French government officially recognized the Braille system two
>>> years
>>> later, and it eventually became the world standard for written
>>> communication
>>> for the blind.
>>>
>>> In 1952, Braille's body was disinterred and reburied in the Pantheon in
>>> Paris to lie with the remains of other distinguished French citizens.
>>>
>>> Kenyon Wallace, National Post
>>>
>>> - - -
>>>
>>> Blindness By The Numbers
>>>
>>> 10 Percentage of legally blind North Americans who can read Braille
>>>
>>> 836,000 Number of Canadians living with significant vision loss that
>>> cannot
>>> be corrected with ordinary lenses
>>>
>>> 70 Percentage of blind North Americans who are unemployed
>>>
>>> 1,000,000 number of Canadians with some form of macular degeneration,
>>> the
>>> leading cause of vision loss in North Americans over the age of 50
>>>
>>> 90 Percentage of blind children in the United States not learning
>>> Braille
>>> today
>>>
>>> 50 Percentage of blind American high school students who drop out
>>>
>>> 75,000 Number of people who lose all or part of their vision every year
>>>
>>> Source: NFB and CNIB
>>>
>>>
>>> Tools
>>>
>>>
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>>> More On This Story
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>>>
>>> .
>>> <http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/Blind+person+sense+smell+better+dif
>>> ferent+study/2958847/story.html> Blind person's sense of smell not
>>> better,
>>> but different: study
>>>
>>>
>>> .
>>> <http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/Artist+creates+book+nudes+blind/290
>>> 3068/story.html> Artist creates book of nudes for the blind
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> The Michael Hingson Group, INC.
>>>
>>> "Speaking with Vision"
>>>
>>> Michael Hingson, President
>>>
>>> (415) 827-4084
>>>
>>> <mailto:info at michaelhingson.com> info at michaelhingson.com
>>>
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