[Nfbf-l] NFBF Coin Presentation at Tallahassee Seminar

[Kathy Davis]

Hi Sherrill,

Somehow, this e-mail landed in my junk folder. Go figure! I love what you
had to share in your presentation of the Braille coin in Tallahassee. The
words were powerful and so true. Thank you so very much for your dedication
and hard work to this initiative.

Kathy
 

-----Original Message-----
From: nfbf-l-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfbf-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Sherrill O'Brien
Sent: Tuesday, April 07, 2009 10:56 AM
To: NFBFL
Subject: [Nfbf-l] NFBF Coin Presentation at Tallahassee Seminar

Hello all,

I apologize for not getting this out in a timely manner, but I had some
computer glitches, and was finally able to get this statement into a
document I could send.  I've pasted it here.

Sherrill

On March 26, 2009, in conjunction with the National Federation of the Blind
of Florida's Tallahassee Seminar, the following statement was read in
Braille by Sherrill O'Brien, NFBF's Braille Coordinator.  This was done as
part of NfbF's  presentation of the just-released Louis Braille Bicentennial
coin.  It was presented to Rep. James Frishe, a member of the Florida Vision
Caucus, who received it on behalf of Rep. Kurt Kelly, who was unable to
attend.  Rep. Kelly is the Chairman of the Vision Caucus.




Braille provides people who are blind with the power of knowledge, expanding
their opportunities and equipping them with the tools to be productive and
imaginative contributors to society.

Contrary to widely held beliefs, Braille is not difficult to learn.  While
technology has improved the lives of blind people by facilitating quick
access to information, no technology can replace Braille literacy, since
literacy is the ability to read and write.  For the blind, Braille is
equivalent to print for the sighted.

Despite its efficiency and universal acceptance by the blind, the rate of
Braille literacy in the United States has declined to the point where only
ten percent of blind children are learning to read and write Braille.  As a
literacy rate of ten percent among this nation's sighted children would be
rightly viewed as a crisis and cause for national outrage, the decline in
Braille is a crisis, and swift action must be taken to reverse this
dangerous trend.

Braille literacy is the key to independence, productivity and success for
blind people, as evidenced by the fact that while seventy percent of the
blind are unemployed, eighty-five percent of those who are employed use
Braille.

The United States Congress officially recognized the importance of Braille
and the magnitude of the Braille literacy crisis in 2006 by passing the
Louis Braille Bicentennial-Braille Literacy Commemorative Coin Act,
authorizing the striking of a United States silver dollar in commemoration
of the two-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Louis Braille.

The National Federation of the Blind, the nation's oldest and largest
organization of blind people and the leading advocate for Braille literacy,
has launched a national "Braille Readers Are Leaders" campaign to promote
awareness of the importance of Braille, and to increase the availability of
competent Braille instruction and of Braille reading materials in this
country.  This campaign will be funded by a portion of the proceeds from the
sale of the Louis Braille Bicentennial Silver Dollar.

This historic commemorative coin is the first in the U.S. to contain
tactile, readable Braille.  It was released for sale by the US Mint today,
in a ceremony at the National Federation of the Blind's headquarters in
Baltimore, Maryland

Marc Maurer, President of the Federation, said, "If the blind can read, the
blind can achieve.  The Louis Braille Bicentennial Silver Dollar celebrates
the man who gave literacy to the blind, and is a unique and beautiful
keepsake.  But it is also a coin with a mission:  to make sure that every
blind child and adult losing vision in our nation has the opportunity to
learn Braille."





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