[Arizona-students] Braille advocates say decline in instruction is leading to illiteracy

[David Andrews]

>
>==================BEGIN FORWARDED MESSAGE==================
>Subject: BlindNews: Braille advocates say decline in instruction is leading to
>        illiteracy
>Date: Sat, 17 Jun 2006 21:09:05 -0400
>
>
>Asbury Park Press, New Jersey
>Saturday, June 17, 2006
>
>Braille advocates say decline in instruction is leading to illiteracy
>
>By JOHN FAHERTY
>
>Arielle Silverman always has loved to read. From "Little Women," in fourth grade to "Jane Eyre" in high school, books 
>were a constant companion.
>
>She could slide her fingers across the page and feel the world. Those words have done more than make her well-read. 
>They have secured her place in society.
>
>Silverman, blind since birth, has now finished her junior year at Arizona State University with a double major, in biology 
>and psychology, and a grade-point average of 3.9.
>
>She is ambitious, thoughtful and well-spoken. And the 21-year-old is convinced she couldn't have achieved this without 
>her fluency in Braille.
>
>A generation ago, 50 percent of blind schoolchildren used Braille, according to William M. Raeder, president of the 
>National Braille Press in Boston. Now, he says, it's less than 12 percent.
>
>Young blind students today are still instructed in Braille, but in the past few decades more students have been 
>mainstreamed and no longer receive daily instruction.
>
>That is significant, because reading and writing Braille is a skill that needs maintenance. The less often a student uses it, 
>the more likely it is those skills will diminish or even disappear.
>
>The reduction in Braille literacy has been mollified by the fact that there are now more ways than ever for the blind to 
>acquire information. Much of the world is moving away from words on a page and toward electronic-digital information. 
>The proliferation of books on tape means blind people no longer have to wait to read the latest best-seller. Talking 
>computers have brought the blind to the world and the world to the blind.
>
>These advances have placed a generation of blind young adults and children in an information paradox: They have 
>more knowledge at their disposal, while their ability to read and write declines.
>
>But proponents of Braille always fall back on the same argument: If reading and writing are important to the sighted, they 
>are important to the blind.
>
>"If the literacy rate for sighted people was 10 percent, that would be a huge issue," Silverman says. "I think kids aren't 
>being taught Braille, and they aren't being given enough time to practice."
>
>Silverman is sightless because of Leber Congenital Amaurosis, an inherited retinal degenerative disease. But her parents 
>never considered not teaching her to read and write.
>
>"I grew up thinking reading is one of the greatest joys of life," says Sharona Silverman, Arielle's mother. "Having a book 
>in your lap is an incredible gift, and I was going to introduce that gift to both of my children." (Arielle's sister is sighted.)
>
>Because of her parents' commitment to literacy, Arielle Silverman was sent as a child to the Foundation for Blind Children 
>in Phoenix to learn Braille. She could read by age 5. Silverman then was mainstreamed into public schools. She is now 
>president of the Arizona Association of Blind Students.
>
>One can argue that it does not matter how you read "War and Peace," as long as you know the story and the genius of 
>Leo Tolstoy.
>
>"There is no correlation between Braille literacy and educational achievement," says Joanne Phillips, deputy associate 
>superintendent for exceptional student services with the Arizona Department of Education.
>
>Karen Wolfe of the American Foundation for the Blind strongly disagrees.
>
>"You can't be literate just listening," she says
>
>"Literacy helps us think and communicate our thoughts. You will never be truly literate without Braille."
>
>The AFB says the employment rate for the blind in this country is 32 percent. And Blindinc.org says that 93 percent of 
>the employed blind read and write Braille.
>
>Silverman lives in an apartment on the ASU campus. Her course load includes such classes as organic chemistry with 
>Professor Seth Rose, in which he says things like "Heterocyclic aromatic amines are weaker bases than heterocyclic 
>aliphatic amines."
>
>When she gets to class, she sits with a BrailleNote laptop that allows her to take notes and review them later. From a 
>distance, the BrailleNote looks exactly like the standard laptop computer used by her peers, but instead of the 26 letters 
>of the alphabet, six keys represent the six-dot system of Braille. Each letter of the alphabet is represented by a 
>combination of the six dots.
>
>Silverman points to this machine and others like it as an example of Braille working hand in hand with technology.
>
>"They are not mutually exclusive," Silverman says. "If I didn't know Braille, I couldn't use my computers to the level I 
>need them."
>
>But the teaching of organic chemistry is very visual. Formulas and models are used, and Silverman can see none of 
>them.
>
>Rose helps "translate" some of his teaching material into a digital format that will have meaning to Silverman. If a class 
>focuses on a particular compound, he will build a model that she can "see" with her hands. He expresses colors with 
>different textures.
>
>He is glad to do it, he says.
>
>"It gives me a great feeling to know that when I hand a model to a student, that she can 'see' exactly what I've been 
>talking about," he says.