Less instruction causing literacy decline
John Faherty'The Arizona Republic
Arielle Silverman has always loved to read. From ittle Women in fourth grade to Jane Eyre in high school, books were a constant companion.
She could slide her fingers across the page and feel the world. Those words, however, have done more than make her well-read. They have secured her place in society.
Silverman, blind since birth has now finished her junior year at Arizona State University with a double major in biology and psychology, and a grade piont average of 3.9.
She is ambitious, thoughtful and well-spoken. And the 21 years old is convinced that she couldnt have achieved this without fluencey in Brialle.
A generatioin ago, 50 percent of blind schoolchildren used Brialle, according to William M. Raeder, president of the National Braille Press in Boston. Now he says, it's less than 12 percent.
Young blind students today are still instructed in Braille, but in the past few decades more students have been mainstreamed and no longer receive daily instruction.
That is significant, beacuse reading and writing Braille is a skill that needs maintenance. The less a student uses it, the more likely it s that the skill will diminish or even disappear.
Despite the reduction in Braille literacy, there are more ways than ever for the Blind to acquire information. Much of the orld is moving away fro words on a page and toward electronic-digital information. The profliferation of books on tape means blind people no longer have to wait to read the latest bestseller. Talking computers have brought the blind to the world and the world to the blind.
These advances have placed a generation of blind young adults and children in an information paradox: They have more knowldedge at their disposal, while their ability to read and write declines.
"If the literacy rate for sighted people was 10 percent, that would be a huge issue." Silverman says. "I think kids arent being taught Braille, and they arent being given enough time to practice."
Silverman is sightless beacuse of Leber congenital amaurosis, an inherited retinal degeneratie disease. But her parents never considered not teaching her to read and write.
"I grew up thinking reading is one of the greatest joys of life," says Sharona Silverman, Arielle's mother.
Because of her parent's commitment to literacy, Arielle was sent as a child to the Foundation for Blind Children in Phoenix to learn Braille. She could read by age 5. Then she was mainstreamed in public schools.
Now she is president of the Arizona Association of Blind Students.
One can argue that it does not matter how you read War and Peace, as long as you know the story and the genius of Leo Tolstoy.
"there is no correlation between Braille literacy and educational achievement," says Joanne Phillips, deputy associate superintendent for exceptional student services with the Arizona Department of Education.
Karen Wolfe of the American Foundation for the Blind strongly disagrees.
"You can't be literate just listening," she says. "Literacy helps us think and communication our thoughts. You will never be truly literate without Braille.
The AFB says the employment rate for the blind in this country is 32 percent. And Blindinc.org says that 93 percent of the employed blind read and write braille.
