[nfb-talk] is Braille the great equalizer

[Jeanette Fortin]

i agree with you 100 per cent, why should a blind person be illiterate and 
unable to read braille, i have no idea how i would handle many simple tasks 
in my home if i did not have the ability to read braille, sighted children 
are still taught to read and write even though they use computers so why 
shouldn't blind children be taught to read and write. jeanette
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Judy Jones" <jtj1 at cableone.net>
To: "NFB Talk Mailing List" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, November 26, 2010 6:42 PM
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] is Braille the great equalizer


> There is nothing to substitute for braille skills.  Many have probably 
> seen the statistic that approximately 70% of blind people are unemployed, 
> but around 90% of those employed do use braille.  It is fast, and one can 
> use skills, such as skimming a document, just as a sighted person would 
> skim print.  You get spelling and format input, just as sighted readers 
> do, and reading speeds are comparable.  I would be very limited in my 
> working and personal life if I didn't have braille.  It allows me to file 
> documents for sighted colleagues, and pull documents upon request.
>
> As a classroom teacher, I could work with AV media that had braille 
> captions, read print/braille books to our daughters when they were little, 
> and brailling the bottoms of bank checks help to keep track of them.
>
> In my office, I make sure any print document goes through the Perkins 
> brailler to receive a date and data description at the bottom.
>
> Anyone who uses braille does many of the same things and more.  I can't 
> stress enough the value of braille, and believe without it, literacy is in 
> jeopardy.  One can be very well-spoken, highly intelligent, cultured, and 
> poised, yet, if unable to actually read and write for personal use, is 
> still technically illiterate.  This may sound hard-line to some, but I am 
> so serious about blind people having the right to read.  Professionals and 
> educators in the field of blindness, never, never, never should down-play 
> the importance of braille.
>
> Judy
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Patrick Gormley" <kk3f at msn.com>
> To: <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Friday, November 26, 2010 5:23 PM
> Subject: [nfb-talk] is Braille the great equalizer
>
>
>> As a fluent Braille reader, I can tell you as I grow older, I lean on my
>> Braille skills more and more.  I will also tell you that one of the 
>> fringe
>> benefits of being in the nfb as long as I have been, you learn new
>> techniques that I've implemented to increase my Braille reading speed 
>> most
>> notably an article published in the Braille Monitor in the 70's by Dr.
>> Jernigan in which he suggested some approaches he used to increase his
>> speed.  There were some articles written by Jerry Whittle on this same
>> subject.  I picked up those techniques such as dividing lines and using 
>> both
>> hands  while reading.  I've regularly read at 260 wpm and at times  have
>> read as fast as 330 but my comprehension suffers a bitso a good reading
>> speed for me is about 250 to 260. The short answer is Braille is just as
>> important to the blind as print is to the sighted.
>> _______________________________________________
>> nfb-talk mailing list
>> nfb-talk at nfbnet.org
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-talk_nfbnet.org
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> nfb-talk mailing list
> nfb-talk at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-talk_nfbnet.org