[nfbmi-talk] FW: Traverse City Newspaper Story About Braille Literacy

Thu Mar 19 04:31:59 UTC 2009

  _____  

From: Fred Wurtzel [mailto:f.wurtzel at comcast.net] 
Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2009 12:29 AM
To: Dr. Marc Maurer; 'Kevan Worley'; Bowman, Kristi (KBowman at nfb.org);
cdanielsen at nfb.org (cdanielsen at nfb.org); Barbara Pierce
Cc: 'bossclaw at aol.com'
Subject: FW: Traverse City Newspaper Story About Braille Literacy

Hello,

I thought this was particularly well-done and timely.  Kudos to Sharon
Darga, Mary Ann Rojak and the others who were involved.

Warmest Regards,

Fred

  _____  

From: Mary Ann Rojek [mailto:brightsmile1953 at comcast.net] 
Sent: Monday, March 16, 2009 8:17 PM
To: fred wurtzel
Subject: Traverse City Newspaper Story About Braille Literacy

    Connecting the Dots
Anniversary sparks local support for braille literacy
By PAT STINSON
Contributing Writer
Local artist Mike Sincic stops in one of his favorite Traverse City stores,
DeYoung's,
with his new Braille Plus talking computer and his braille notebook.
Photo by Pat Stinson
TRAVERSE CITY
On March 26, the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) will announce the
release
of a U.S.-minted silver dollar coin commemorating the 200th Rbirthday of
Louis Braille,
the founder of the raised dot system of reading and writing used today by
persons
who are blind or visually impaired.
Proceeds from sales of the limited-release, collectible coin will be used to
help
fund NFB's "Braille Readers Are Leaders" campaign. NFB, with 50,000 members,
is the
largest U.S. organization of people who are blind. Mary Ann Rojek, events
coordinator
for the Michigan chapter of NFB, said the goal of the national campaign is
to double
the braille literacy rate among students who are blind or visually impaired
(VI)
by 2015.
Despite evidence that braille literacy leads to employment, (80 percent of
those
who read and write braille fluently are employed, according to NFB), the
literacy
rate has fallen from 50 to 10 percent.
"Society would never accept a 10 percent literacy rate among sighted
children; it
should not accept such an outrageously low literacy rate among the blind,"
NFB President
Marc Maurer said. "The 'Braille Readers are Leaders' campaign, with the
support of
influential Americans like Terry Bradshaw, (Hall of Fame NLF quarterback and
co-host
of FOX NFL Sunday), will reverse the downward trend in braille literacy and
ensure
that equal opportunities in education and employment are available to all of
the
nation's blind."
Short-sighted system
So why does our educational system seem to be failing persons who are blind
or visually
impaired? Rojek said "incorrect beliefs" about braille - that it's slow to
learn,
inefficient and obsolete - have contributed. She said that with diligent
study, adults
can learn braille in six months, and those who are fluent can read up to
several
hundred words per minute. Computerized braille tools, such as notetakers and
speech
synthesizers, offer state-of-the-art ways to synthesize information while
still using
the raised dot code.
NFB attributes the decline in literacy, among other things, to nonbraille
technologies.
Local children's author Ron Schmidt, totally blind since the age of two,
said that
tools such as books on tape, speaking software, magnifying devices and large
print
adaptations are useful - especially for pleasure reading - but do nothing to
teach
writing skills (including spelling and punctuation) which are essential for
retention
and learning. Since only 10 percent of legally blind persons are without any
sight,
and because the cost of using nonbraille technologies is less than the cost
of training
and hiring braille teachers, Schmidt said the tendency is to delay or forego
braille
instruction. Additionally, fewer braille teachers are trying to cover a
wider area.
All of these ultimately put persons with severe visual impairments at a
disadvantage.
"There's just a huge difference in how you process information," he said of
braille
reading versus listening to cassettes or computers with speaking software.
"It's
easier to go back with your fingers than to rewind a tape."
Without his braille reading and writing skills, Schmidt said he would never
have
learned the mathematical formulas, with their symbols and brackets,
necessary to
achieve his bachelor's degree in physics and minor in math from the
University of
Michigan in the '60s.
"Schools today put off teaching braille until students absolutely have to
learn it,
and then it's very difficult in high school and college to learn and still
do as
well as sighted students," he said.
NFB is working with each state to introduce braille literacy legislation.
Michigan
Public Act 129 (Blind Pupil's Braille Literacy Law) was enacted in 2000.
Local leaders
Mike Sincic, a 26-year-old Williamsburg watercolor artist who lost his
vision 14
years ago, uses braille daily to check his calendar, add appointments to his
planner
and organize the artcards he sells through area retailers. He carries his
portable
slate (a type of braille stencil) and stylus (which pushes thick paper
through holes
in his metal slate to create raised dots) with him to quickly jot a note.
Reading
braille allows him to retrieve a piece of information he recorded earlier,
either
on paper or in his Braille Plus handheld computer with braille keyboard.
"It (tech) helps out a lot and it's great, but when it comes right down to
it, braille's
a key thing to know and to be able to use," he said.
Cataract surgery at age 12 left Libby Magee, now 46, unable to see in one
eye and
with limited vision in another. She was taught braille in a special
education class
and was "mainstreamed" for all other classes. She had difficulty with school
assignments,
especially math, and said she did not get the help she needed.
"I did graduate, but it was hard," Magee said. Today, she maintains a
braille directory
of friends and family, types on a computer keyboard she has "brailled," and
reads
her braille bible every day. Marking her playing cards in braille has
allowed her
to enjoy card games. She teaches sighted students to write their names in
braille
at her church and leads a Sightseers for the Blind support group once a
month at
the Traverse Area District Library.
Last month, Traverse City West Middle School student Austin Darga, 14,
traveled to
Washington, D.C., joining at least 500 other persons who are blind or
visually impaired
for discussions with legislators about key issues affecting them. His
mother, Sharon,
president of Parents of Blind Children in Michigan, accompanied him during
the trip.
Already an activist, Austin, who reads and writes braille fluently, sings in
the
Northwest Michigan Children's Choir and has established an on-air persona
for his
stints on CMU Public Radio and with area deejay, Michael O'Shea.
"My son is a braille reader," Darga said. "I know the technology is there so
he could
just listen to books and things but I feel, and do most other parents, that
reading
is the way of the world and our kids need to fit in and do as many 'normal'
things
as they can."
NFB will hold its annual conference July 3-8 in Detroit and host a Motor
City Walk
for Independence on July 6. Blind entrepreneurs who produce consumer
gift/food items
are invited to be conference exhibitors. E-mail Fred Wurtzel (president of
the Michigan
chapter and a former Traverse City resident) at: f.wurtzel at comcast.net. For
more
information about NFB, the commemorative coin or the conference, visit:
www.nfb.org.

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