[stylist] West Virginia Governor Issues Proclamation about Braille, Newspaper Fails to Mention the Coin
Donna Hill
penatwork at epix.net
Fri May 29 16:19:09 UTC 2009
The following article appeared in the Herald Dispatch, Huntington, WV at:
http://www.herald-dispatch.com/news/x90205160/Gov-pledges-support-for-initiatives-for-blind
Though they mention the NFB of WV and the proclamation from the
governor, they fail to mention the coin or the Braille Readers are
Leaders campaign. Leaving a comment requires registration which
requires entering a code from their masthead. Not only is it
inaccessible to screen readers, but Web Visum's CAPTCHA solving tool
doesn't recognize it either.
I have contacted the online editor and the news editor. I am copying
their e-mail addresses, if anyone would like to help the NFB of WV
getting the word out. This is not the first time WV media has carried a
story about them without mentioning the coin or the "Braille Readers are
Leaders" campaign. WV Public Radio did a story about Ed McDonald, who
is first vice president of NFB of WV, in which they make it sound like
the Braille literacy crisis is his own particular perspective. Ed had
provided them with the NFB press releases and other information
mentioning the coin, but they, like the Herald Dispatch, chose not to
include it.
Donna Hill
E-mail Addresses for The Herald Dispatch
Online Editor, Cassandra Johnston Parsins
CJohnsto at heralddispatch.com
News Editor, Thom (that's with a TH)Marsh:
tmarsh at heralddispatch.com
Gov. pledges support for initiatives for blind
May 28, 2009 @ 12:00 AM
The Herald-Dispatch
CHARLESTON -- West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin recently pledged his
support for initiatives to enable more blind West Virginians to read and
write braille.
The year is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Louis Braille, the
inventor of the raised dot system of reading and writing that bears his
name.
A recent meeting in Charleston was one of many events taking place
throughout the nation to recognize braille as the key to literacy for
blind persons.
The meeting was organized by the National Federation of the Blind of
West Virginia and included representatives from several state and
private agencies.
Manchin issued a proclamation recognizing braille as a tool for blind
persons "to be productive and imaginative contributors to society."
However, he said the rate of braille literacy in the country has
declined to the point where only 10 percent of blind children are
learning to read and
write braille.
"Just as a literacy rate of 10 percent among this nation's sighted
children would be rightly viewed as a crisis and as cause for national
outrage, the decline
in braille literacy is a crisis and swift action must be taken to
reverse this dangerous trend," he said.
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