[access-uk] Re: Question regarding our sense of touch :

  • From: "ELEANOR BURKE" <eleanorburke@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sun, 31 May 2009 23:56:42 +0100

I agree with you, I was taught to read Braille by a blind lady, the best teachers of the blind are blind people.


Eleanor
----- Original Message ----- From: "angel" <angel238@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, May 31, 2009 11:27 PM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Question regarding our sense of touch :


50 years ago I was taught by a wonderful lady who was sighted and read Braille fluently with her fingers. She and another woman whom I knew personally learned to read Braille during the second world war in order to teach blinded soldiers. The thinking then was: Unless a sighted person could perform tasks as well as we were expected to perform them without sight they would not be able to fully understand how best to teach us, and to understand our difficulties and frustrations if there were any. Having been taught by someone who read Braille with her fingers I believe these Braille readers and writers make the best teachers of the blind. My mother was a sighted transcriber for the Library of congress. She ruined her eye sight because she proof read all her work using her eyes. Further, she read Braille less fluently than those sighted and blind who read with their fingers. A third reason for sighted people to learn to read and to write Braille with their fingers is this: As it is impossible for interpoint Braille to be read with the eyes, and as people are living longer than they once did; if macular degeneration, or some other age related disease deprives a sighted person who has had the foresight to learn Braille, he will not be deprived the pleasure of literacy in it's traditional sense. The physical act of reading is a marvelous self esteem builder. ----- Original Message ----- From: "ELEANOR BURKE" <eleanorburke@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, May 17, 2009 10:04 AM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Question regarding our sense of touch :


Jackie
Sighted people who learn Braille e.g. rehabilitation workers in their training, do so visually because they are learning a language which they can teach to others. It is not necessary for them to be able to read by thouch thoug to be able to recognize some of the letters would indeed be advantageous in that they can then relate to the visually impaired person learning by touch. It would take much too long for them to learn the Braille system and read well by touch whereas they are expected to be able to read contracted Braille at a reasonable speed in order to complete their training qualifiction. There is no real need for sighted people to read by touoch. I did not learn Braille until I was 11 years old. At this time I had very little reading skills as my formative education was very very poor due to my visual impairment and unlike the UK at the time I went to school it was not the law for a registered blind child to go to school though I think now it is. I refer to Ireland. I took to Braille and touch because like you say probably for those 11 years of my life my sense of touch was greatly enhanced. However, I started on the Braillette board or whatever it is called and then progressed to reading Braille on Braille paper and after that had to progress to reading it on that plastic thermaform paper which I hated because it brought its own problems with small, sweety wet hands (smile) and static etc. I would never recommend that plastic paper for long hours of reading. It is OK for keeping an address book or something like that. I learned how to write Braille with a style and frame at the same time and I think that it was actually the writing which helped to put the patterns of the letters of the alphabet in my mind. Granted when one turned over the page the dots were in reverse but it was checking what had been written that helped me to feel first the individual dots in a cell which made up the partickular letter of the alphabet or abbreviation and then the pattern (shape) of the letter came so that finally the shape of a word came etc. Interestingly I have now found that using a mobjile phone for texting, which I have only done now since last September time, I am usjing that part of my left finger which is most sensative developed from Braille reading. I know I am reasonably quick at the predictive text now but thought nothing of it until observed by my sighted nieces who have been texting for years and who could not believe the speed at which I was doing it. A final word on Braille, now with Perkins Brailler and all other types of IT equipment for writing and translating braille, I am sorry to see the demise of the style and frame as I firmly believe it was the best way to learn Braille, even if I do have a few calus or two as a result of it.

Eleanor
----- Original Message ----- From: "Jackie Cairns" <jackie.cairns@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, May 17, 2009 11:15 AM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Question regarding our sense of touch :


Hi Pauline

Don't be put off, that's the first thing I'd say.

The whole concept of touch among sighted people is interesting.  I've
taught basic Braille to people with sight, and their first natural
tendency is to look at it, rather than use their fingers.  If I had a
quid for every person that's said to me: "How can you feel that, my
touch isn't that good", I'd be well off!! I think someone in a previous
message said it requires practice and determination.  That's very true.
Because sight is the largest of the five senses, people with vision tend
to use their eyes before anything else.  They think we automatically
have better hearing, smell, taste and touch because our eyes don't
function properly or at all.  Bull!! We just use what we have left and
make the best of it.

Go for it, and good luck to you.


Jackie Cairns
Braille Specialist
Email: Jackie.Cairns@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sight and Sound Technology Ltd
Welton House North Wing
Summerhouse Road
Moulton Park
Northampton
NN3 6WD
Telephone: 01604 798024
Fax: 01604 798090
Web: www.sightandsound.co.uk

-----Original Message-----
From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Pauline Lawler
Sent: 14 May 2009 23:31
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Question regarding our sense of touch :

thanks for that. I'm starting to learn Braille in the next few weeks and
meny people have said I am too old it will be interesting to see how
long it takes me to master the alaphet.

Pauline
----- Original Message -----
From: "Shea Anker" <svanker@xxxxxxx>
To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2009 3:08 PM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Question regarding our sense of touch :


Hmm. I think if a an adult who loses their vision is determined and
stubborn
enough, they can learn how to use their sense of touch to the best of
their
advantage. However, I think it probably takes much more of an effort
than it
does for a congenitally blind person who learns Braille as a child. But
I
have heard of adults learning to read Braille very well, but not very
many
because as I said, it takes a lot of practice and determination.

Shea
----- Original Message ----- From: Angel238
 To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
 Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2009 3:17 AM
 Subject: [access-uk] Question regarding our sense of touch :


 I won't read your replies for some time.  But, I wanted to ask you
astute
people this question.   Two messages caught my attention as I was
reading my
e-mail .    One message concerned the delicacy or lack of such in
Braille
watches, the other message gave an opinion regarding the much maligned
movie
"Blindness".  These messages caused me to think back to an observation I

made recently.  Recently I purchased a tactile watch which vibrates to
tell
time.  It also has a vibrating alarm.  It can be noted here there are
other
vibrating watches.  Those are mainly meant to serve deaf consumers and
lack
accessibility.  The watch I purchased can be set either using the hands
or
the vibrations. if one sets the hands, however, one needs to have sight
to
do this.  One must use the vibrations to set the watch whether he wants
to
synchronize it's hands or just to set the tactile vibrations.  I asked
both
my sister and my daughter to assist me with the setting of the hands of
the
watch.  They are both sighted.  They were unable to accomplish this task

because their touch was so heavy it distracted them from being able to
discern the vibrations.  Thereby causing them not to be able to set the
watch properly.  My question is this:  Excluding those with diabetes,
and as
sighted people don't use their sense of touch as often as I would like
them
to, or as often as do we congenitally blind:  Do you think when a person

looses one's sight and is forced to use their sense of touch, he is
unable
to proficiently use it?  Do you think this contributes to many
unsuccessful
Braille readers among the adult population?  should blind adults be
trained
to use this neglected sense to it's best advantage.  Providing they have
no
other impediment to its use? Or is this being done already?
 it is well known that the Republican party never blows an opportunity
to
blow an opportunity.


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