[nfbcs] Braille requirement

Tue Feb 26 03:09:33 UTC 2013

You said it ... you watched too many Christmas movies.

ON the other hand, if we give up, we *know* what will happen or, more
exactly, what will *not* happen. (grin)

Mike Freeman

-----Original Message-----
From: nfbcs [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Tami Jarvis
Sent: Monday, February 25, 2013 8:17 AM
To: NFB in Computer Science Mailing List
Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Braille requirement

Mike,

Definitely agreed on all points!

It does appear that blind students are at risk in many areas and that 
there remains a fight to get braille education to as many as possible so 
they don't hit adulthood behind the game. The national office is doing a 
lot, from what I can see, and I probably don't know half of it. So I am 
just pleased as a pig in mud about that!

One thing those of us out in the trenches can do is to keep 
communicating a lot what we've all been communicating to each other 
here: Here's what we do with braille. Here are the advantages. Here are 
the disadvantages of not having that skill. Folks who are actively 
employed and/or involved in their community are in a great place to do 
that casually, just getting the notion that braille is good and 
necessary into the ether and collective consciousness. A lot of 
educational and funding trends follow from public opinion and attitudes. 
Being able to show the results of braille use can go a long way over the 
long haul, I think.

It might also help to make the connection to employment and thus to 
taxpaying. More working blind, and more working for higher wages, means 
more blind people paying taxes while not being forced to rely on the 
taxpayer funded social safety net. And so on. Maybe that can help to 
counteract that dratted parsimony that seems to be so prevalent these 
days? I grow cynical, but think that making that connection wherever 
possible might help to shift the trend slowly.

One thing I'm seeing, too, is the wave of retirees and others jumping in 
on those open source projects that are making braille more and more 
accessible itself. Thanks to several of those projects, I can do a lot 
of whizzing around on my computer doing things I needed expensive 
software for not so very long ago. And I don't have to spend a dime! 
Well, I'm on Linux, but most of those open source projects also apply to 
Windows and many of the developers seem to be Windows users or Mac 
users, too. I have some hazy notion of finding a way to take a hand in 
some such project or other some day, so I'm on the development lists... 
Those folks are working so hard and so fast, I am pleased to say I don't 
stand a chance of keeping up enough to really know what they are talking 
about. I have never been so thrilled to regularly feel like a complete 
idiot in all my life. /grin/

Lastly, but not least important, comes the cost of refreshable braille 
or the cost and bulk of paper braille... So I'm all for refreshable 
braille for all. Especially for me! How to make anything like that 
happen? How to even bring refreshable braille into the realm of the 
almost affordable? Hm... I do hear others suggesting a nonprofit or some 
such with that aim in mind. Like me, they have to admit that they don't 
have the time/money/etc., at least not right now. Still, I have some 
hope that with that crazy notion floating around freely, sooner or later 
the Great Leader with the Right Stuff will get something off the ground 
and make it work. Or did I watch too many Christmas movies and lose all 
sense of reality? /lol/

This is a great discussion and I am learning a lot! Thanks, all.

Tami

On 02/25/2013 06:27 AM, majolls at cox.net wrote:
> 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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