The Importance of Braille Literacy

Pennsylvania Association for the Blind

555 Gettysburg Pike, Suite A300
Mechanicsburg, PA 17055

717-766-2020

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Katie Schock
Ditector of Public Relations
(717) 766-2020

As part of our year-long Blindness Awareness Program, the Pennsylvania Association for the Blind stresses the importance of Braille Literacy.

One hundred years ago, individuals who could not write their names were considered illiterate. This illiteracy, which often resulted from a lack of opportunity, meant that many people lived life as second-class citizens. Literacy was a symbol of intelligence, and intelligence was a symbol of personhood.

Literacy involves the ability to gain access to written information. Information which is communicated needs to be stored so that it can be referred to again later. This means that for a blind person, literacy involves all methods of acquiring, storing, and accessing information and all methods of communicating one's own ideas, opinions, and needs. Literacy includes the ability to use Braille, print, and computers as well as the ability to use readers and recorded materials to gain access to and acquire the most knowledge from information.

Many tools exist to enable a blind person to obtain, store, retrieve and communicate information. However, not all of these tools enable the blind person to learn how to spell or understand how a printed page appears. These elements of literacy are essential to the blind person's ability to communicate well with others, blind or sighted. Braille literacy has become an issue of great concern to blind adults, parents of blind children, and teachers of blind students. Braille instruction is not just for students who have low vision and can read printed letters. The letters must be very large and reading is very slow, inhibiting that student’s ability to learn. Braille Literacy is important for students with low vision, as well as those who are totally blind.

Pennsylvania Association for the Blind believes that denying Blind children the opportunity to learn Braille, denies them the ability to become literate. Teachers and parents must strive to empower blind children to direct and control their learning, giving them the opportunity to move upward in society as full participants.

About the Pennsylvania Association for the Blind (PAB)
The PAB is a private, nonprofit, charitable organization comprised of 28 member agencies and founded in 1910 for the purpose of helping Pennsylvanians prevent, prepare for, and manage vision loss. PAB is funded, in part, by the Pennsylvania Bureau of Blindness and Visual Services, Office of Vocation Rehabilitation, in the Department of Labor & Industry.

For more helpful information on this issue, please contact the PAB at 717-766-2020 or visit our website at www.pablind.org to locate your local member agency.