[nabs-l] Braille Vs Technology: is there room for only one in town?

[Sean Whalen]

Let me first acknowledge the truth of what Mark has pointed out in terms of
the anecdotal nature of much of the evidence proffered in support of Braille
literacy increasing employment opportunities for the blind. I also admit
freely that I have never dug into the numbers we so often bandy about in
relation to literacy rates among the blind, literacy rates among the
employed blind and the unemployment rate for blind individuals and do not
know how carefully designed or well executed any of the studies from which
we glean these numbers actually were.

All this being said, I absolutely believe that Braille, for persons who are
unable and have never learned to read print, is a necessity and not simply a
tool in a toolbox. I qualify this because Marc was once again, I think,
correct in drawing the distinction between those who learn to read print and
go blind later in life and those who are blind from a young age and never
learn to read via any medium. For somebody who read print and achieved
literacy, Braille is an incredibly useful tool that can make some tasks
easier and more efficient and allow one to recapture the pleasure of reading
to oneself, but for those who never learned to read print, Braille is the
only path to literacy. So, barring any complicating factors such as
additional disabilities, I firmly believe that all blind children and all
non-print-reading blind adults must be expected to learn to read Braille.
Accepting anything less is to give the stamp of approval to lower
expectations of the blind among the general public. When Joe Sighted is
illiterate at age 25, we all recognize this as a big problem. It is no
different for the blind, it's a big problem.

I also agree with Joe, to a degree, that it is not a simple as Braille
literate equals employed. But I think that it is beyond dispute that being
able to read is a crucial skill for nearly any job seeker to have. Braille
is not "the difference", but all else being equal, it certainly puts
somebody who can read it at a great advantage over somebody else similarly
situated who cannot. Just assume for a moment that the numbers we so often
cite are close to accurate. 30 in 100 blind people are employed. Of those
30, 24 of them are able to read Braille. WE don't really know what the
literacy rate among the working age blind is, but if it is under 50%, which
it almost certainly is, you can do the math and see that there is something
going on here.

I myself have been blind all my life. In elementary school attempts were
made to teach me to read print with the severely limited vision that I had.
I did not learn to read. What I was doing was more akin to decoding;
agonizing over each letter to discern what it was and then piecing it
together to make a word. At age 25 I learned to read Braille. Braille has
proved useful in finding employment not only because of the specific tasks
it makes easier on the job, but more so because of the fact that it has made
me literate. Literacy means knowing how things are spelled and how
punctuation is used. Literacy means being able to express yourself in
writing in a manner that accurately reflects your level of intelligence.
Sure, it is nice to use a Braille display to access and take notes in
meetings where speech output would be distracting. Yes, it is great to be
able to use an outline or notes when addressing people publicly. However,
these are simply instances where Braille is a tool, and in my opinion the
best one, to get the job done. There are other ways to perform these tasks.
Where there is no substitution for being literate is in communicating your
ideas in writing. In college, I would hand in work of supposed high academic
quality with the most egregious spelling and punctuation errors in it. Who
can take that seriously? Yes there is spell-check and you can arrow through
character by character to find out how words are spelled and things are
punctuated, but this approach means you only learn when you know you don't
know. When you read, you pick things up naturally along the way and
assimilate them.

Of course it is true that some illiterate blind people like Laura Sloate and
the Governor of New York have achieved the pinnacles of financial and
professional success. More power to them. I could point you toward people
who have become very successful without completing a high school education
let alone a college degree. Will anybody stand up and argue based on this
fact that bachelor's and advanced degrees don't lead to more and better
employment prospects for those who hold them?

Literacy is absolutely essential for professional opportunities and Braille
is the only means by which to achieve it if one does not read print. Blind
people who don't know Braille are certainly not inferior people, but they
are absolutely working with an inferior set of skills, and if Laura Sloate
would like to debate the point, I would gladly do so, regardless of how much
money she makes.