| At age three, before learning to read, I heard my | | | | percent. |
| parents talk about the family who lived next to us in | | | | Most blind people are audio book not Braille readers, |
| our cookie-cutter suburban development in | | | | and most working-age blind Americans (seventy |
| Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley. I thought they were our | | | | percent) are unemployed. Of those few who work, |
| "next store" neighbors. As I learned the alphabet and | | | | however, over 80% read Braille. These blind people, |
| meanings of words, I asked my mother what the | | | | who are truly literate by the same definition used for |
| neighbor's sold at their store. I learned that I had, of | | | | print readers, are machinists, lawyers, chemists, |
| course, misheard. | | | | mechanics, engineers, chefs and are successful in |
| That wasn't the last time my ears let me down in | | | | many other fields. |
| the spelling department. Reading, however, is | | | | Why the discrepancy? There is a shortage of |
| supposed to clue us in about those words that aren't | | | | qualified Braille teachers and more importantly a |
| spelled the way our ears think they should be. | | | | surplus of misunderstanding about both Braille and |
| A Visually Impaired Student Struggling Through | | | | blindness. For more information visit the National |
| Without Braille | | | | Organization of Parents of Blind Children (NOPBC): |
| As a child of the '50s with Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP), | | | | Braille Reveals Spelling Errors |
| a degenerative eye disease, I was expected to rely | | | | Now, for those mistakes. In addition to my NLS |
| on my failing vision, even though I was born legally | | | | books, I regularly read Syndicated Columnists Weekly |
| blind. I bluffed my way through school, reading so | | | | from the National Braille Press. As I learn what the |
| slowly that I had blistering headaches and time for | | | | nation's top writers are saying about issues facing the |
| little else. Needless to say, I eventually became a bit | | | | country, I routinely stop, dumbstruck by a word that |
| picky about what I read. Literature and science were | | | | is spelled so differently than I expected, that I often |
| in; math and history were out. Braille was never | | | | marvel over it for days. Once I "see" it in Braille, I |
| discussed. | | | | don't forget. |
| In college, my vision deteriorated beyond the point | | | | |
| of faking it. The answer was recorded books, which | | | | 1. I routinely confuse "n" and "m". The "n" in |
| I still love. Nonetheless, my lack of fluency in Braille | | | | "rendition," for instance, was a total shock! I thought |
| resulted in a lifetime of functional illiteracy. | | | | it was "rem"dition -- well, maybe that's the dream |
| I've tried to make up the deficit. A friend taught me | | | | version. On the other hand, I thought "Mesopotamia" |
| the Braille alphabet after I graduated from college | | | | had an "n." Why didn't I make the hippopotamus |
| and I began to use it to enable myself to live | | | | connection? Mesopotamia is the land between the |
| independently. Spices, records and cassettes, my | | | | rivers; hippopotamus is river horse. |
| own writings, recipes, contact info and to-do lists all | | | | 2. Sometimes, I get even the number of words in a |
| started showing up in that beautiful code of six | | | | common expression wrong. I now know, for |
| raised dots. | | | | example, that it's "fait accompli" not "fate a compli." |
| Despite this and borrowing Braille knitting books from | | | | 3. My concept of "camaraderie" - "comradery," which |
| the National Library Service for the Blind and | | | | is at least listed in four of the top 7 dictionaries |
| Physically Handicapped (NLS), reading remained a | | | | according to Roots Web -- was based on the word |
| largely aural experience. In the close to four decades | | | | "comrade" - probably a hazard of growing up during |
| that it has taken me to progress to reading | | | | the Cold War. But still, what's with the "ie" at the |
| age-appropriate material in Braille, my ability to spell, | | | | end? It makes it look like a nickname. Hmmm, that is |
| and therefore write, has suffered. | | | | friendly, though. |
| Braille: the Struggle for Literacy Continues | | | | 4. I thought I had a "pention" for music; now, I find |
| Before allowing you to view my mistakes, I want | | | | out not only that it's "penchant," but that the word I |
| you to know that it didn't have to be this way. Braille, | | | | had been misusing is "pension." |
| when taught correctly, can be easily and happily | | | | 5. Despite a year of ballet, I never was much of a |
| learned. The only reason I share this now is because, | | | | dancer and wasn't familiar with "choreography." The |
| contrary to public assumptions, things are worse now | | | | "h" was a surprise, but with "choral" and "chorus," I |
| than in the ' 50s. Then, over fifty percent of | | | | suppose I should have seen that one coming. |
| America's blind kids were taught Braille. Today, it's ten | | | | |