[nfbcs] Braille requirement

[Gary Wunder]

Hello. I don't think we should ever be content to say the national office is
doing enough.  We have chapters and state affiliates precisely because it is
at these levels that we also need to make changes.  It isn't enough to have
a protest at the Amazon headquarters; we need to be talking tour own schools
about whether or not they will use the Kindle book reading system as long as
it is an accessible.  It isn't enough to press for changes in the
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act; we must work for the same kind
of language in state legislation and pressed to see that it is enforced.  We
need to take every opportunity we can to visit with teachers and talk with
them about the equivalence between print and braille.  We need to be visible
at meetings of our school board so that when we speak about things we have
credibility and recognition.

Indeed there are things that must be done at a national level, and we have a
responsibility to figure out how to fund them.  If we want people on the
Hill representing our interest, how do we fund their salaries?  If we want
someone back at the national office monitoring any legislation that has to
do with education and literacy, how do we fund them and the subscriptions
they will need to stay up-to-date?

I suggest there is plenty of work for all of us, and this is even before you
suggest new and creative ways for us to attack the problem.  It is serious,
and it demands the best we have to give.  Keep on pitching!

Warmly,

Gary  

-----Original Message-----
From: nfbcs [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of majolls at cox.net
Sent: Monday, February 25, 2013 8:28 AM
To: NFB in Computer Science Mailing List
Subject: [nfbcs] Braille requirement

OK, I'm starting a new thread here.

I realize that this topic is not "technically" in the computer science area
... but ... the points that have been discussed do apply when a blind person
is trying to learn a complex syntax such as a programming language.  I'm
going to try to summarize so I don't write a novel.  Can we say we agree on
the following about Braille:

1. Non-visual methods are necessary for efficiency (consider the student
that tried to use ZoomText to close the window and it took 4 minutes ...
when Alt-F4 would have done the trick in seconds).
2. Braille is necessary when a person wants to overcome the limitations
their vision imposes.
3. Braille ... eventually with practice ... allows a person to achieve speed
that can more nearly approach the reading speed of normally sighted people
and allow a better chance at competition.
4. Speech, although useful, might does not in all circumstances provide the
capability to perform the detail that is necessary for learning construction
which is provided to sighted students through their vision which is required
for literacy.

And I'm sure there are other points that have been brought forward that I've
left out.  I've tried to hit the high points here.

I ask, then, can we put our blind students at risk because the educational
system doesn't want to spend the money ... or they don't "get it" that
Braille is necessary?  If we suggested that we take print away from sighted
students, there would be an uproar in the community!!  Why should blind
students be given less of an opportunity just because they are blind?  Isn't
that discrimination?

Now, I made this post to ask this question ... if we are in agreement ..
what can we do?  If Braille is important so that blind students have an
opportunity to learn computer topics, or advanced math that can be used in
computer science,  and thus succeed at it, then what can we do?  Or, is the
national office doing enough so that we don't need to do anything?  I'm not
trying to open a hornets nest here, but I just wonder what we can do?

Anybody interested in replying?

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