Although Braille use is threatened by new technology, some students at Illinois blind school are still gaining the skill

From The State Journal-Register in Springfield, Ill.:

Bettye Odem-Davis had a college degree and was teaching high school English when she lost her sight, at age 22, in the early 1970s.

“It was necessary for me to learn Braille,” she said. “My motivation was to go back to work, and it was my entry into the employment arena.”

But according to a recent study released by the National Federation of the Blind, Odem-Davis, now chief of the Bureau of Blind Services in the state Department of Human Services, is in a minority.

The report says that fewer than 10 percent of the 1.3 million legally blind people in the United States read Braille — a code or system of writing in raised dots to be read with the fingers — and just 10 percent of blind children are learning it.

In the 1950s, more than 50 percent of the nation’s blind children were learning Braille.

Odem-Davis said the statistics haven’t changed much in the past 10 years.

“I certainly do agree that fewer people are using Braille,” she said. “In one sense, that’s a negative, but I understand why that is.

“We get more and more advanced technology. It used to be a big deal if you had a cassette tape player.”

If a person has any residual vision, the education system encourages the use of large-print books, special magnifiers, television audio description services and other technology, such as voice-recognition software, she said.

“Many people feel Braille isn’t necessary any longer,” Odem-Davis said. “I’m not of that mindset. I think every person who is legally blind needs to learn Braille.”

At the Illinois School for the Visually Impaired in Jacksonville, the percentages are much better.

ISVI has about 70 students, and 25 are enrolled in Braille class, said Darla Chambers, who has been at ISVI for 16 years and has been the Braille instructor for the past two years.

Including those who previously learned Braille, about 40 ISVI students have Braille skills, she said.

The school takes students to the annual Braille Challenge, and this year ISVI senior Brando Collins, 18, of Hickory Hills won the regional competition in Chicago.

“We prefer to teach Braille,” Chambers said. “We have students who may not lose all their sight until they are adults, but they need to learn it now.”

She said teaching Braille letters and contractions is a way for students to know how to spell the words they hear.

“You can always fall back to Braille if the technology fails,” Chambers said.

Odem-Davis said legally blind people with residual vision can see to read maybe five to 10 words a minute.

“That’s not enough for successful employment or continued education,” she said.

Fluent Braille readers can read 200 words per minute or more, the federation says. Odem-Davis thinks that’s being generous.

“I feel I’m proficient, and I believe accuracy is most important,” she said. “I know people who read between 60 and 120 words a minute. We tell people to concentrate not on speed but on reading accurately and on the rules. The speed will pick up as you read and practice.”

She subscribes to various Braille magazines in addition to using Braille at work.

The Hope Institute in Springfield is “a tad bit atypical” when it comes to teaching Braille in that most of its students have multiple impairments, said communications director Mark Schmidt.

“We have five students on campus who have a severe enough visual impairment that if they were normal in other areas would be able to benefit from Braille,” he said. “Our students usually have some cognitive defect, and most wouldn’t be able to read anyway.”

“With the older children, we make them aware of it (Braille),” he said. “If a student comes to us from a public school or Illinois School for the Visually Impaired, we’ll continue to work with them.”

“We try to work with them to use their hands to understand the world around them,” Schmidt said. “Second, we expose them to Braille because it is out there in the real world.”

The institute uses Braille on the nametags that the students wear, on the calendar and to label items around the classroom, he said.

“We want to get them used to the concept,” he said.

The institute has one Braille teacher, Catherine Courtney.

“She’s seeing technology changing the way Braille might be used,” Schmidt said. For example, Braille readers can be attached to a computer so students can do things on the Internet.

“But in math, the big, old clunky Braille writer is still an excellent way to do problems,” he said. “It may take a whole sheet of paper, but it enables them to show their work, and we can see if they are grasping the concept.”

“We’re not seeing any loss in the importance of Braille; we’re just using it in different ways,” he added.

The federation also surveyed 500 people and found that the ability to read Braille correlated with higher levels of education, a higher likelihood of employment and more income. Another study found that 44 percent of participants who grew up reading Braille were unemployed, compared with 77 percent of those who relied on print. Blind adults face 70 percent unemployment overall.

Odem-Davis agrees that those who use Braille have a much higher level of success in employment and education.

“It all comes back to literacy,” she said. “Braille has a lot to do with what we can reduce to memory. It’s a cognitive thing.”

Odem-Davis said the 200th anniversary of Louis Braille’s birth this year has put a renewed spotlight on the system the French student invented.

“We hope the educational system won’t just look at the money it costs to teach Braille,” she said. “I don’t think technology will ever replace the joy and thrill of being able to sit quietly at home and just read.”