[nfbcs] Fwd: Happy Birthday Mr.Braille

Thu Jan 8 16:33:29 UTC 2009

In some ways this discussion is unfortunate because we are talking about
definitions and connotations. Literate has a specific meaning in many
dictionaries and a more general one in others, but to say that someone is
illiterate connotes inferiority. If I tell a man in a wheelchair he cannot
walk to the grocery store, my statement is true. If the connotation is that
he is confined to his house and he cannot get to the grocery store or see to
his own shopping, this is not true.

We have no business saying or believing that a person who can't learn
Braille because of diabetes is inferior. We have no business saying or
believing that a person who goes blind later in life has something wrong
with him because he lacks the proficiency in Braille which some of us enjoy.
Similarly, we need to understand that many blind students have public school
placements where they have no teacher of Braille and they will not learn it
in the way many of us who are older learned it as a matter of course.

At the same time, we should not refrane from saying that Braille, like
print, has tremendous value in physically observing how things are written,
in being able to follow an outline, in effortlessly seeing the difference in
the words hear, here, their, there, wear, where, bare, bear, etc.

We have to get to the place where we can, without apology, say that Braille
is a skill blind people should have, without implying to those who cannot or
have not, that they are somehow inferior or are to blame for some
shortcoming in themselves. We need to address the system which shortchanges
so many without making those who have been short-changed feel they are at
fault and that they have no alternatives. Mostly there are always
alternatives, but the more of these we make available to our blind brothers
and sisters, , the easier we will find it to compete for available jobs and
resources.

I doubt that anyone who uses the words literate or illiterate really means
one lacks the ability to communicate. What they are trying to get at has
more to do with whether people understand the construction of language, and
making the point that the chances of successfully learning to do this is
increased with print or Braille and is made more difficult using only audio
for presentation. Technology changes things at some level. I can dictate and 
correctly write words whose spellings I cannot begin to write, and similarly 
I can hear and understand words I might not recognize were I to see them 
written letter for letter. Who could ever, using audio, come up with the 
spelling of ennui or detente? It is funny in hindsight how, as a college 
freshman, I took a course in educational psychology using two different 
audio textbooks, and believed we were studying two different theorists, one 
named Gonyea, and the other named gagney. The comparisons were easy, but the 
contrasts were more difficult.

As a final chuckle, think about the difference between the meaning of the
word ignorant and the connotation. The true meaning says I do not know. The
connotation says I am foolish not to know or that learning is beyond me. The
definition alerts me to a gap in knowledge I can do something about. The
connotation says I am intellectually or culturally doomed.

Gary

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bryan Schulz" <b.schulz at sbcglobal.net>
To: "NFBnet NFBCS Mailing List" <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2009 9:42 AM
Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Fwd: Happy Birthday Mr.Braille!-$200discount
onourBraille products

