[vip_students] Re: Equality & Braille
- From: "Sharon Lyons" <sharon.lyons@xxxxxxx>
- To: <vip_students@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 14:14:07 +0100
Hello,
You?ll be happy to know that visually-impaired children are taught Braille
at school (well, definitely in Kildare, South Dublin and Wicklow). This is
due to the wonderful work of dedicated visiting teachers. Also, our Early
Learning Centre (preschool for the visually-impaired children) in Clondalkin
has been running a Braille workshop for teaching the parents of the children
who attend. This was run by one of the visiting teachers.
Braille is still a very important form of access for visually-impaired
people of all ages. It should be encouraged to be used alongside Assistive
Technology. There will never be a replacement for sitting down and reading a
book, no matter how human sounding the voice software gets!
Sharon Lyons
Technology Trainer (Kildare, South Dublin and Wicklow)
NCBI Clondalkin
_____
From: vip_students-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:vip_students-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Edel Carey
Sent: 04 August 2008 23:57
To: vip_students@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [vip_students] Re: Equality & Braille
Hi Tony
That was a great email. I agree that one needs to read to be able to spell
and punctuate.
I do not use Braille but did learn it as a child. I think I could probably
pick it up in the morning if I had to. Its a great backup for anyone
threatened with sight loss.
I'm sure its use has been replaced by assistive technology as its easier to
train Resource Teachers, SNA's etc in the use of AT. I personally find that
when listening to audio which I do a lot, I am inclined to drift and even
'sleep' sometimes. (at least that's my excuse for poor retention) heehaw
Cheers
Edel..
----- Original Message -----
From: Tony <mailto:tonysweeney1@xxxxxxxxxx> Sweeney
To: vip_students@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Sunday, August 03, 2008 8:43 PM
Subject: [vip_students] Re: Equality & Braille
Hi Eamonn,
I have trawled for that mail this bank holiday Sunday evening and I have
come up with it!
By the way the person who was put about by the tribunal was Ms áine wellard
but Tony's mail is very good and thought provoking indeed!
You know that I also did some brailling for The Association in the dim and
distant past, but not in Arbour Hill I hasten to add! See below!
Hi,
I remember struggling to get books and handouts in Braille back in my
secondary school days (it's about all I remember). Even when books were
in Braille, often there was only one copy available, to be shared between
a couple of students. In a lot of cases, the books would be in bad
condition too, and no effort would be made to replace them.
"Johnny, would you read that out to Tony?"
"Tony, get someone at home to read that out to you."
"Ok Tony, just 'imagine' this experiment... try and, uhh, 'picture' it."
"Tony, I'll send this handout across to be Brailled out for you... You can
expect it in, oh, five weeks... but don't be surprised if it doesn't show
up at all."
I bet a lot of you are familiar with teachers saying those kinds of
things!
When I was taking my leaving cert, two of the Braille papers (English and
History) didn't show up. I'll never forget the resource teacher at the
time telling me to "Just wait, I'll go and ring someone to see what is
happening... you'll get extra time at the end". That was a lot of help,
the extra time was my break before the next exam!
Now that I think of it... Do you guys remember having to go and read out
the answers to your maths exams? In the last few years at school, any of
the Summer or Christmas tests we took were answered in Braille. A few
days after the exam was over, I was called in to an office, handed my
answer sheets, and told to "read out those answers"!
I'd love to think we've moved on from those bad old days (all of twelve
years ago).
Braille is very very important to me. Personally, I don't consider
listening to something to be 'reading'. It's an alternative to reading. I
desperately hope kids these days are being taught Braille. Issuing a
student with a laptop loaded up with Jaws is not the answer... I don't
believe people can really learn things by listening to someone or
something reading it out. Anything I really need to assimilate has to be
given to me in Braille; bet I'm not the only one.
I don't buy the argument that with technology these days, people don't
need to learn Braille. How could someone learn to spell? What about
learning the proper use of punctuation? Jaws doesn't teach you this stuff.
On the positive side, I was delighted to hear recently that Blind students
at school are being encouraged to use devices like the Braille Note etc.
Because of various schemes out there, it is becoming easier to acquire
such technology, and this is a good start!
Don't get me wrong, Jaws, DAISY, Talking Watches... all those things are
brilliant and make life great fun... but in my opinion Braille is, and
always will be the way in which Blind people successfully and properly
read written material.
I have to be honest, most of my education happened outside of school, but
anything I did half arsedly think about studying while I was there was
made tough by the lack of Braille material. At that time, I was far more
concerned with learning how to appear sober while drunk, how to play the
guitar, where the cheapest alcohol could be successfully purchased by a
minor, how to be a stupid clueless sixteen year old and chat up a girl
without appearing to be a stupid clueless sixteen year old, all that! I
didn't excel in any of those areas, I'm proud to say. Thankfully I did my
teenage years in the raggy old 90s where it was cool to be uncool, and
very uncool to use the word cool.
Cheers!
Tony
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