[stylist] Quote to ponder - taken to another level

Sat Feb 9 02:39:47 UTC 2013

Lynda,
We talk a lot about the need for VI teachers to get onboard with Braille and
such, but I also think there is a real problem with normal classroom
teachers who get a blind student. Do they insist that the blind child keep
up with the class? Do they make sure the child has the material they need?
If they have a "traditional" view of blindness, they are likely to treat the
blind child differently than the other students. This is not only a problem
for the child in question, but has many consequences down the road for the
sighted students. For instance, if your blind classmate doesn't have to keep
up and the teacher treats him or her like a "not-quite-equal" person, how
will the sighted child treat blind people they meet as adults in business or
social environments? What will they think if one of their relatives loses
their sight? Are they going to be a cheerleader or go along with the notion
that that person's life is effectively over. And, what if they themselves go
blind? Most blind people grew up sighted, and their opinions about what
blindness means impact their own ability to adjust and thrive.
Donna

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Lynda Lambert
Sent: Friday, February 08, 2013 7:01 PM
To: Writer's Division Mailing List
Subject: Re: [stylist] Quote to ponder - taken to another level

This is all very interesting and I would bet most folks have no clue about
any of it. I do not think teachers are prepared to deal with blind children
unless they have specialized in that niche. But, I know very little about
K-12 teaching or the programs.

 Lynda

----- Original Message -----
From: "Donna Hill" <penatwork at epix.net>
To: "'Writer's Division Mailing List'" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, February 08, 2013 5:57 PM
Subject: Re: [stylist] Quote to ponder - taken to another level

> 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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>
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