Why are we removing Braille from technological advancement. Have we
forgotten that there are note takers and such devices available which use
Braille as a means of inputing data? It makes life so much simpler to be
able to use these devices wih the simple Braille keyboard with a voice
output or a Braille display that take care of one's needs just as
effectively as the laptop or the pc does. Its own voice output does not need
any further installation of screen readers or such to make it usable. So
what are we talking about here?
Not withstanding the expense involved in purchasing these devices, the
portability of a stylus and a 6 line slate to make your notes affirms the
effectiveness of this brilliant invention. What one chooses to make their
lives more effective is an individual's choice.
-----Original Message-----
From: accessindia-boun...@accessindia.org.in
[mailto:accessindia-boun...@accessindia.org.in] On Behalf Of Viraj Kafle
Sent: Thursday, December 30, 2010 11:32 PM
To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in
Subject: Re: [AI] NYt
It is heartening to see the Braille debate surfacing once again in the list,
with the avid Braile users passionately championing for it, while some
others tactfully cautioning against comparing Braile with technology. As a
regular Braille user myself, I am of course for all the points made here in
support of Braille. However, what I think is being missed here is the fact
that Braille itself is a technological invention. Just because it is
equivalent to the Sighted pen and paper, it does not mean that it is
something primitive. It is very much a modern, 19th century initiative, with
many additions and modifications subsequently taking place . Its
appropriation into various languages and scripts clearly shows how it has
been a vital space for scientific experiment and critical thinking.
It is in this context that we have to analyse the coming up of other
technologies, especially computers, in the life of the visually impaired.
The encouragement and all-round promotion of the significance of screen
readers, though very much enabling in nature, unfortunately has resulted in
narrowing the importance of Braille. Not that Braille has lost its
relevance, but attempts to promote it further and integrate it with the
day-to-day life and requirement of the visually impaired has restricted down
to a few organizations that are, of course, doing their best to promote it.
With governments gradually disinvesting from education and with the
mushrooming of private educational institutions, the specific requirements
of the vulnerable sections of society are being deliberately sidelined and a
need is being created for them to just get incorporated with the mainstream.
It is in fact this kind of politics that is drawing us away from Braille,
compelling us to uncritically accept the mainstream ontological forms and
processes.
It is high time, therefore, that we revive our pro-activism, in our own
capacities, to rejuvinate Braille. Let us be always on guard to countre any
stereotype that are easily lebbled at Braille, such as it being primitive,
stegmatic, odd , or non-inclusive. this can be done by becoming as open,
frank and public as we can become with this technological invention and its
use. And yes, we have to compare Braille with other technologies, not in the
sense of one being better than the other, but to expose the ways in which
the former is being deliberately pushed to the margins in favour of a
corporate, pro-market system and a discriminatory world view that disguises
itself with the slogan of inclusion..
----- Original Message -----
From: "Shadab Husain" <shadab...@gmail.com>
To: <accessindia@accessindia.org.in>
Sent: Tuesday, December 28, 2010 4:12 PM
Subject: Re: [AI] NYt
> Hi Sandeep,
>
> Mr Vashisht has well mentioned the advantages of braille. I will add that
> braille is very helpful during presentations where you can jot down the
> cue
> points on a paper. Listening to Jaws via speakers disturbs the audience
> and
> headphones might look odd and can even confuse you. During speeches too
> braille is helpful.
>
> Technology may not be available everywhere, all the time. You can utilise
> time well if you know braille. Besides, learning a thing always comes in
> use
> somewhere.
>
> So, do learn braille, it would definitely be a bonus.
>
> Regards
>
> Shadab
>
>
>
>
> When you feel afraid or nervous to do a thing then do it because the real
> harm which you may thus receive is less poignant than its expectation and
> fear.
> Easy tips of improving English at
> http://shadablucknow.blogspot.com/
> My contributions to the press
>
http://shadablucknow.blogspot.com/2008/10/my-contributions-to-press.html#lin
k
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Sandeep Singh" <sandeepsingh...@gmail.com>
> To: <accessindia@accessindia.org.in>
> Sent: Tuesday, December 28, 2010 12:42 PM
> Subject: Re: [AI] NYt
>
>
> Nice little story, but it still confuses a little bit more: to learn
> braille or not. As a matter of fact, I started by learning braille
> but after the initial period, I've hardly ever find any real use.
> Regards,
> Sandeep
>
> At 12:31 PM 28-12-10, you wrote:
>>David Paterson Learned Without Braille - NYTimes.com
>>
>>The New York Times
>>
>>
>>December 26, 2010
>>
>>For Paterson's Parents, the Choice Was Independence Over Special Education
>>By
>>JEREMY W. PETERS
>>
>>It is a quandary that parents of disabled children grapple with
>>early and often: What is the right balance between teaching them
>>self-sufficiency and making
>>sure they have the special accommodations they need?
>>
>>As Gov.
>>David A. Paterson
>> has discovered, the way parents answer these questions has a
>> tremendous impact on how disabled children fare in the adult world.
