Volume 11, Issue 2
Spring/Summer 2010
______________________________________
=
; Audio
Technology vs. Braille
ad= apted from Rachel Aviv,
"Listening to Braille," The New York Times,
January 3, 2010.
Since the 1820s, when Louis Braille invented =
his
writing system to release blind persons from being “despised or
patronized by condescending sighted people,” blind people have felt t=
hat
learning to read gave them a sense of independence and even of social
advancement. The oral culture, on which they had previously been dependent,=
was
viewed as primitive and isolating. In recent years, however, the development of<=
/span> sophisticated audio technology has rendered braille le=
ss
important socially and
politically. Because a
single textbook can cost more than $1,000 and there is a shortage of braille
teachers in public schools, visually impaired students often “read=
221;
by using MP3 players, audiobooks, and
computer-screen-reading software.
Laura Sloate, the
managing director of a Wall Street investment firm, who has been blind since
the age of six, spends several hours a day reading financial newspapers, us=
ing
a phone service that reads them aloud in a synthetic voice or by using her
computer’s text-to-speech software. Says Ms. Slo=
ate
of braille: “It’s an arcane means of communication, which for t=
he
most part ought to be abolished. It’s not needed today.”
There is, however, a downside to being comple=
tely
dependent on oral "literacy." At the annual convention of the
National Federation of the Blind, held in Detroit in July, 2009, horror sto=
ries
circulated about children who don't know what a paragraph is, or why we
capitalize certain letters, or that "happily ever after" consists=
of
three separate words. Because the NFB regards itself as a leader in upholdi=
ng
the civil rights of blind persons, it views braille in the old fashioned wa=
y,
as a mark of independence. It has made a mantra of "listening is not
literacy."
Frederick Schroeder, a vice president of the
Federation, is volubly repentant about his lack of reading skills. "I =
am
now over 50 years old," he told reporter Rachel Aviv, "and it was=
n't
until two months ago that I realized that 'dissent,' to disagree, is differ=
ent
from 'descent,' to lower something. I'm functionally illiterate . . . . I'm
sorry about it, but I'm not embarrassed to admit it."
While business executives like Laura Sloate can be successful without a
knowledge of braille, they have access to sophisticated equipment th=
at
the vast majority of visually impaired people cannot afford. Researchers in
youth education have discovered the ultimate irony—that schoolchildre=
n in
developed countries, like the U.S. and Britain, appear to have a lower stan=
dard
of braille literacy than those in developing countries of Asia and Africa. =
It
is, some have suggested with sardonic humor, "one of the advantages of
being poor." =
______________________________________
Braille illiteracy is a growing problem
adapted
from JSOnline
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Posted: Feb. 2, 2010
Ronnay Howard is 9 years old and legally blind with
cornrows in her hair and a smile on her face. She sits in front of a keyboa=
rd
in the resource room for the visually impaired at Engl=
eburg
Elementary School in Milwaukee, her small hands moving methodically over six
large keys. She is writing in braille, spelling out a single word ‑
furious.
“I
know I'm really good at it," she says.
This is how braille is learned and how it is
preserved, one student at a time, one word at a time.
Technology
has been a great leveler, a blessing in this modern age for those with visu=
al
impairments. It has enabled tens of thousands of people to access written
material quickly, to hear what they cannot see.
But
there is an underside to the use of technology, to all the cassette tapes a=
nd
digital recordings of everything from romance novels to textbooks to govern=
ment
forms.
It
is called braille illiteracy.
According
to a report issued last year, fewer than 10% of the 1.3 million people who =
are
legally blind in America are braille readers.
Reasons
for the low rate of braille literacy include a shortage of braille teachers,
schools not offering braille to students who have low vision and a so‑=
;called
"spiral of misunderstanding" that the system is slow and difficul=
t to
learn.
"Every
time a new technology came along, they said this is the thing that can repl=
ace
braille," says Marc Riccobono, executive
director of the National Federation of the Blind's Jernigan Institute in
Baltimore.
