2009-09-11-The Braille Literacy Crisis
Seminars@Hadley
The Braille Literacy Crisis
Presented by Debbie Siegel and Susan Fisher
Moderated by Dawn Turco
September11, 2011
Dawn Turco:
Today’s seminar is The Braille Literacy Crisis.We are happy to have everyone joining us for this very important topic.Many of you who are students of Hadley know that we have been around 89 years teaching Braille and that is how we got started.We teach it a little bit differently since we teach at a distance, but Braille is something we are completely passionate about and we look forward to sharing some of our thoughts.
Utilizing two of our senior instructors, I will keep the years to myself. They weren’t our starting instructors, but they have been around a while and are quite experienced, but they haven’t been here for 90 years.I will be turning the microphone over to our presenters to do a self-introduction.Today we have Susan Fisher and Debbie Siegel as co-presenters and they are actually in the room together.If you have attended previous seminars you know that we do a lot of handing off of the microphone across presenters.Today, they are together and I will be moderating from another location and will chime in from time to time as they are prepared to take questions.
With no further ado, welcome everyone to today’s presentation, The Braille Literacy Crisis.
Debbie Siegel:
This is Debbie Siegel.I have been an instructor at Hadley since 1987.I am sighted and I teach the Introduction to Braille course to sighted professionals and family members.I also teach the advocate courses to visually impaired and sighted students.In addition, I am teaching a course at Utah State University on the roles of para-educators with visually impaired students.I am currently involved in writing curriculum for Hadley’s new courses; Braille Teaching Methods for Previous Print Readers and BrailleTeaching Methods for Pre-readers.
My Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education is from Washington University in St. Louis.My Master’s Degree in Teaching the Visually Impaired is from Michigan State University.Prior to teaching at Hadley I was a resource teacher at the Missouri School for the Blind.
Susan Fisher:
Hi everyone, this is Susan Fisher.I have been an instructor at Hadley for the past 28 years.I am sighted and teach our BrailleLiteracy 3 & 4 courses to students who are learning to read and write Braille by touch.Like Debbie, I also teach our Advocates 1 & 2 course to visually impaired students as well as sighted professionals.In addition to my work at Hadley for the past six years I have been teaching Braille to future teachers of students with visual impairment at Northern Illinois University where I received my Bachelor’s Degree.Prior to my work at Hadley for eight years, I worked as both an itinerant and resource teacher in the public schools.I would now like to introduce Sue Melrose and Sharon Howerton.Sue and Sharon are also Hadley instructors.They are joining us as part of our panel today and we know they will have a lot to share.We would like to hand the microphone off to Sue and then to Sharon.
Sue Melrose:As you said, my name is Sue Melrose.I have worked at Hadley for the last 25 years both in the Computer Department and as a new instructor.I am currently teaching Introduction to Braille and the Contracted Braillecourse to sighted professionals and family members.I teach the Early Independence course to professionals and parents.I am blind and a lifelong user of Braille.I am a dedicated user of Braille.I love it.I do everything I can to advocate for more use of Braille rather than less as the move goes these days.I am also working with Debbie on writing the two courses that she mentioned for teaching Braille literacy and I do a lot of volunteer work at the local school district and with the blind Braille readers locally.Now I will pass it off to Sharon.
Sharon Howerton
Hi, this is Sharon Howerton.I am talking to you from my office in Chicago.I am so happy to see some of my current and former students on the list of participants.I teach BrailleLiteracy 12.I have just begun my eighth year here at Hadley and prior to that I worked as a rehabilitation counselor in Illinois throughout the Chicago area working with blind and visually impaired individuals.As Sue mentioned, she has been using Braille all of her reading life and so have I.
Braille is very important to me and as my students know I always try to get my students to learn as much as they can because literacy is so important.I was thrilled to be able to teach these courses that were assigned to me a few years ago.It has really been much more fun than I could have ever imagined.I still feel like I learned more from my students than they learned from me.Thank you, Susan and Debbie for inviting me to participate.
Debbie Siegel:
Thank you Sharon.We are sure that you both are going to have a lot to add to our discussion and we are glad that you are here today.We will be discussing the following topics during the seminar:1.The definition and levels of literacy; 2.The Braille literacy crisis; 3.Reasons to learn Braille; 4.Teaching Braille to children and adults; 5.Braille and employment; 6.Contracted and uncontracted Braille; 7.Learning Braille along with auditory methods; 8.Learning Braille along with residual vision; and 9.Ways to promote Braille.We will be taking breaks for comments and questions throughout the seminar.
