[stylist] Quote to ponder - taken to another level

[Donna Hill]

Lynda,
The truth is that blind kids don't learn either spelling or sentence
structure unless they read Braille. They may pick up a bit if they think to
use their screen reader's ability to read letter by letter, but none of us
think to check all the things we really need. After all, you might hear,
"Smith" but the spelling is with a y. Studies show that non Braille users
have not only poor spelling and punctuation, but poor abilities to construct
their ideas into words. Who cares, though? After all, their blind, what can
they be expected to do anyway?

The other thing is that the kids who have some reading vision and are forced
to spend their time laboring over large print and CCTVs learn to hate
reading. As for visualizing, I am a very visual Braille reader, and having
once been able to see print, I visualize both the Braille and print letters.
Studies show that when congenitally blind people read Braille, they are
activating the visual cortex.
Donna  

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Lynda Lambert
Sent: Friday, February 08, 2013 1:02 PM
To: Writer's Division Mailing List
Subject: Re: [stylist] Quote to ponder - taken to another level

This is a really good question, Robert.
I have noticed that so many blind people spell things so wonky, and maybe
this is why. I always wonder is spelling is  really taught and learned
visually. I really have no experience with any of the discussion on Braille
because I do not use it - I do everything with electronics and some things 
with a CCTV.   I have only had sight loss for 5 years, so I really have no 
idea how blind children learn things like spelling, grammar, formatting, and
punctuation. To me, they are all visual, and it is very hard for me to
understand it any other way - well, I really don't understand it any other
way. When I am reading (listening to a voice on a machine) I am still
listening visually. I see it in my mind, and if I cannot see it that way,
it's confusing to me.  Auditory skills  would rate very low  for me. 
Everyone has strength in certain skills and ways of learning - and I am a
Visual learner above all else. That did not change - I still have to be able
to SEE it to remember it - I have to stop and SEE a picture in my mind
before it sticks with me.
Writing and reading, for me, has always been a visual experience.  This
makes me wonder, can a person who has always been blind be a Visual learner?

And, then, I wonder, how does a blind person visualize things?  These are
some things I am thinking about and working with a blind painter friend to
put together an exhibition on how people  see and visualize.

Lynda






----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert Leslie Newman" <newmanrl at cox.net>
To: "'Writer's Division Mailing List'" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, February 08, 2013 9:03 AM
Subject: [stylist] Quote to ponder - taken to another level


> We were discussing how the impact of what is read is influenced by the
> reader, themselves (by what they personally bring to the reading-table).
> And here is an interesting thought or outcome that is happening to too 
> many
> blind people! First as a baseline thought - the sighted student/reader who
> uses print to read literature, educational stuff and the like - they are
> reading the words themselves, visually scanning, actively processing ---
> while during this process, the student is being exposed to important
> "reading related/literacy" features/elements such as: format, punctuation,
> spelling, and features like tables, graphs, pictures, etc. Also, along the
> same line of literacy, of actively reading for oneself --- The blind 
> reader
> who has the skill of Braille can get the same basic exposure to content,
> plus all the important literacy features as - format, punctuation, 
> spelling
> and the other stuff. However, in today's world, at least in this country,
> Braille is not being taught as a first-line method of reading for the
> non-print reader! And yeah, you all have heard this gripe, this warning
> before. There again my point today is a bit different: My thought, 
> question
> is --- hey --- picture this- if you could not read print, did not know
> Braille and could only hear new information, be it a textbook, or poem or
> piece of prose --- you were not getting exposed to formatting, 
> punctuation,
> or spelling of anything you heard;
> And so I ask does this then essentially take the blind person back to the
> preprint era, back to learning via the oral tradition? Yeah --- what are
> these teachers thinking? (Another bazaar thought - what do you think these
> teachers who are doing this to the blind would do --- if they were to find
> that in school their very own sighted children would have print taken away
> and their child was restricted to only listening to what was being 
> taught??)
>
>
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