Riccobono, a Milwaukee native who was diagnosed with glaucoma at age 5, says
that during the 1960s and 1970s there was an influx of blind students into =
the
public education system. With a shortage of braille teachers, a convenient =
way
to educate the children was with audio devices.
"You
had a whole generation that grew up without braille," he says.
In
Milwaukee Public Schools, about 20 students ‑ out of 130 visually
impaired ‑ read braille. Some students in the system have multiple
disabilities.
"People
realize that braille is literacy," says Hope Good, who works in program
support at Engleburg Elementary. "You can't
spell or punctuate with a tape recorder."
Marilyn
Harmon, who teaches the visually impaired, says most braille readers
"catch up with their sighted peers by the fifth grade." For adult=
s, it's
trickier. "Braille is making a comeback," she says.
And
Milwaukee provides a key to that resurgence. At the central branch of the
Milwaukee Public Library, a remarkable collection of transcribers and
technicians keeps braille alive. This is the home of Audio & Braille
Literacy Enhancement Inc. ‑ known as ABLE. The nonprofit group provid=
es
braille transcriptions as well as audio items for those unable to use print
materials.
Cheryl
Orgas is ABLE's exe=
cutive
director. Blind since birth, Orgas was the first
member of her family to graduate from college. For her, braille is a
cornerstone of education.
"Seventy
percent of the blind are unemployed in this country," Orgas
says. "Of the remaining 30% who have jobs, 80% of them know braille.
"Braille is attached to literacy and to
success in employment."
For
audio material, the group uses 24 volunteer readers. For braille, there are=
12
volunteer transcribers. Most of the volunteers work at home. The organizati=
on
transcribes around 1,000 items into braille each year.
"We're
doing estate plans, tax returns, opera librettos and symphony orchestra
programs," Orgas says.
Cheri
McGrath, ABLE's board president, has been blind=
since
birth. She recalls that when she was a child she knew she needed to learn
braille. She remembers being in a bathtub and discussing with her mother the
various spellings and meanings for teddy bear, bare arms and Bayer aspirin.=
"If you didn'= t have a written language, you'd be the odd man out," McGrath says. "Spell= ing brings us together."
______________________________________
Have you forgotten
to pay your 2010 dues?
You have if it doesn’t say [‘10] =
or
[L] before your name on the address label of this newsletter.
Your support does make a difference. <= o:p>
Please pay today!
Use the application at the end of this
newsletter.
______________________________________
the=
next
meeting of wisconsin braille inc. will be held at 10:00am on june 16
The
meeting will be held in
WisBrl<=
/span> meetings are open=
to
all. If you would like to attend the meeting and join us for lunch, or arra=
nge
car-pooling, contact Vonna Johnson-Porter at vonnaj_porter@msn.com.
______________________________________
A Parents̵=
7;
Choice for Braille
by Amy Santin
Our daughter, Elena, who is eight years old a=
nd in
third grade, is the oldest of our three children. She was born with
congenital glaucoma, an eye disease that can potentially result in
blindness. There is no cure for glaucoma, only treatment.
=
Vision and occupational thera=
py
services from the Birth to Three
program helped her with some of her early developmental delays, and at the =
age
of three she transitioned into the Madison Public School’s Early
Childhood program because of the vision diagnosis. We decided that it
would be important for her to learn some braille to have as a back up in the
event that she lost her vision, so she worked on pre-braille skills such as
tracking and also began to learn to use the braillewriter.
=
When Elena started kindergart=
en the
plan was for her to continue using print as her primary medium for learning=
and
braille as a back-up. She had done well in preschool learning to read print=
.
About half way t=
hrough
the kindergarten year we noticed that she was starting to have severe mood
swings and fatigue after a long day at school, and that she was struggling =
to
keep up with her work. We started enlarging all of her work in additi=
on
to implementing some low vision tools for her to use to help reduce the str=
ain
on her eyes. We also decided that it was important to increase her exposure=
to
braille.