>>
>>Mr. Paterson, in recent interviews, has expressed worry about
>>leaving the governor's office and learning to live on his own again,
>>after years of relying
>>on others for a variety of tasks, like guiding him up stairs and
>>reading his mail.
>>
>>He never learned to read
>>Braille,
>>as about 50 percent of blind children did at the time he was growing
>>up. Instead, he used what little sight he had in his right eye to
>>read with high-powered
>>glasses, attending regular classes in a public school.
>>
>>That decision was driven by his parents,
>>Basil A. Paterson
>> and Portia Paterson, who were determined to shield him from any
>> stigma and insisted that they would not place young David in
>> special education classes.
>>
>>
>>The teaching of Braille was far more common in the early 1960s, when
>>Mr. Paterson, now 56, was entering elementary school, according to
>>the National Federation
>>for the Blind. Now, with the development of technologies like
>>software that reads material aloud at high speeds, only 10 percent
>>of blind children learn
>>Braille.
>>
>>"Sometimes the argument is 'I don't want my child to be different,
>>so I don't want them to learn Braille,' " said Mark A. Riccobono,
>>executive director
>>of the
>>Jernigan Institute,
>>the research and training division of the national federation. "On
>>one level there is something to that argument. But in the long term
>>it means they have
>>fewer tools in their toolbox."
>>
>>There are no easy answers, of course, about what path is the right
>>one for a blind child.
>>
>>Sheri Wells-Jensen, an associate professor of linguistics at Bowling
>>Green State University who is blind, said, "I hated it when I got
>>pulled out of the
>>mainstream classroom to do something the other kids didn't have to do."
>>
>>Ms. Wells-Jensen said she eventually came to accept Braille but
>>fully understood why children and their parents would resist,
>>because of the common misperception
>>that blind people have extremely limited capabilities.
>>
>>"If you buy that cultural stereotype, you're not going to want to be
>>seen hauling a big old Braille book around," Ms. Wells-Jensen said.
>>"You aren't going
>>to want to be pulled out of the classroom to learn Braille."
>>
>>Parents like Mr. Paterson's often go to great lengths to create as
>>normal a life as possible for their blind children. The Patersons
>>searched all around
>>New York City and its suburbs for a school that would not segregate
>>David into special education.
>>
>>When they finally settled on the Hempstead school district on Long
>>Island, their son's school had to order large-type textbooks to
>>accommodate him. David
>>learned to read by putting on his glasses and pressing his face
>>close to the page so he could make out the words.
>>
>>When he tried to learn cursive writing in the third grade, he would
>>stand next to the blackboard to see.
>>
>>To this day, he uses a pair of high-magnification glasses to read
>>letters and write personal checks. But he is able to focus on
>>reading and writing for
>>only a few minutes before the strain overwhelms him. During his
>>years as governor, aides have read daily briefings, newspaper
>>articles and personal correspondence
>>into a special voice mail system for him to listen to.
>>
>>Mr. Paterson, who is proud of the way his parents raised him, said
>>in an interview that his life would be no less difficult had he
>>learned Braille because
>>Braille has its limitations, too.
>>
>>"I don't think things would have been easier for me if I had learned
>>Braille because there's a point that you get to in Braille where
>>they can't Braille
>>everything for you," he said. "You can't Braille the daily newspaper."
>>
>>While parents want their children to live without the stigma that
>>special education classes carry, some experts say that this often
>>plays down the child's
>>limitations.
>>
>>"Parents see Braille as saying their kid is really blind," said
>>Diana Brent, who is blind and has studied the developmental
>>differences between blind children
>>who read Braille and those who do not.
>>
>>"I've often thought that partially sighted people might have a
>>harder go of it because they're trying to live in two worlds," Ms.
>>Brent said. "I live in
>>a sighted world, but I function as a blind person. I'm not trying to
>>function as if I can see because I never have."
>>
>>The governor said he was much better at recognizing his limitations
>>now than when he was younger. "What you learn as you get a little
>>older," Mr. Paterson
>>said, "is you really aren't exactly like anyone else."
>>
>>Mr. Paterson was just 3 months old when he lost most of his vision,
>>as a result of an infection. He can see nothing out of his left eye
>>and just shapes,
>>shadows and colors out of his right.
>>
>>The governor's mother - despite her insistence that he be treated as
>>a regular boy - also helped him recognize that he needed a balance
>>between striving
>>for independence and asking for help when he needed it.
>>
>>In the book "Sacred Bonds: Black Men and Their Mothers" by Keith
>>Michael Brown, Mr. Paterson tells a story about a conversation he
>>had with his mother after
>>he had broken his wrist jumping out of his brother's bedroom window
>>to win a $5 bet.
>>
>>His mother cautioned him that he could not take risks like other
>>boys, but she also urged him to keep going to mobility classes to
>>learn how to get around
>>more safely.
>>
>>He recalled her saying to him: "You felt you had to pretend to your
>>friends that you don't have a sight problem. I thought that going to
>>this course would
>>be a message to your friends that you need a little help every once
>>and a while."
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