[stylist] Braille for youth and adult contest info and thought

[Eve Sanchez]

I agree that many blind and visually impaired youth are not being taught
Braille and it is a shame. It is not just a current issue exclusive to
today's youth though. As one of those youth that was denied the opportunity
to learn Braille I now suffer from illiteracy. I am learning Braille and do
quite well but not at all as I would have been had I learned as a child. I
believe any encouragment for our youth to learn Braille and learn it well
is not just something to be taken as incentive for a contest. It is truly
something that will benefit their lives and must be continued for their
sake. They will thank us later. Eve

On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 6:27 PM, Bridgit Pollpeter
<bpollpeter at hotmail.com>wrote:

> Braille literacy is a vital part of education for blind students.
> Because the division is a part of the Federation, I believe the focus
> needs to remain on the Braille aspect. The goal, as Robert points out,
> is to encourage Braille literacy among youth. The NFB works, first and
> foremost, to support, encourage and advocate for the blind to be viewed
> as equal members in society. Without Braille literacy, we suddenly are
> not on as equal of a setting as our non-blind peers. We know it's
> important to expose young blind people to Braille as soon as possible,
> and to encourage the use of it as they grow. As a Federation group, I
> think we would be remiss to no longer retain this part of the youth
> contest.
>
> However, I agree that many youth nowadays are not receiving proper
> Braille education, and this is no fault of their own. Perhaps the
> division needs to consider how to retain the current rules for the youth
> contest while allowing those youth who do not have the same opportunity
> to learn or use Braille to participate as well. Expanding new categories
> at this point does not seem cost effective for the division, so maybe
> extra attention can be made to those submitting in Braille. Or maybe
> Braille submissions can receive a higher award amount, or an extra award
> of some kind. I don't want to exclude people especially youth, but I
> also want to make Braille literacy important and encourage it's use.
>
> Just eight years ago I first learned to use a slate and stylus before a
> Perkins or any other device. It's amazing how many people I meet,
> especially young people, who have no clue how to use a simple slate and
> stylus; or worse yet, those who seriously could use Braille education
> but are not learning it. We hear this comparison all the time, but it
> really is true, and having been sighted for 22 years and learning to
> read and write at an early age, Braille is our print. Sighted students
> are not taught solely on pieces of technology, though sadly I can see a
> move in this direction. So why not, as we push for equal treatment,
> learn Braille and how to both read and write it? Just boggles my mind.
>
> Sincerely,
> Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter
> Read my blog at:
> http://blogs.livewellnebraska.com/author/bpollpeter/
>
> "History is not what happened; history is what was written down."
> The Expected One- Kathleen McGowan
>
> Message: 8
> Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2012 10:51:35 -0500
> From: "Robert Leslie Newman" <newmanrl at cox.net>
> To: "'Writer's Division Mailing List'" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
> Subject: [stylist] Braille for youth or adult contests - info &
>        thought
> Message-ID: <007301cd077a$7f565020$7e02f060$@cox.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain;       charset="us-ascii"
>
> Miss Lynda and young Master Vejas and others:
>
>
> Nope, Braille is only for the youth group. And someday we need to also
> include those youth who do not do Braille or do not wish the extra work
> of producing two versions of their work. In fact, it is a fairly
> understood real life happening, that the blind person who learns Braille
> and advances on to an electronic notetaker and or gets a Braille display
> to be used with their computer, they stop doing much production of
> hard-copy materials, and if they do choose to whip up a hard-copy
> version of something, they go to a Braille embosser and crank it out.
> And this story, is an age old response to efficiency ---  tell me, do
> you or any sighted writer that you know, today hand-write out your work
> for submission to a contest or publisher?
>
> Yet, don't mistake this- we in the NFB, and specifically the Writers'
> Division do want to promote Braille literacy and so we set up the rules
> for our youth contest to get at this goal. But alas, by this Braille
> requirement, we are excluding all other youth (the majority) from the
> chance to work at writing for our contest. Sometime soon, we need to
> expand our youth contest to include the non-Braille users, too.
>
>
> Robert Leslie Newman
>
>
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