[Blindtlk] Fwd: Among the Blind, Literacy in Braille Declines Markedly

[David Andrews]

>
>>>> BlindNews Mailing List <blindnews at blindprogramming.com> 7/28/2007 3:09:32 PM >>>
>
>Among the Blind, Literacy in Braille Declines Markedly
>by Brooklyn Eagle (edit at brooklyneagle.net), published online 07-23-2007
>
>
>
>Only 12 Percent of Legally Blind Children Can Read It
>By Amy Brittain
>Christian Science Monitor
>BROOKLYN - At 12:01 a.m. Saturday, their fingers will race across the pages 
>of J.K. Rowling's final Harry Potter installment. They'll be dressed - just 
>like Potter - in wizard robes and Hogwarts school uniforms as their 
>fingertips absorb the raised-dot combinations known as braille.
>Potter's much-awaited fate will be revealed to these blind children at 
>Boston's Midnight Madness party at the National Braille Press (NBP). It will 
>be a time of celebration, as the party marks only the second time braille 
>readers have had simultaneous access to a new Harry Potter book release.
>
>But these braille-literate children are a clear minority in the blind 
>community. The NBP estimates that today only 12 percent of 55,000 legally 
>blind children in the United States can read braille - named for founder 
>Frenchman Louis Braille.
>
>Although the number does not account for those cognitively unable to read, 
>the literacy rate is down significantly from 50 percent in the 1960s. It 
>seems the time, effort, and money it takes to teach children braille is 
>sometimes passed over in favor of less expensive and less time-consuming 
>audio and computer aids. To many within the blind community, this trend 
>holds serious ramifications.
>
>"[Literacy] is the biggest single determinant of a person's ability to be 
>successful," says Steven Rothstein, president of Perkins School for the 
>blind in Watertown, Mass. "If literacy rates had gone down for the general 
>population, there would be a political uproar in this country." Rothstein 
>estimates that braille literacy is closer to 20 percent and considers the 
>decline an "enormous crisis" requiring a civil rights movement for America's 
>disabled.
>
>According to statistics from the American Foundation for the Blind, only 32 
>percent of the blind in the US are employed. But several studies indicate 
>that at least 90 percent of that population who hold jobs are braille 
>literate.
>
>The decline in literacy is generally linked to the 1973 Rehabilitation Act, 
>which mainstreamed blind students into public schools where teachers were 
>often unprepared to teach them. Today, about 85 percent of blind 
>schoolchildren are enrolled in public schools.
>
>According to the National Federation of the Blind, 33 states have enacted 
>bills promoting braille instruction within K-12 school systems. NBP vice 
>president Tanya Holton says this "grass-roots" effort began in the late 
>1980s when blind adults became concerned that American youth were not 
>receiving adequate braille instruction.
>
>She says guardians should be educated about such legislation and prepared to 
>fight for braille education. Trials in seeking better teaching in schools 
>Stephen Yerardi, class president of Perkins's 2004 graduating high school 
>class, soberly recalls his family's fight for braille education in the New 
>Hampshire public school system when he was 9. He says teachers suggested a 
>"life-skills program" with no academic instruction and no hope for college.
>
>"I hated going to school," Mr. Yerardi says by phone. "The teachers didn't 
>really understand how to teach me, and they were kind of negative toward 
> me."
>
>Yerardi says he received braille instruction just twice a week - 
>significantly too little time, he says - from a teacher who mistakenly 
>reversed dot combinations. "They had no experience teaching a blind 
> student," he says. "I was the only person with a physical disability in 
>nine towns."
>
>He reiterates that about 70 percent of the blind population is unemployed 
>and will not have access to such expensive technology.
>
>Renn Bailey of Albuquerque, N.M., enrolled in Charlson's class to prepare 
>for his freshman year at the University of New Mexico. The New Mexico 
>Commission for the Blind provided his BrailleNote - a note-taking device 
>with refreshable braille display and audio instruction. The latest version 
>sells for about $6,000. "I had a social studies book in audio once, and it 
>was terrible," he says of his preference for reading rather than listening.
>
>Bailey's classmate Danielle Senick of Norwich, Conn., says she read her 
>first braille book at age 5. Ironically, the book was about the man who 
>changed blind literacy and opened the door to her education. "I remember 
>sitting out on the porch at this family gathering and everyone was like, 
>'Read us a book,' " says Ms. Senick, a soon-to-be freshman at Curry College 
>in Milton, Mass. "So I read them this book about Louis Braille.
>
>"I've used braille a lot . for pleasure, for education. I just feel I'd be 
>lost if I didn't know how to read it."
>
>
>© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007.
>
>
>http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=27&id=14248