[nfb-talk] A Comment On Braille

[d m gina]

Wow, if you get a responce do share.
That was well put.
I have to say though, sense I do texting, and work with the computer, 
my Braille skills are not as good as they used to be.
I always want to spell everything out, trying to remember the 
contractions is harder for me than it used to be.
Now I can read Braille at a swell speed, and I like that.
Just found it interesting for me, that I would forget contractions.
Yes when I started learning Typing, all I could think of at the time 
was contractions.
Example word said, in Braille it is sd.
I truly didn't know how to spell the word said.
The teacher was shocked.
Then when the other kids finally admitted that they had the same 
problem with words we got the speller that had both.
One side of the page had the contractions and the other side of the 
page had the full spelling.
Again a very good article.

Original message:
> Perkins just asked in an Email they sent out if braille is still relent 
> in a high tech world. They said the answer was a resounding yes, as it 
> should be, but here's my response, which i sent to perkins and posted 
> to my blog:

> Hi,

> First, do I love my Perkins brailler? Of course I do.

> I don't really want to talk about that, though. Rather, I want to 
> address the question you ask: is braille still relevant in a 
> technological world? Of course you got the answer, and, in my view, the 
> correct one, but what disturbs me is that the question was even asked 
> in thee first place. It is, I think, the wrong question. In short, what 
> happens if you replace the word "Braille" with the word "Print"? Does 
> the question change? Does the relevance of the medium change? Does the 
> answer change? What about the perceptions of the question--do those change?

> A couple weeks ago, I was a fill-in host on the Serotek podcast, where 
> we discussed an article about the decline in spelling skills among 
> today's youth. However, I didn't take away what was probably the 
> intended message of the article. I took away a double standard. Now 
> that it's sighted children who use print and are losing the ability to 
> spell, form proper sentences, and so on, we have a tragedy, and our 
> electronics-centric lifestyle is to blame. Think of texting as the most 
> often blamed culprit. Yet, where was this outcry for our blind kids 20 
> years ago, when, as now, we are told that talking computers and 
> recorded textbooks are good enough? Double standard much? Why is it, do 
> you suppose, that learning to read print and having access to print is 
> essential to teach sighted children the fundamentals of grammar, 
> spelling, and punctuation, but such skills are adequately taught to our 
> blind kids with talking computers and recorded textbooks? Or, is it 
> that our blind kids and t
>  heir skills and abilities in these areas just aren't important enough 
> to give the same amount of attention or priority? Why is, pulling a 
> number out of the air here, a 10% illiteracy rate among the sighted a 
> national tragedy, yet a 10% literacy rate among the blind acceptable?

> If you get that I'm angry, you're right. I am absolutely livid. This is 
> only one example of this double standard where blind and sighted people 
> are concerned. The thing is, it's a huge example, and it doesn't even 
> seem as though we ourselves always recognize it for what it is, because 
> we ask things like, "Is braille still relevant". So long as literacy is 
> relevant to gainful employment, career advancement, educational 
> opportunities, and all the other things life has to offer, the answer 
> should be obvious.

> So, as I said, you're asking the wrong question. There are probably a 
> lot of "right" questions, but the one that comes to my mind, putting 
> aside the "Why is this double standard acceptable" question, is, "How 
> do we get braille into the hands of more kids and get more of our kids 
> learning it, and more of our teachers teaching it"? Let's start there; 
> there's much, much more that we should be asking as follow-ups to that.

> Parenthetically, I note that the word "brailler" was flagged by my 
> spell checker. Moreover, it was autocorrected to "broiler". That speaks 
> volumes.
> --
> Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV - Erie, PA
> Phone: (814) 860-3194 or 888-75-BUDDY




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--Dar
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every saint has a past
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