[stylist] learning braille

[The Crowd]

I am so glad you changed the subject line Judith. I erase mails with 
subject-lines I don't read.
braille is a passion for me. I went from being literate to being illiterate 
to being literate again as many people who have learned braille as a second 
literacy, have. I want to learn to read Spanish in braille as well.
I think every person who goes blind should be taught braille. Everyone who 
cannot read print comfortably and easily should.
I get the New York Times and Science News in braille and read them all. I 
loved having Asimov Science fiction in braille but they discontinued it a 
long time ago.
I wonder if they have made the braille translation a real job choice yet. I 
did see that Texas has a training course you can take online.
I'll check if there is an NFB mailing list for transcribers.
I stopped being able to read print around 8 years old and went blind two 
years later. That's a long time to a little kid, in school age. I went from 
school to school as well which made it harder.
At ten years old I went to a school for the blind and it was wonderful! We 
stayed all week and we learned our blind skills early. We had to learn 
braille and how to type at young ages. My biology teacher, his name was MR 
Haywood, he took us out in the world and showed us the dried husk of locus, 
bark from different trees. How to identify things. The shapes of flowers and 
leaves.
My 6 grade teacher MRS Eshin, I probably spelled that wrong, she took us to 
her house, a farm, and we butchered a chicken plucked it cleaned it cooked 
it and age it.
It was extraordinary teaching. It's survival in a very changeable world.
Then I went to public school in high school. So I did it all really, but the 
biggest change came when I learned to read again. I was in fourth grade and 
I remember, so clearly, feeling my hand over the dots thinking, what does 
this say! I have to know!
A kid sitting behind me, his name is Verlyn, he said "Don't worry, you'll 
learn it, it's cool." And I did. Fast as I could!
At our white cane banquet I learned that back in those days the literacy 
rate was incredible compared to now.
The world is full of smart people and in order to be smart, we need to be 
literate. If it means the sixty year old man just going blind or a 3 year 
old feeling the dots on her blocks. It has to happen!
It takes paper, so we'll recycle. It takes dedication, so we will not 
relent. It's us, people. We're it. We lead the world.

Atty


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Judith Bron" <jbron at optonline.net>
To: "Stylist" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, November 16, 2009 10:30 AM
Subject: [stylist] learning braille


> Robert and all, I think we are missing the important point here.  Is our 
> goal to get the entire world to read Braille or evoke equal respect from 
> society because we are blind?  Here's a brief example of what I mean by 
> evoking respect even though we are different.
>
> My family eats only kosher foods.   For dinner last night I made meatballs 
> in an Italian sauce.  I used ground beef, tomato sauce and Italian spices. 
> Now someone might say, "How can you make an Italian sauce without pork 
> products?"  My religion forbids me from eating pork products.  Someone of 
> Middle East descent might say, "How can it have been good if you didn't 
> use cumin?"  I have a friend who is allergic to tomatoes and has developed 
> her own sauce for meatballs without using tomato sauce.  All of us are 
> different and there is no law that all of our eating needs be met the same 
> way.  Let's take it a bit further.
>
> When talking about "how nice" it would be if all children learned Braille 
> to better understand folks without sight we are starting a journey down a 
> slippery slope that can be extended in many dangerous directions.  No, not 
> every one is forced to eat only kosher foods.  Not everyone should be 
> commanded to eat pork and not everyone should be forced to live as if they 
> too had an allergy to certain foods.  We're all different.  Realize that 
> and respect the right of every individual to be different.  Everyone 
> should not be required to read Braille, communicate with their friends via 
> sign language, walk with a white cane or spend their life in a wheelchair. 
> Yes, there are people in society who are handicapped, but society has to 
> learn to respect those things that make them different.  If a man in the 
> grocery store sitting in the wheelchair asks a standing person to reach 
> for the can on the high shelf they should do it with a smile on their 
> face.  If a blind person asks where the rest room is answer him and ask if 
> he can be of further assistance.  You get the picture.
>
> There are those in society who demand that all people subscribe to their 
> religion.  They claim that if this isn't accomplished they will kill all 
> people who reject their teachings.  We all know how these people are 
> referred to.  We reject their premise that all people are the same and 
> therefore must live the same way.  We can't "demand" that all first 
> graders learn Braille and we can't command that a first grade class in the 
> public schools learn Japanese because one child might be from Japan. 
> Let's keep excelling in whatever it is we do best and gain the respect and 
> acceptance of society because we deserve it.  Judith
>
>
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