During first gra=
de,
Elena continued to do well with the low vision aids and increased braille
exposure, but the fatigue returned. We noticed that the fluctuations in her
vision were contributing to the fatigue. More frequent changes in her glass=
es
prescription seemed to do the trick for a while; however, as she was finish=
ing
her year in first grade we were still very concerned with how much she was
exhausting herself by using her vision to learn throughout the school day. =
As she entered s=
econd
grade, we made the decision that it was time to transition her to using bra=
ille
as her primary reading medium. We realized that as she progressed through
school the work would become harder and the print size smaller. We feared t=
hat
she would fall behind academically, not because she wasn’t intellectu=
ally
capable of doing the work, but because her vision was holding her back. And=
, we
were concerned about how much the fatigue was affecting her emotional
well-being and her ability to just be a kid and enjoy school and learning l=
ike
her peers. We also tried to look at the big picture and see what long =
term
goals we had for her for the future ‒ like attending college and gett=
ing
a job to support herself and live independently despite her visual
impairment.
The move from pr=
int to
braille has been difficult and frustrating at times, but we know it is only
temporary. We now understand that Elena is=
more equipped with the=
tools
to read braille than she is to read print with her eyes. It is just a
matter of helping her develop those auditory and tactile skills further and
teaching her that she does not have to rely on her unstable vision for
learning.
Elena is currently finishing the first semest=
er of
third grade. She has made amazing progress and we have seen her
confidence grow and her fatigue decrease as she becomes more adept at using
braille. At the beginning of second grade she started out reading braille at
the equivalent of a PLAA level 6 (beginning first grade) and is now reading
fluently at a PLAA 23 (beginning third grade). Her writing has greatly impr=
oved
as well, and she is adding many more details to her stories, all in
braille! We look forward to the future when she will not only be able =
to
keep up with her peers, but will be able to reach her full potential
academically because she is using the tools that best suit her to learn.
Elena’s yo=
ungest
brother, Eli, was also born with congenital glaucoma and unfortunately has a
more severe case. His chances of losing his vision in his lifetime are
very high. Although it has been and will continue to be a difficult journey=
for
both Elena and Eli, at least we can say that we have learned many things th=
at
have helped us to make better decisions for both of them. Eli is now f=
our
years old and is learning braille as his primary medium with the help of the
wonderful vision staff in the Madison Public Schools. We can’t wait f=
or
Elena to be able to help him with his braille homework when he is older!
______________________________________
bra=
ille
on the job
8
by Becky Williams and Cheryl Orgas
On March 19th, 201=
0,
Becky Williams, Board President of the Badger Association, and Cheryl Orgas, Executive Director of Audio & Braille Lite=
racy
Enhancement, (ABLE), co-chaired the 8th annual Braille Games, he=
ld this
year at Gaenslen School, a premier Milwaukee Sc=
hool. This intergenerational competition
matched experienced, braille-literate adults with children using braille in=
the
classroom and at home. The theme for this year’s event was braille on=
the
job. In the morning, the entire group of children and blind adult mentors
participated in large group activities.
Teams competed in =
the
human braille cell game, the braillewriter relay, and the treasure hunt. On=
e of
the most popular activities was the treasure hunt, designed by Gretchen
At lunch, pizza wa=
s a
big hit and so were the frosted cookies with m&m brailled letters on each cookie, made by Lenore Tesch, a volunteer braille transcriber from ABLE.
The students enjoy=
ed the
opportunity to meet other visually impaired students. At lunch, two of the
younger children sat with Meghan Whalen, who is attending UW-Madison. They =
enjoyed
hearing about Meghan’s guide dog, and her pet dogs. It was good for t=
hem
to meet a young woman who lives on her own.
In the afternoon,
children broke up into small groups. Marilyn Harmon led kindergarteners thr=
ough
third graders in an activity using braille to label all the tasks people ca=
n do
in braille as employees in a hospital or an office building.
Claire Egan led the
fourth through sixth graders in a braille game, similar to musical chairs,
where players had to read brailled instructions that told them where to move
next around a conference table, along with job duties that can be done in
braille. (For example: You use braille to study your budget.) All players m=
ove
two seats to the left. The goal was to get to the CEO seat at the head of t=
he
table. They had lots of fun reading braille while they kept moving around t=
he
table.
