In her compelling blog, “Braille: A Source of Empowerment and Pride,” Stacy Cervenka, Senior Director of Policy at RespectAbility, delves into the rich history and enduring significance of Braille. From Louis Braille’s ingenious invention to the challenges faced by blind and low-vision individuals in the education system, Cervenka passionately dispels myths surrounding Braille. Addressing issues like the perceived difficulty and the role of technology, she advocates for the continued relevance and importance of Braille in fostering literacy, education, and daily living for the blind and visually impaired. Read on to explore the profound impact of Braille and challenge misconceptions.
Reflecting on World Braille Day and Braille Literacy Month, it’s evident that Braille remains a powerful tool for literacy, education, and daily living for blind and low-vision individuals. This month we recognize this ingenious code and reiterate the need to continue advocating for its teaching and integration to empower individuals in their education and careers.
Every year on January 4, blind and low-vision people around the world celebrate World Braille Day, which commemorates the birthday of Louis Braille, the twelve-year-old blind French student who invented the code in 1821. After a general in the French Army visited the Royal Institution for Blind Youth in Paris to demonstrate a code for night writing for soldiers, Braille immediately realized the code could be expanded and used by himself and his blind peers to read and write more quickly and effectively. Up until that time, blind students learned to read by feeling raised print letters; however, this was slow and inefficient, and it did not provide students with a way to write.
Braille invented a six-dot system that students could both read and write as quickly as sighted people could use print. Although there was some initial opposition to the code by sighted professionals who liked the raised print system because it was more “normal,” the braille system quickly took off and was taught to both blind and low-vision children in France, the United States, and several other countries. At this time, blind and low-vision students did not attend public schools if they could not read print. If they were fortunate, these children attended schools for blind students, where braille was sensibly and matter-of-factly taught to all students.
Although the movement to de-segregate students with disabilities and educate them in their neighborhood public schools was a positive development, it did result in a significant decline in the number of students who were taught braille. At schools for the blind, all the teachers read and wrote braille fluently. In public schools, blind and low-vision students often only received individualized services from itinerant teachers once or twice a week. As with learning to read print, learning to read Braille requires consistent daily instruction. Also, many schools did not hire resource teachers specifically certified to instruct blind students; students with vision loss often received services from special education teachers who were generalists in teaching students with various disabilities. Unfortunately, teacher preparation programs for special education teachers often focus on higher-incidence disabilities like learning and intellectual disabilities, not specialized instruction for students with lower incidence disabilities such as students who were blind, low vision, Deaf, and hard of hearing.
Because these teachers did not know braille themselves or knew it only minimally, they did not teach it. They encouraged students to learn by using audiocassette materials; students with some vision were pushed to read large print, even if that meant slowly and painstakingly reading one or two letters at a time. Many students with low vision were put into “sight-saving” programs in the 50s, 60s, and 70s that discouraged the use of any blindness or nonvisual techniques, much to the detriment of many of the students.
By 1968, only about 44 percent of legally blind students were being taught Braille. Sadly, many of these students were unable to read print (or even large print) quickly, efficiently, and without strain and they also did not know braille. Regardless of how intelligent they may have been, they were considered functionally illiterate. They knew little about spelling, punctuation, or syntax. Even some students who could read large print found it so labor-intensive that reading was a chore that they never engaged in for pleasure.
Although this produced several generations of blind and low-vision adults who had significant difficulty with literacy, writing, and spelling, and for whom this was a huge barrier to employment, it also produced committed and passionate activists who were determined that future generations of students would have better education and more opportunities than they had.
By 2005, several studies showed that, while only about 10 percent of students with vision loss were learning braille, 80 to 90 percent of employed blind and low-vision adults knew braille and used it on the job, often in conjunction with technology and/or large print or regular-sized print.
Since then, many blindness organizations have made braille literacy a cornerstone of their advocacy and programming. Blind professionals started rehabilitation centers that taught braille to adults who had not learned it as children. Blind and low-vision adults who were never taught braille as children and could read neither print nor braille-built programs and championed legislation and regulations to ensure that all children were taught in the reading medium that would best allow them to perform at grade level.
It is also important to note that, while some students can keep up with their peers in kindergarten and first grade when the print is large for all students and the reading load is light, many students experience mounting challenges in later elementary school when the print gets smaller and the reading load increases. By junior high and high school, students are expected to read novels with small print. In college, the reading load increases exponentially. Students who struggle to read print and have learned no alternatives have a college dropout rate well above average.
There is no reason a low-vision student cannot learn print and braille concurrently. Many fortunate students can read both braille and large print or even regular print with ease and have the luxury of switching between mediums. With any given task, they choose the right tool for the job at hand. They might use braille to give a speech or presentation at work so as not to have to hold a piece of paper an inch from their face while trying to project to a room full of people and then go home at the end of the day and curl up on the couch with a large print book. I have never in my life met any low-vision person who regretted knowing Braille.
In conclusion, braille continues to be a critical tool for education, employment, and daily living for people who are blind and have low vision. Students who learn Braille as children can read it every bit as quickly and effectively as sighted people read print. Adults who learn it can often reach levels of speed that allow them to use it for work presentations and daily living tasks. The world is filled with both blind braille readers and low-vision braille readers who use it in combination with print. And, though technology plays a critical role in education, employment, and daily living tasks of blind people, braille will never be obsolete unless print is.
Why not take the opportunity to learn a little braille (or a lot!) yourself?
https://www.pathstoliteracy.org/resource/free-online-resources-learn-braille/