[nabs-l] Can't believe this about braille

Fri Feb 1 21:54:27 UTC 2013

Don't worry Sophie. Yes, I'm from South Africa. I think you're
perfectly right. I also know how to sign my name, and I have been
shown some of the lettres and numbers, but you just do forget, plus I
find the whole thing of trying to hold the pen and write difficult.
Maybe in the old days when so much wasn't done electronic it was more
necessary for a blnd person to learn, but for me there's just so much
else I'd rather learn and do.

On 2/1/13, Sophie Trist <sweetpeareader at gmail.com> wrote:
> Ari, for one, I am so sorry I didn't know you don't live in the
> U.S. Also, I didn't know blind people could learn print. I mean,
> I can sign my name, but other than that, I do not know any print
> letters and have no desire or need to learn them. Don't feel bad
> because you don't know print. As long as you know braille you
> should be good.
>
>  ----- Original Message -----
> From: Ari Damoulakis <aridamoulakis at gmail.com
> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> Date sent: Fri, 1 Feb 2013 17:41:20 +0200
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Can't believe this about braille
>
> Hi Sophie and Carly
> Its not a rant Sophie, its absolutely true. I have seen at uni
> for
> example, there was a person who never learned braille. He does
> use
> jaws at uni, but he can't spell properly because when you use
> audio
> you obviously aren't learning individual lettres. It isn't just
> that,
> but because I learned braille from young, what I love is that
> even now
> when I'm writing, I don't know how to explain, but I visualise
> what
> I'm typing in braille, which I really like. If a blind person
> doesn't
> learn braille and just works on audio, how do they imagine what
> an
> alphabet looks like. For them, when they type an l, do they then
> just
> somehow think of it as this sound, that is obviously assuming
> they
> haven't learned the shapes of the lettres in sighted or some
> other
> way. For me unfortunately, I must confess that since I never use
> sighted writing much I'm always forgetting what many lettres and
> numbers look like. The only ones I obviously don't forget are for
> example things I use in daily life like to sign my name, but the
> rest,
> even though I've learned them and felt their shapes, I just do
> forget.
> But I can't actually understand, if it is true that blind people
> in
> the US from birth now aren't even learning braille, how does the
> teacher even start teaching them how to read and write, how
> lettres
> fit together to make words, or for those people are lettres just
> sort
> of abstract sounds?
> Ari
>
> On 2/1/13, Sophie Trist <sweetpeareader at gmail.com> wrote:
>  Ari, you know you can get braille books for free from your state
>  library for the blind (well, at least I know Louisiana has one)
>  or from the national library in Utah. That's where I got all my
>  braille books before I sarted using my braillenote. While I'll
>  say that electronic reading is a lot more convenient (braille
>  books are so heavy and clunky) I do appreciate braille. Because
>  electronics can break. I think that's what a lot of people don't
>  realize. And if electronics break and you don't know as a
> backup,
>  you're in deep trouble. Audio is no excuse for not learning
>  braille. My personal belief is that just as all sighted kids
> must
>  learn print, all of usmust learn braille. Sorry for the long
>  rant, but the bottom line is, I agree with you, Ari. If a print
>  book only costs $20-30, braille shouldn't cost that much more.
>
>   ----- Original Message -----
>  From: Ari Damoulakis <aridamoulakis at gmail.com
>  To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
>  Date sent: Fri, 1 Feb 2013 09:47:47 +0200
>  Subject: [nabs-l] Can't believe this about braille
>
>  Hi everyone
>  I've just seen something that makes me feel quite appalled and
>  sad. I
>  can't believe how much you guys have to pay simply to get or
> have
>  a
>  book in braille? I know that now many people use electronic and
>  audio,
>  and from what I hear many people don't even learn braille, but I
>  actually really love braille, I love reading actual braille, and
>  not
>  just electronic (one line at a time I just can't stand), but
>  paper. I
>  love to hold a propper braille book, page through it, feel it
> and
>  read
>  it, especially for example if it is a book for learning a
>  language or
>  even a textbook. I know you can listen to your work with jaws
>  etc, but
>  I often just love actually reading. For me braille is such a
>  lovely
>  thing!
>  Anyway why I am writing is because I find it terrible how much
>  you
>  guys are paying for braille books, its incredibly sad. I was
>  looking
>  on the internet for whether there are braille books available to
>  help
>  me learn some French, and I couldn't believe the prices you guys
>  have
>  to pay, I saw for example on APH web site a book for 300 or 400
>  dollars just for the book. I had actually heard of this before,
> a
>  friend of mine wanted to find some braille maths books and he
>  couldn't
>  believe it was nearly 700 dollars, but I put it down to the fact
>  that
>  maybe it was just because maths is more difficult to do in
>  braille.
>  But when I saw this I couldn't believe it, even for just normal
>  books
>  you guys have to actually pay such high prices? I know you have
>  to
>  maybe pay transcribers and things, but I can't understand why
>  these
>  organisations can't get electronic files or just scan and print
>  the
>  books? I'm not talking about complex things like maths that I
>  don't
>  know if you can scan things like that, but normal books? Here
>  even if
>  I give a book in to get transcribed, OK it sometimes takes about
>  6
>  months or even a year, but I never have to pay such incredible
>  prices
>  like what you guys are, and if I'm lucky enough to find an
>  electronic
>  version it costs even less. Frankly, I find it really sad and
>  tragic
>  and I think I can now understand why many people there just
>  aren't
>  bothering to learn how to read braille, because what is the
> point
>  if
>  you are having to pay such high prices for books? I know you
> guys
>  have
>  a great library but what happens if there are books you really
>  want in
>  braille or would just like to have brailled? If these are the
>  prices
>  that you are having to pay just for the pleasure of being able
> to
>  read
>  1 book in braille this is just so terrible!
>  Ari
>
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