Just Like ASL, Braille is Oppressed!
Hey Readers!
I discovered an article online - a REAL article about why more and more Blind people are not using Braille.
See Link: Fewer Blind Americans Learning and Using Braille
After reading this, and I realized how much similarities between the Blind and Deaf people, and their ‘oppressive’ educational approaches.
I am presenting an ADAPTED article with a hint of parody focusing on American Sign Language.
Below are two articles presented side by side.
So… uncanny isn’t it?
March 16th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
Hello Amy,
Nice attempt at satire; i never liked using it to make a point across, but this article inspired me to do a little research onto this topic; im stunned with what i found.
Could this is also surprisingly similar to what we see within deafread.
Check out this little story i saw: http://www.nfb.org/Images/nfb/Publications/bm/bm07/bm0706/bm070606.htm
Makes me wonder… how its not really oppression or negligence, but more so ignorance. Its a human fallacy. Terrible.
Somehow, I’m inspired to also learn braille. I’m far from blind; just feel the desire to do so, like how leonardo da vinci just feels the desire to explore and learn. In another life, i’d like to learn sign language if i was hearing just because it’s so cool.
March 16th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
Braille comes in several grades, with grade 1 being a simple letter-for-letter translation similar to fingerspelling, and grades 2 and higher with contractions; a single Braille character standing for two or more words. Yes, it takes a lot of practice, similar to ASL to use effectively, but once learned it makes things go pretty fast.
Hearing people over-assume in both Braille and signed communication–they think with modern devices these will be unneccessary. Hardly. Like learning to read visually, both are basic skills and absolutely necessary to have in one’s toolkit according to one’s needs.
March 16th, 2008 at 9:37 pm
A byproduct of my training was that I was proud that I could read print and that I didn’t have to use Braille, a skill that only totally blind people use. After all, I had vision. Therefore the thought never crossed my mind that learning Braille might help me. Braille was for totally blind people, not for people who had sight and could read print. Why did I need Braille? I could read print. It didn’t matter that for me personally reading print was difficult and slow or that choosing to read print might ultimately affect my performance in school or on the job. Rather it was a simple decision. I could read print, and subconsciously I was proud that I didn’t have to read Braille. If you could see at all, no matter how poorly, print was the method you learned. Unfortunately, although I wasn’t aware of it, that prejudice meant that I was always behind everyone else in school and in my professional career.
WOW. Sound familiar?
March 17th, 2008 at 9:33 am
Very interesting about comparison of two oppressed groups. Their education and accessibility are not treated well by ableists including audists. I love your concept of comparison to crack the wall.
Deafchip