[nfbmi-talk] Response To Recent NPR Speculation About Obsolescence Of Braille

[Kane Brolin]

Hi, everybody.

I'm presenting this theme not to "toot my own horn" about completed
advocacy, but to point out that we have another thing to respond to,
which I had not been aware of until yesterday when a friend who
attends my church pointed it out.

On its iconic program "All Things Considered," National Public Radio
aired a short piece entitled "As Braille Literacy Declines, Reading
Competitions Held To Boost Interest."
http://www.npr.org/2017/03/13/519983877/as-braille-literacy-declines-reading-competitions-held-to-boost-interest
The journalist who writes and voices this wrap-around is Blake Farmer
of Tennessee-based public radio station WPLN.  This man clearly
attempts to strike a balanced approach, and he even interviews a
retired teacher of the visually impaired named Joanne Weatherall who
has come to the Tennessee School for the Blind to help promote and to
judge the recent contest that was sponsored by the Braille Institute
of Los Angeles.  The overriding theme of this piece, however, seems to
be that Braille is a nice-to-have: something that is preferred by a
few really passionate teachers and users who hang onto it, but
generally fading into the past due to advancements in technology that
make it unnecessary for most.

My concern is that no mention was made of the Federation in this
story, nor of Braille Readers Are Leaders, nor of any of the
21st-century Braille technology that makes Braille material available
on-demand for the first time to those who prefer reading in that
fashion or see that it is useful in a group context.  So I responded
privately to this reporter, even though the story is a few weeks old,
and I wrote the following shorter piece to the producers of "All
Things Considered" and got an automated acknowledgment from NPR that
the following comment did register in their feedback system.

FYI, because some others might choose to weigh in.

==============================
Having been a totally  blind person for all of my life who learned to
read at age five or so (in the early 1970s), I feel very strongly that
in my own case, if it weren't for Braille, I would be illiterate,
regardless of how much I could remember from oral learning.  But this
is not about just me and my own story or conditioned preference.
Even though the retired teacher Joanne Weatherall in Blake's piece is
excited about kids wanting to learn Braille, this seldom is an opinion
shared among teachers of the visually impaired today unles those
teachers happen to be blind, themselves.  A lot of the opposition to
Braille comes from the sighted professional community tasked to serve
the blind as teachers, public school administrators, vocational
rehabilitation counselors, or social workers of another kind.  Cost
containment has something to do with this; but even more damaging to
Braille's reputation among sighted professionals is the agreed-upon
perception in our culture that being blind is a fate worse than death.
Blindness is so frightening to so many, that otherwise rational and
well-educated parents or guardians  when confronted with blindness
will freak out and go with whatever the first  so-called "professional
expert" tells him or her. All too often, that advice sounds like
"saving eyesight," "taking advantage of all usable vision the child
has left," and trying "not to make him or her look blind."  All too
often, this well-meaning attempt to help a young student keep fitting
into his or her social environment in the classroom proves ineffective
and ultimately harmful to the child's academic achievement and future
prospects.  Sometimes that approach proves harmful even to the child's
brain health.

The face of Braille is changing.  In 2017 it's no longer about just
reproducing rows of dots by punching them mechanically into paper with
a hand-held stylus or on a heavy, metal, nine-key typewriter.  See
"Braille technology moves into the 21st century":
http://www.rawstory.com/2014/06/braille-technology-moves-into-the-21st-century/

Anyone who spends time in my office or who attends public events at
which I speak, will observe that most of the Braille I use is
refreshable Braille that pops up on a little, one-line display that
literally is small enough to fit into my breast pocket.  I can use
this both to read output from and to control my laptop, iPad, or
iPhone.  I even know of a couple of new devices that are stand-alone
Braille computers: a fully Braille-enabled Android tablet that can run
Google Books, Google Docs, and Google sheets, and can
 interact with the Internet; and a Windows 10 tablet PC that also is
 fully empowered to interface with the user via Braille output and
 input. It is clearly evident to me Braille is making a comeback among
those who are advanced students or who work in the professional world
and who happen to be blind.  The key to this is that we're learning
how to utilize it rapidly, digitally, and noiselessly while connected
to postmodern, commercial devices like mobile phones and tablets via
Bluetooth. After all, it looks a lot more respectable for me to be in
a meeting and taking notes in Braille or reading Braille while
interacting orally with someone seated in my office, than it does for
me to have earbuds attached to my head while acting as though I'm
listening to my client.  And typing on a Braille keyboard is much more
efficient for any well-trained blind person than tapping things out on
an iDevice’s touch screen.

As for hard copy: a variety of methods are being perfected that will
allow for a standard commercial printer to be adapted so it may
produce Braille hard copy output using touchable ink, not requiring
embossing in the traditional manner and thus being
 far less expensive and far less labor-intensive than the
embossed-on-paper Braille produced up to now.

It's true that electronically produced Braille is still too expensive
for financially challenged individuals to afford. But solutions are
being worked out: most notably H.R. 1734 the Access Technology
Affordability Act, which has been introduced into the House Ways &
Means Committee in the 115th Congress.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/1734

Last but not least, as my kids love to point out, I have the added advantage of
  being able to read in the dark.  As my highly observant, 7-year-old, sighted
 son Max said one time, "Being blind in the desert wouldn't be hard.
All you'd need is food, water, and Braille."

For further questions, phone me at (574)386-8868.
==============================

Kind regards,

Kane Brolin, President
Michiana Chapter, National Federation Of The Blind