> liz,
>
> what do you say to someone who can't read print due to vision loss and
> can't read braille due to diabetes or a brain injury?
> Are you going to be ignorant and tell them they are illiterate?
> Bryan Schulz
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Gary Wunder" <gwunder at earthlink.net>
> To: "NFBnet NFBCS Mailing List" <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2009 7:43 AM
> Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Fwd: Happy Birthday Mr. Braille!-$200discount
> onourBraille products
>
>
>> Hi Chris. I do not know in which state you live, but most rehab agencies
>> are willing, as part of post-employment services, to invest in equipment.
>> This is especially so if your jobs requires you to sometimes work from
>> home.
>>
>> Warmest regards,
>>
>> Gary
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Chris Westbrook" <westbchris at gmail.com>
>> To: "NFBnet NFBCS Mailing List" <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2009 6:01 AM
>> Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Fwd: Happy Birthday Mr. Braille! -$200discount
>> onourBraille products
>>
>>
>>> As much as I like braille and am a proponent of it, I've always thought
>>> the argument below was not valid.  Why?  Because braille is so much less
>>> available than print.  I think this is the big elephant in the room that
>>> no one wants to talk about.  I would love to have a braille display for
>>> home, but I just can't afford it.  I can't gedt state help either
>>> because I am already employed.  I don't understand why twenty years
>>> later braille displays are still just as much out of reach of the
>>> average blind person as they were when they were first made.  Yes there
>>> is hard copy braille, but it is huge and bulky compared to print.
>>> Braille cannot really be compared to print because it is so much more
>>> costly to produce on a mass scale.
>>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>>> From: "slery" <slerythema at insightbb.com>
>>> To: "'NFBnet NFBCS Mailing List'" <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
>>> Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2009 2:34 AM
>>> Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Fwd: Happy Birthday Mr. Braille! - $200discount
>>> onourBraille products
>>>
>>>
>>>> One question, Dean.
>>>>
>>>> Can we tell public schools that they no longer need to waste a
>>>> teacher's
>>>> time on reading because most of the kids have been auditorilly reading
>>>> for
>>>> years by the time they get to school and that is perfectly acceptable
>>>> for
>>>> them to succeed?
>>>>
>>>> Cindy
>>>>
>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>> From: nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org
>>>>> [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Dean Martineau
>>>>> Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 3:25 PM
>>>>> To: 'NFBnet NFBCS Mailing List'
>>>>> Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Fwd: Happy Birthday Mr. Braille! - $200
>>>>> discount onourBraille products
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I have to say that I agree with Everett, but at the same
>>>>> time, the conversation isn't too useful and can take away
>>>>> from the essential point.  I am a very literate person, using
>>>>> both Braille and audio reading techniques quite effectively.
>>>>> Nobody will tell me that I am not reading, processing
>>>>> information, when I read auditorially.  At the same time, the
>>>>> real point is that for a blind person to succeed in the world
>>>>> of work and independent living, competency in Braille is
>>>>> somewhere between highly beneficial and essential.  A blind
>>>>> person without high Braille competence has many more
>>>>> opportunities than one who does not.  So yes, non-braille
>>>>> readers can be literate, but the more Braille one has, the better.
>>>>>
>>>>> Dean
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>> From: nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org
>>>>> [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of E.J. Zufelt
>>>>> Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 11:36 AM
>>>>> To: NFBnet NFBCS Mailing List
>>>>> Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Fwd: Happy Birthday Mr. Braille! - $200
>>>>> discount on ourBraille products
>>>>>
>>>>> Good afternoon Liz,
>>>>>
>>>>> What does literacy mean to you?  I would say that the least
>>>>> important part
>>>>> of litercy is the medium by which the symbols are acquired,
>>>>> but is the
>>>>> synthesis of the symbols into meaningful propositions.
>>>>>
>>>>> In other words, literacy is about successful communication,
>>>>> not about the
>>>>> means of communication, be it dots, ink or sound.
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>> Everett
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>>>>> From: "Liz Bottner" <liz.bottner at gmail.com>
>>>>> To: "'NFBnet NFBCS Mailing List'" <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
>>>>> Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 3:23 PM
>>>>> Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Fwd: Happy Birthday Mr. Braille! - $200
>>>>> discount on
>>>>> ourBraille products
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Hi all,
>>>>>
>>>>> I don't mean to offend or start any major heated discussion,
>>>>> but my own personal view is that if someone cannot read print
>>>>> and doesn't know Braille, then they are, by all means,
>>>>> illiterate. Just listening to audio or reading via a
>>>>> screenreader on the computer, in my view, isn't actually
>>>>> reading; that's having things reed to you. I'd be interested
>>>>> in others' thoughts on this matter.
>>>>>
>>>>> Just my thoughts, for what they're worth,
>>>>>
>>>>> Liz
>>>>>
>>>>> email:
>>>>> liz.bottner at gmail.com
>>>>> Visit my livejournal:
>>>>> http://unsilenceddream.livejournal.com
>>>>> Follow me on Twitter:
>>>>> http://twitter.com/lizbot
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>> %40zufelt.ca
>>>>
>>>>
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