[stylist] Braille

[Donna Hill]

Anita,
Your experience speaks to a problem that we discussed last year on one of
the monthly conference calls. It was with a guy who represents an
organization of publishers -- you can probably tell that I'm not good with
remembering names. The point is though that getting college material in
accessible formats is far more difficult than getting them for k - 12. He
explained two things. First, the professors choose the books they will be
using, not the colleges. In k - 12, textbooks are chosen on a district-wide
basis, meaning that any third-grader in that district will have the same
textbooks as any other third-grader in that district. There is much more
uniformity and more copies of any one title are sold. Colleges and
universities are all over the map. Decisions about what books are being used
are also more or less left to the last minute in college, making it harder
to get books recorded or transcribed in time.

The other thing he mentioned is that the publishers have been working on a
master file type that will be used to make books. From that file type, you
can easily make print, large print, e-books or Braille. Whenever that
happens, it will go a long way to meeting the NFB goal of the same books at
the same time and the same price.
Donna

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Anita
Ogletree
Sent: Saturday, February 09, 2013 5:18 AM
To: Writer's Division Mailing List; stylist at nfbnet.orgi
Subject: Re: [stylist] Braille

I can truly testify to almost everything that has been said regarding
braille.  I learned to read and write braille when I was in the first grade
-- used it all the way through the twelfth grade.  Fortunately I was blessed
to have a group of what was called resource teachers back then.
There were at least two women who brailled out my lessons using a perkins
brailler.  This meant I had abbl of my assignment at the same time as my
classmates.  They did not come into the classroom and sit with me as I
gather that may happen now, but I had to spend time in the classroom they
had set up.
When I began school I was first sent to the school for the blind in
Talladega, Alabama.  But after a few weeks had passed and my mother and I
cried every time they had to leave me there at the facility, someone told my
father about a regular elementary school where sighted children attended.
It wasn't long before I was going to that school.  So I got to stay home and
grow up with my sibblings instead of spending the week miles from my
parents.
There were only one or tw blind students sometimes in the whobbe school.
Some of the high school kids would often come to the classroom where the
resource teacher was for help with some things.  Funny thing is that I often
dream that I visit that classroom.
My education for those 12 years was, for the most part, very good.  Even
when I went to high school, I was provided with braille textbooks for all of
my classes.  By then they had hired an orientation & mobility instructor who
would come to my high school to help with anything they couldn't put into
braille.  He even found time to do some O&M with me.  I was the first blind
student to attend my high school.  The teachers were wonderful and I had to
keep up with my classmates.
The problems began for me once I had graduated and entered college.  No
braille textbooks, no recorder to record my classes so I could study,
readers put me to sleep and I went from being an A-B student to receiveing
'incompletes in each of my classes.
I passed at least one or two courses before I went to another school in
California.  Still no books in braille, but I did a little better there thn
I had at the school in Alabama, however, having to rely on a reader or
listening to books on cassette was very stressful resulting in my dropping
out of school before I could get into my Sophmore year.
Braille is my lifeline.  As much as I appreciate having the use of screen
readers, digital players, etc., if there was any way I could get everything
from utilities to applications would make my life so much easier.  Having to
wait until someone can read mail drives me nuts! Many times people will
silently read over the mail before letting me know what it is.  That's bad
but sometimes that's all I can get.
I can't really say whether or not I visualize what ow am reading because the
mental pictures I have are often different from what a sighted person
describes.  I have been afforded the opportunity to experience how printed
letters are.  I was introduced to the Optacon when it was out and I had
instruction in writing in print.  (There are times when I can sijn my name
pretty close to what sighted folk can read--then there are times when I know
that my writing is unrecognizable.) I want to teach braille but I do not
have a collefe degree.  I am
49 years old now and worry that I may not be able to handle taking all the
classes necessary for geffting a degree.  My personal opinion is that I
should automatically qualify as a braille teacher because I have spent most
of my life reading and writing braille.  Whatever it takes to make sure no
one takes braille away from me I am ready to do.  I love braille.  I am
going to start a business in braille transcribing in the very near future.
That's the least I can do to save our most precious gift.

Anita

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