Vow! Good to see Kaul sahib join the debate. I agree that Braille is
fundamental and if possible all blind persons must learn it. Braille
certainly does ensure better spelling skills.
Having said this I would not toss computers and screen readers out of the
window. Computers have played a phenomenal role in opening up the World of
knowledge to blind people. Further computers have opened up channels of
inclusive communication.
Both Braille and computers have their significance in our lives. It would be
very unfortunate if we are going to turn one against the other.
Regards,
George
----- Original Message -----
From: "SC Vashishth" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, December 28, 2010 4:50 PM
Subject: [AI] NYt
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: J L Kaul <[email protected]>
Date: 28 December 2010 16:31
Subject: Re: Fwd: [AI] NYt
To: SC Vashishth <[email protected]>
Cc: [email protected]
Shabash Pankaj. You have put forward your arguments very well in favour
of Braille. Unfortunately, some so called professionals in the past have
done much damage to reading and writing skills of blind persons by
advising
them to study through cassettes or CDs and today we see the
disadvantages. Blind
students who have passed master degrees are unable to spell simple words
in
Hindi or English. This is the benefit of advice from those who do not
know
how important Braille is for blind persons. In my view, without knowing
Braille, a blind person can not be called literate. I treat him as
illiterate. I fully agree with you Pankaj that such arguments come from
those who do not have the knowledge about ground realities. They look at
some blind persons belonging to well to do families in metropolitan cities
and forget about blind persons living in far-flung villages who do not
have
even basic writing equipment what to talk of expensive computers. I am
glad
to see that we have people like you who can advocate for retaining Braille
for years to come.
You can circulate my observations to all those from whom you have received
response.
With Kind Regards
J. L. Kaul
Secretary General
AICB
------------------------------
*From:* SC Vashishth <[email protected]>
*To:* Kaul J L <[email protected]>
*Sent:* Tue, December 28, 2010 4:12:50 PM
*Subject:* Fwd: [AI] NYt
Dear Kaul Saheb,
Thank you Kaul Saheb for your kind words. Following is the response of Mr.
Pankaj Sinha, Adv (HRLN) on the subject.
regds
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Pankaj Sinha <[email protected]>
Date: 28 December 2010 15:48
Subject: Re: [AI] NYt
To: [email protected]
Dear All,
This is not the matter of agreement or disagreement. The issue is what
makes you more independent, what could be more close to your hart,
What carries knowledge perse? In my opinion both braille as well as
computer are the mode of education/communication. However, Braille is
something which in my opinion is more closer to your hart as you can
feel and visualize those letters which you have read through braille
like sighted person who has read something. there is only one argument
which is put forward while rejecting the use of braille is that
braille books are very voluminous, I think this is not the well placed
argument. Friends, let me tell you that most of the persons with
visual impairment are not from well-to-do families, if they are so,
most of them are from the rural background where there is neither 24
hours electricity nor well qualified engineers available in case of
some defect in the computer. furthermore, in rural areas you do not
have, I will say additional financial resources to meat such
requirements. However, if you know braille you can make your short
notesany time by using your braille making instruments. At this
juncture it should be also be noted that I am ever trying to criticize
or underplay the role computer or the use of computer, my only point
is that if you know braille and then something else you will always
have an advantage and confidence in yourself.
Let us take another hypothetical example, being a person with vision
impairment, you can not have access to all facilities and services and
you want to keep something very confidential . What would you like to
prefer? If you want to see time in your watch in a meeting would you
like to use mobile phone watch software which makes noise or you would
prefer to have a braille watch.
Always remember braille is your identity and you should always feel
proud of knowing the braill.
I am really sorry for writing such long mail but I am always hurt when
without annaylizing its importance such issues are discussed at
length.
what is brraille ask from those who have risen to extraordinarily
height like justice Yakoob who is the judge of constitutional bench in
south Africa and still uses braille while making speeches for hours
and hours.
Thanks to God louisse Braille who made me to refute all arguments
against the use of braille. You might know the computer but you can
never feel more independent or more more confident as you might feel
when you know braill.
On 12/28/10, Namita Agarwal <[email protected]> wrote:
hi i agree with Subhash Chandra Vashishth's views.
regards namita
On 12/28/10, SC Vashishth <[email protected]> wrote:
Hi Kanchan,
Thanks for sharing it. It made a good reading of the experiences of this
family in USA where carrying a bulky braille book may invite potential
fear
of stigma. Also where parents insist that their children with visual
impairment are not made to do anything which other children don't do-
including learning braille just to ensure (false) non-discrimination!.
Perhaps the society there has outgrown and mix of such reactions could
also
be found in India also in varying degrees. However, to me, option of
learning braille should be exercised even if it means doing something
that
other children don't do. It is not the question of hiding your vision
impairment from others but getting prepared to deal with it. This would
surely not amount to exclusion or special education. This only means
you
have another tool that you may or may not exercise in future!
Given the advancement in technology, many persons find braille
redundant,
however, it is very useful for little silly things as a braille sticker
on various similarly sized containers in the kitchen or on
medicines pouches etc. You don't depend on a reader. It may be possible
that technology may eventually make braille redundant for few
individuals
with means, but surely not for all the blind persons in the developing
countries.
Hence, braille should not be equated with or treated like a special
education but as a tool that enables a blind person in absence of
technology
and provides an equalising environment. Learning new thing requires
efforts
which many of us may not want to put or have no interest in it because
we
are happy with the status quo and do not want to go out of our comfort
zones.
regards
--
Warm regards,
Subhash Chandra Vashishth
Advocate
Mobile: +91 (11) 9811125521
Please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to. Consider
environment!
On 28 December 2010 12:31, Kanchan Pamnani <[email protected]>
wrote:
David Paterson Learned Without Braille -
NYTimes.com<http://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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regards namita
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--
Pankaj Sinha
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Mobile-09910247816
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Warm regards,
Subhash Chandra Vashishth
Mobile: +91 (11) 9811125521
Please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to. Consider
environment!
--
Warm regards,
Subhash Chandra Vashishth
Mobile: +91 (11) 9811125521
Please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to. Consider
environment!
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