[Tektalkdiscussion] a wonderful defense of the life skill, Braille

[Bob Acosta]

I just had to send out this very thoughtful piece from my friend, Ann     Parsons. Bob Acosta

Hi all,

Interesting how Denis connects using braille to having a job.  Do you ask your neighbor how reading and writing print has effected his ability to get a job?  No, of course not, why, because reading and writing affect every aspect of your neighbor's life.  He gets up in the morning and chooses cherios over corn squares, not necessarily by the color of the box, but by the letters on that box.  He prepares blueberry muffins from a mix by reading the instructions on the box.  He goes to work in his car, and reads the street signs, the signs on the shops he wants to visit before he enters the parking lot of his work place, not only that, he reads the guages and dials on his car's instrument panel.  Once he gets to work, he presses the button for the elevator and once inside, he presses the button for the number of the floor he wants.  Once he arrives in his office, he proceeds to either read his email or his snailmail, both of which are printed.  He reads a report from a colleague
 .  He goes to lunch and chooses an item off the cafeteria menu.  and so it goes.

While he is at work, his retired mother gets up in the morning, makes herself some oatmeal by reading the instructions on the box.  she then proceeds to drive herself to the gym where she proceeds to go down a line of exercise machines, reading their instructions as she goes.  Then, she chooses to buy a nutritional drink from the juice bar by reading the ingredience on the bottle.  From there, she proceeds to the grocery store where she buys some groceries.  She checks the sell by dates on all her packages.  She makes decisions about what products to buy based on their pricing.  She decides to try a new frozen dinner after reading the ingredience on its box.  Finally, she joins her friends at lunch at a restaurant where she reads the menu, then calculates the amount of the tip by looking at the restaurant bill.

All these stupid little tasks are accomplished by reading and writing print.  I work part time, and I use braille in order to keep my students' records.  However, I use braille throughout my life!  I use it to find spices in my cupboard, write addresses down of cab companies and so hon.  Send sympathy notes to blind friends, write grocery lists, and more.  It's a life skill and although the statistics say that braille readers are more likely to be employed than are non-braille readers, that's not the point.  Reading braille is a life skill for a person who is blind.  My God, you can't even write down somebody's phone number unless you have a portable notetaker.  Then, what do you do if the power goes out or the battery fails.  You're up a creek cuz you can't use a stylus and a slate to write down the number of the client your boss wants you to contact, or the number of the cab driver who will come back for you when your movie's over.  Get it straight, it's a life skill, not s
 omething for ajob.  So, as it happens, is using a computer.  However, that's for another day's rant.

Ann P.
On Wed, Jan 06, 2010 at 01:06:45PM -0800, Dennis Clark wrote:
> Hello everyone,
> It would be helpful for me and I think most readers if those discussing 
> Braille could talk a little about what they do for a living and how Braille 
> is an integral part of their job.  The woman discussed in the article is the 
> head of a New York Stock Brokerage firm and as such is earning several 
> million dollars per year and therefore does not need my advice about Braille 
> or anything else.  Her accomplishments greatly exceed mine by quite a lot 
> and for me to advise or criticize her would require an almost unimaginable 
> level of arrogance.  My advice to all those earning seven figure salaries is 
> keep on doing what your doing because it is working great! For the rest of 
> us earning 4 or 5 digit salaries, it would be interesting to hear what you 
> do for a living and how you use Braille in your work, and what you would not 
> be able to do in your job without Braille.
> Warmest regards,
> Dennis
> 
>   ----- Original Message ----- 
>   From: PHIL JONES 
>   To: acb-l 
>   Sent: Tuesday, January 05, 2010 5:15 PM
>   Subject: [acb-l] I'm telling the world
> 
> 
>         Folks I hereby proclaim to the entire world, especially to all the blind people of the world that I am a Braille user.  I've been using Braille for 50 years and am very proud of it!  So let's here it!  All you Braille users!  Let's show the world how wonderfull Braille is!  Let's shout its praises!  Braille is in!  Braille is in!  Braille is in!  Phil Jones
> 
>        
> 
> 
> 
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-- 
AAnn K. Parsons
Portal Tutoring
Email:  akp at portaltutoring.info
Web Site:  http://www.portaltutoring.info
blog:  http://www.samobile.net/users/akp
Skype:  Putertutor

"All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost."  JRRT

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