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Group Launches Braille Literacy Campaign

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By LAURA FRAZIER

lfrazier@tampatrib.com

Published: December 31, 2008

PALM RIVER - Audio books and computer software with screen-reading and speech-to-text capabilities put the written and posted word at the fingertips of visually impaired people. But those who eschew the time-honored Braille system in favor of cutting-edge technology might be missing something.

To shed some light on why it is important for blind people to learn the raised-dot reading and writing system created in the 1820s by Louis Braille, the National Federation of the Blind will launch a yearlong Braille Literacy campaign Sunday, the 200th anniversary of Braille's birth.

Marion Gwizdala, president of the federation's East Hillsborough chapter, said "it's a crisis" that fewer than 10 percent of blind children today are taught to read Braille.

"There is a misconception that technology is going to make Braille obsolete," Gwizdala said. "But the spoken word does not provide you with all the information printed words do."

When a person reads Braille, he said, "You see the words and the spelling and punctuation with your fingers. How can you learn to spell a word that you've only heard and never seen?"

Gwizdala lost his sight due to a genetic condition at the age of 17 but did not learn to read Braille until he was 35.

"If someone doesn't learn to read until later in life, they never read at the same pace or with the same literacy as someone who learned when they were a child."

Gwizdala's 12-year-old nephew suffers from the degenerative condition that runs in his family. The boy's sight has not declined to total blindness, but he is already learning to read and write with Braille.

Gwizdala and other Braille advocates believe the system is the key element to education and employment for the blind.

"More than 74 percent of blind people today are either unemployed or under-employed," he said. "Braille readers face far less unemployment."

For information about the Braille literacy campaign, go to www.braille.org.

Reporter Laura Frazier can be reached at (813) 657-4523.

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