save braille

[nappyaddict]

a friend's dd has a condition called Albinism, which means she is legally blind, although she does have a little vision, when she reaches school age they will expect her to learn print only, no matter how much she may struggle and Braille will not be option, as is the same for many children with a visual impairment. No consideration will been made for when she gets older and her, and many others, sight may deteriorate.
My main point is that among the visually impaired community there is a 70% unemployment rate, and of those employed, 90% use Braille, these statistic speak for themselves, and I feel it important that Connie has as many tools for life under her belt as is possible, so please would you consider signing this petition and give Visually impaired children the opportunity reach there full potential and to have access to learn Braille.

petition

thankyou

Interesting segment about the teaching of braille (or lack of) in 'In Touch' on radio 4 yesterday. A woman was protesting about the lack of braille-teaching provision for her son. There was a woman from Hertfordshire LEA on who said that it was definitely available, but decisions had to be made as to when to start. The mother was not convinced I think. Peter White presented, using a braille computer...

signed and bump

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i'm a tobys mum too!

I read about this somewhere recently. It?s a tricky one IMO and while I totally agree that everyone with a need should be able to learn Braille I can see why the use of Braille is on the decline.

Braille is bulky, for every one page of print you could expect to have about 6/7 pages of Braille, so it takes up vast amounts of space. Also in the age of modern technology it?s possible to actually live without Braille altogether. Most books can now be obtained either in audio format or in text format over the internet. Printed documents can be scanned with scanners and converted into word documents which can be read with a screen reader. Organizations such as banks now have online banking which is accessible via the internet so no need for Braille statements any more.

Writing Braille is no longer necessary as we have computers with word processors, email, and for on the move you can get a portable note taker or even a mobile phone with speech. And the only means to write Braille is still the perkins brailler which is cumbersome to say the very least so not practical to carry around for the purpose. Apart from that, it is much, much easier and quicker to type than it is to write Braille. I type at 90 words a minute, I couldn?t even write Braille at half that, and even then the only ones who could read it would be those who are visually impaired also and are thus Braille readers, so by typing I can communicate with an awful lot more people than by writing Braille.

But that?s not to say that Braille should be removed. Nothing can replace being able to read a story to my ds, were it not for my ability to read Braille I would not be able to do that, although these stories are not available in Braille I had to scan them and enlist the help of someone with a Braille embosser to put them into Braille for me.

One other advantage was that as a child, after we?d been told lights out, I was still able to read in the dark.

sorry to sound thick, but don't you need braille on the keyboard to be able to type?

You don't neeed to see a keyboard to type. YOu can learn to touch type. It's not difficult. I typed this with my eyes shut btw.

no. you touch type the same as anyone else, on a standard keyboard.

have a look at the j and the f keys on your keyboard, they have a slightly raised bit at the front, this is useful if you're unfamilliar with where to put fingers on the keyboard, but once you have the position right there's no need to keep going back to look.

When you touch type do you look at your keyboard? no, you touch type because your fingers are in the correct place on the keyboard to type the right letters.

how do you think it would be possible to type at the speed I do if I had to first read every letter on every key to ensure I was typing the right letter? it would take me for ever and would be extremely frustrating.

without braille though, one would not be able to read out loud. and what about learning to read music, would you be able to do that without braille? i once went to see midsummer night's dream, all performed by a blind theatre group. i was amazed, but would they have been able to read their scripts without braille? i agree braille is not need for everything now we have modern technology, but it is still needed for some things surely. obviously i don't really know from experience and they are just my thoughts so correct if i am wrong.

Oh I agree totally. There is also still place for Braille in the age of technology. as a customer adviser it was far better for me to be able to read a customer?s notes on my Braille display than to have to listen to the customer in one ear and the screen reader in the other, in my next job it was far easier to take minutes at a meeting using a Braille notetaker (although my preference is for one with a Braille display but a querty keyboard as typing speed far better than Braille speed) as speech is far more intrusive, and I wear a Braille watch as opposed to one of those gastly talking ones.

There is definitely still place for Braille, my point was purely that I could see why its use has declined, but that does not by any means imply that it should no longer be taught. Have signed the petition.

giving a gentle bump for this afternoon

evening bump