Let’s start off with some definitions of literacy.A current dictionary defines literacy as, “The ability to read and write to a competent level”.According to Diane Wormsley in the book, Instructional Strategies for Braille Literacy, independent literacy permits the student to read and write without being dependent on anyone else to do it for them.Finally, the Counsel of Executive of American Residential Schools for the Visually Handicapped define literacy as ‘Mastery and application of reading, writing, and computing skills to allow an individual to function efficiently now and in the future’
In addition, three levels of literacy have been defined.They include emergent literacy which is the development of concepts about print.This type of literacy usually occurs during the preschool years; basic literacy which refers to the literacy experiences that occur during the school years; and functional literacy which refers to the literacy experiences involved in daily life such as filling out a job application, making an address book, and labeling items.In addition, some have identified general literacy as use of literacy to improve the quality of one’s life.In contrast, functional illiteracy is the ability to use reading and writing to meet one’s everyday needs.Susan will now be speaking about the Braille literacy crisis.
Susan Howerton:
Thank you Debbie.We feel that the Braille literacy crisis is a real crisis.We also believe there is a lot we can do to help alleviate this problem.Like Sharon said, we are really passionate about Braille literacy.We strongly believe that for those with visual impairments who cannot read print, Braille is the building block to literacy.We know that the level of success in all aspects of life can be enriched by learning to read Braille.
We often hear from students that learning Braille has changed their lives.Conversely we know that many who do not read well often have difficulty succeeding.Children who do not read well often have difficulty in school.Braille literacy often determines whether or not one continues on to higher education.Adults who do not read well often have difficulty in the workplace.We believe that Braille is important to be competent and competitive in today’s society.Braille is to a person who is blind the same as a pencil is to a person with sight.Braille allows the visually impaired person to be independent and successful.Braille gives the reader self-worth and confidence and makes one feel a contributing member of society.
Many articles are reporting that there has been a noticeable decline in the use of Braille in recent decades.It has been estimated that as many as 40-50% of blind students are high school dropouts.We find this to be totally unacceptable.We know that the general sighted population would be outraged if this applied to them.So with these thoughts in mind we are going to address the question of why has there been a decline in the number of people who read and Braille.One reason for the decline in the number of people who read and write Braille is due to changes in thinking about Braille.The blindness field has undergoing a variety of changes in their thing about Braille.In recent years, there has been an emphasis on using residual vision combined with the technologies now available to increase print size.In addition, with the advent of speech synthesis programs, computer screen readers, and scanners, many other alternatives have become available to the person with visual impairments.These alternatives establish a preference of using print over Braille.
With all these new options available it can seem as if Braille is becoming unnecessary and obsolete.Fortunately, however, many in the field of visual impairment have become concerned with this technological trend.We along with many others feel strongly that blind and visually impaired individuals should be offered a wide variety of literacy options including, of course, Braille.Many of us would like nothing more than to refocus the attention on the importance of Braille.Debbie is now going to share with you a few more reason or the Braille literacy crisis.
Debbie Siegel:
Thanks, Susan.Another reason for the Braille literacy crisis has to do with teachers of the visually impaired.First, there is a shortage of qualified teachers.In fact, in 2003 there were only about 400 new graduates in University teacher training programs for visual impairment.In addition, some teachers are not adequately trained in Braille or if they do have Braille training they may have only minimal time to teach their students Braille.Also, if there is not a teacher in the school building during the daytime who does know Braille this creates an obstacle to effective Braille learning.
We are pleased to report that Hadley is helping to alleviate this problem.We offer an alternative to learning Braille in a very flexible manner.We asked our Computer Department today to run a report and as of this morning we have had 2,117 students complete one or more of our Braille courses.We are very proud of that number.Did you know that most of the population of children with visual impairment has some residual vision?Yet, many parents of children with low vision are often unable to obtain appropriate services for their children.
School administrators may not understand that Braille could be the best medium for some children with residual vision.Instead, they emphasize print over Braille if the child has any sight.These administrators may not understand that attempting read print with magnification can be a struggle causing headaches and eye strain.As a result, the children may be able to read for only short periods of time.This may interfere with their school work and also lessen their desire to read.In addition, many students with low vision have degenerative conditions, thereby making print more difficult to see over time.Yet goals and instruction are often based on the immediate need instead of the long term outcome.These students are therefore at a high risk for not receiving appropriate instruction in Braille.
