Mastodawn

Braille is literacy.

Many people think it can be substituted by speech synthesis, by audiobooks, by other things. It can't.

Voice is serial, it unfolds in time. It requires working memory. Braille is static. It unfolds in space, remains stable in time. It backs working memory, does not consume it. For things that require pinning down relationships (mathematics, music, programming) braile has clear advantages.

This is not to say people can't manage without it. I don't always use a braille display. But it makes things better: learning, accuracy, performance, speed.

Witholding braille from blind people is withholding literacy, it's denying capacity.

Don't fucking do that.

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NatalyaD Jan 4

@modulux I work with UK university age students. Sadly most of our visually impaired students are never taught Braille even with progressive impairments or very slow visual-reading speeds/capacities. Many get no O&M either.

Your NFB article sounded so familiar. A VI child constantly babied by a full-time adult rather than taught skills.

We get many low-vision students who get a nasty shock at university as the disability support and university simply won't fund full-time adult assistance.

You are making me remember of a deaf student who was barely taught sign language when kid. She learnt a bit of it in the years she attended our school, but she lacked any autonomy.