Becky Williams led=
the
7th through 9th graders in a discussion about one's dream job and how brail=
le
can be used to perform that dream career. Dream jobs included librarian, tr=
avel
agent, pediatrician, record producer, and animal care provider.
Over 60 children, =
adult
volunteers, staff from the Badger Association, ABLE, Milwaukee Public Schoo=
ls,
Talking Book and Braille Library (TBBL), and even staff from as far away as
Madison attended this exciting event. Judy Turner from Wisconsin Braille came with one of her students and Dawn =
Soto
sent one of her students with his parent and braille transcriber to the eve=
nt.
A group of children and staff also came from Waukesha.
Every attendee lef=
t with
a goody bag of fun items from the TBBL and their own braille book transcrib=
ed
by ABLE.
Braille Games is a
testimony to the success of this tool in the lives of blind and visually
impaired children and adults throughout the world. =
__________________=
_____________
T=
here is
a wonder in reading braille that the sighted will never know; to touch words
and have them touch you back.
&=
nbsp; &nbs=
p; Jim Fei=
big
______________________________________
book review
Beyond the Miracle Worker: The
Remarkable Life of Anne Sullivan Macy and Her Extraordinary Friendship with=
Helen Keller
By Kim E. Nielsen
(Boston: Beacon
Press, 200=
9). Pp. xv, 299.
&=
nbsp; Kim
E. Nielsen, who has previously published a biography of Helen Keller and ed=
ited
Keller's Selected Writings, has=
now
written a splendid account of the life of the woman whom Helen Keller refer=
red
to all her life as "Teacher." A first-rate scholar and professor =
of
history and women's studies at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, Niels=
en
has written a "warts and all" study of Anne Sullivan Macy, whom
previous writers have eulogized as the consummate educator. By telling the
story from Sullivan Macy's perspective, Nielsen tells a tale of a defective=
but
determined woman's quest for a meaningful life.
&=
nbsp; Born
in 1866 to poverty-stricken Irish immigrants, she suffered an eye disease in
her youth that left her with severely limited eyesight all her life. Abando=
ned
by a widowed father, Anne spent several years at the Massachusetts State
Almshouse at Tewksbury. She was rescued from Tewksbury by the Boston
philanthropist/reformer Franklin B. Sanborn (one of the "Secret Six&qu=
ot;
who had financed John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry), who gained her entra=
nce
into Samuel Gridley Howe's Perkins Institution and School for the Blind. She
remained at the Perkins School for six years, and though she never learned
braille, she graduated at the top of her class. At age 21 one of her Perkins
instructors obtained for her a position as tutor to six-year-old Helen Kell=
er,
the deaf-mute and blind daughter of an Alabama cotton planter.
&=
nbsp; Sullivan
acquainted Keller with the world through the one sense the child had—=
touch.
Sullivan taught her to read by having the child run her fingers over the sh=
ape
of letters of the alphabet. Sullivan reported her progress to the president=
of
the Perkins School, who published her report and called Keller "the se=
cond
Laura Bridgman." This was of course a reference to the deaf-mute and b=
lind
child with whom Samuel Gridley Howe had gained fame and financial backing f=
or
the Perkins Institute. While the school's publicity made Sullivan famous, it
also attracted the attention of Howe, who sought to enhance his earlier suc=
cess
by taking over the education of Helen Keller. The result was a years-long
battle between Sullivan and Howe for control of the obviously brilliant Kel=
ler
as she passed through her teenage years into adulthood. After Keller gradua=
ted
from Radcliffe College and began to take control of her own life, Sullivan,=
who
by then was going through a disastrous marriage to John Macy, became
increasingly dependent on Keller to give meaning to her own life. The
dependence was enhanced by Sullivan-Macy's struggle with her own blindness,=
ill
health, and depression.
&=
nbsp; Nielsen,
in sum, has given us a tale with no heroes (except, possibly Keller herself=
).
But, for that, the story is all the more human and fascinating to read.