As Susan touched upon earlier another reason for the decline in Braille literacy is the use of technology.Some believe that technology can replace learning Braille which would make Braille obsolete.On the other hand, many feel that technology should supplement Braille.We agree with this position.Speech output in recorded books is a great way to access information, but they do not teach read or writing skills.
It is also important to understand that Braille translation software is not sufficient to ensure accurate Braille production.The use of the software requires knowledge of the Braille code.In fact, Braille readers can usually tell when Braille is produced by someone who doesn’t know Braille.Perhaps the use of Braille has decreased because of negative attitudes towards Braille.For instance, some believe Braille is antiquated or outdated.Some believe that Braille has a stigma attached to it because one needs to admit that they are blind.Sometimes parents of a child with visual impairment or the individual themselves maybe resistant to admit to what they consider a failure.Some feel that learning Braille means they are giving up or that Braille is a second class medium.Other feels that Braille makes them feel more handicapped.Some express concern about the availability of Braille material since they are not as extensive as print.
However, both the quality and quantity of Braille materials is improving every day.Some feel that reading Braille is too slow, yet one statistic shows that sighted readers can read between 250 to 300 words per minute and Braille readers can read between 100 to 150 words per minute.In fact, some Braille readers who learned Braille at an early age have been clocked at reading 350 words per minute which is faster than most sighted readers.We would like to stop at this point for questions and comments.
Dawn Turno:
Thanks, Debbie.We did have one quick question from this end.You talked about the number of students that took Braille with Hadley.Was there a timeframe when the data was pulled?
Debbie Siegel:
The timeframe for the statistic was 2,117 students have taken one or more courses in our professional program and that is since we have been offering the Braille course to professionals.
Dawn Turno:
Thank you for helping to clarify that.
Caller:
Hello, my son is 10 years old.He does some Braille in school, but he also has some residual vision so he is learning print.How much Braille should he be learning?He gets about two hours per week in Braille.
Sharon Howerton:
Does he just know the alphabet and is he studying at his regular grade level?Does he do any outside reading besides school work?
Caller:
Outside reading at home with the (inaudible 0:17:47) TV that he has.He does know all of his letters.He is mostly learning the uncontracted Braille right now.He is reading some easy books.He is pretty slow yet because it takes a while to get that tactual feeling, but I am pushing for him to get more because I want him to have that option, but also know how to read print.I feel that is important too.
Sue Melrose:
I think you need to encourage both.Learning both Braille and large print would be great for him to be able to access either.I just want to add one thing.Be sure he learning to read two-handed because that is where the speed comes in if you read with both hands, not just one.So often, particularly low vision kids tend to read Braille with just one hand.That is one thing.Braille is important for low vision.
I was giving a public lecture not long ago and one of the parents walked up and she was really distressed because her low vision child had not learned Braille and she was realizing that I could give the speech using my Braille notes and keeping my Braille notes down on the podium.Her child who had very, very low vision, but was using a lot of magnification couldn’t have done that.He could not have stood up there and given the speech without his nose right down on the paper.She was going to go back and encourage Braille.
I would also like to quickly say that technology actually can enhance Braille.I use my system a lot to quickly Braille something out.If my daughter brings home a word list that she needs to practice on and as her parent need to sit there and drill her.I can, within less than five minutes, scan and print the word list and definitions and Braille them out on my embosser and we can sit down at the dining room table and do the exercise just as any other parent would do with their child.I advocate technology, even though I have both speech and Braille on my system and both combined is more powerful than either alone.I use the technology to enhance my use of Braille and make it much more available to me.
Debbie Siegel:
You also had a text message saying that you have a 10 year old granddaughter who has been taught Braille in the public schools since kindergarten which is great news and that she has surpassed your skills.I don’t know if you have been a Hadley student or not, but as a grandparent you are eligible for the family education Braille courses that we teach.Look into that if you haven’t and you will certainly want to keep your skills fresh so you can write notes to your granddaughter.
Dawn Turco:
Ladies, presenters or panelists, we have other questions.One person wants to know how to improve touching or feeling power as a senior.