______________________________________
![3D"The](3D"news34u_files/image001.gif")
&=
nbsp; I
have two new braille readers in my class. Their names are Tammy Wolfowitz and Brent Chisholm. I am not sure how to
correctly braille their names. Do I use the “ow<=
/span>”
contraction in Wolfowitz? How about the “=
sh” in Chisholm?
Dear Bewildered,
&=
nbsp; Names
often present a problem in braille, especially if we aren’t sure of t=
he
proper pronunciation. In the case of Wolfowitz, there is no doubt that the o and the w are
pronounced separately. Rule X.34.b(7) in English Braille American Edition t=
ells
us that a contraction is not used if it would cause difficulty in
pronunciation. If the “ow” contract=
ion
were used, the reader might assume the pronunciation to be Wolf/ow/itz. So, the contraction is not used in this name.=
&=
nbsp; Nor
is the sh
contraction used in Chisholm (<=
span
class=3DSpellE>Chis/holm). Although the use of the sh contraction would not af=
fect
the pronunciation very much, Rule XII.38.e says that in proper names, when a
syllable division occurs between the letters gh, sh, =
or th the
contractions cannot be used.
&=
nbsp; Other
names give us pause for thought as well. How about al Qaeda (the alternative spelling for al Quida), Christine Evert, or Da=
niel
Boone? If you keep the basic braille rules in mind, they aren’t so
hard.
&=
nbsp; The
ed contraction cannot be used i=
n al Qaeda because ae is a diphthong
(remember to use a letter indicator before al). The diphthongs ae and oe
occur with unexpected frequency in names, and must never yield to contracti=
ons
‒ Goering, Oedipus, Roederer, Baer, Baedeker, to cite just a few. Cau=
tion:
braille recognizes only two diphthongs, ae and oe ‒=
; not ue, a=
s in Gruening =
or Gruenwald=
, where
the en contraction is used, or =
ei, as in Steinway, where the in is used.
&=
nbsp; By
checking a biographical dictionary, you will find that Christine Evert̵=
7;s
name is pronounced ē/vert. Since initial-l=
etter
contractions must retain their original sounds, the ever contraction cannot be used. Edward Everett, on the other h=
and
would use the contraction in his name.
&=
nbsp; Since
the o and the n occur in the sa=
me
syllable in Boone, the one contraction is used. But what =
if you
don’t know the correct pronunciation of a name and you can’t fi=
nd
it in a dictionary? Through common usage we know that
&=
nbsp; Don’t
forget that a short-form word can never be part of a proper name. The eleme=
nt,
quicksilver, is qksilver in braille; Mr. Quicks=
ilver
is always brailled Mr. Quicksilver.
&=
nbsp; For
more on this subject see Section 11.9 in the Instruction Manual for Braille Transcribing
(5th edition) that h=
as a
very thorough review of contraction usage in proper names.
&=
nbsp; Sincerely,
&nb=
sp; Ms.
Perkins
______________________________________
The
purpose of Wisconsin Braille Inc. <=
/i>is
to advance communication and coordinate the efforts of all persons concerned
with the availability, quality, and distribution of brailled materials in t=
he
state of
______________________________________
MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION
&nbs= p; Use the following form to join or renew your membership to Wisconsin Braille Inc. Please make checks and money orders paya= ble to: WISCONSIN BRAILLE INC.
Regular membership, annual dues: $10
Sustaining membership, annual dues: $30
Lifetime membership: $200
Please include: the date, your name, address, phone nu= mber, and e-mail address. Also advise if you wish printed material to be sent to = you in regular type, e-mail or braille.
Please answer the following: What is your affiliation = with the braille-reading community? (List all that apply.) Teacher, educational assistant, transcriber, proofreader, administrator, producer, parent, user, other (specify).
Return application and payment to: Wisconsin Braille I= nc., Membership Chair,
557
Milky Way
Madison,
WI 53718
______________________________________
This version of the Wisconsin Braille newsletter was
prepared by the members of the OSCI Braille Program. It has not been proofr=
ead.
Readers are encouraged to report noted errors to: Wisconsin Braille Newslet=
ter,
Editor, <=
st1:address
w:st=3D"on">