I found this article in the August, 1989 issue of The Braille 
Monitor, published by the National Federation of the Blind. You can 
view the entire issue by going to http://www.nfb.org/bm/bm89/brlm8908.htm.

CONFLICTING UNPROFESSIONAL ADVICE ABOUT BRAILLE

In New Hampshire the school officials told her that her son should learn 
Braille. In California they told her he should not. It is time to take the 
mystery and the hogwash out of this question. 

Edwards, California

April 12, 1989

Dear Mr. Jernigan:

I need some information and could not think of a better person to write to 
than you. I have an eight-year-old son, Dennis, who has been legally blind 
since birth. He was diagnosed as having optic nerve hypoplasia and has a 
visual acuity of 20/600. He is now in the second grade at a public school.

I am an avid reader of the Braille Monitor and have read several articles 
that make me feel that maybe we are holding our son back by not having 
Braille taught to him. He is able to read large print and uses a viewer at 
school, but at home he never reads because the print is too small or he has 
to struggle, so it would take him all night to read a simple book. When we 
moved here from New Hampshire four and a half years ago, I called the blind 
association, and an itinerant instructor came to talk with my husband and me. 
Immediately she said he would read large print. We asked about Braille, 
because in New Hampshire the itinerant said he should learn to read large 
print and learn Braille. The itinerant here was very emphatic about the large
print. So after discussing it with each other, my husband and I assumed she 
knew what she was talking about and agreed to have him not learn Braille.

Now after reading the articles in the Braille Monitor , we feel we may have 
made a terrible mistake by not having our son taught Braille. If there is any
information you could provide us on the benefits or drawbacks of Braille, we
would truly appreciate it. We plan on having a meeting with the itinerant to 
discuss our feelings, but due to her attitude towards teaching Dennis Braille,
we feel we need to self-educate ourselves on the issue before speaking with 
her.

Our son is very independent and actually doing well in school. But if there 
is any chance that we will be holding him back in the future by not having 
him learn Braille now, we want to know. Any information you can provide to 
help us with this difficult decision would be of great importance to us. As 
of this time, we feel if we were to request that Dennis be taught Braille, 
the itinerant would put up a hellish fight. But as long as we're his parents 
and knowledgeable about what we are requesting, I feel they will have to do 
what we request. Thank you for your help.

Sincerely,

Baltimore, Maryland

May 10, 1989

Dear Mrs. :

I have your letter of April 12, 1989, and I think you are wise to be 
concerned about the fact that your son is not being taught Braille. Based on 
my experience with literally thousands of blind people over the past forty 
years, I believe that both you and your son will deeply regret it if your 
son does not become proficient in Braille.

You tell me that you read the Braille Monitor . The June, 1989, issue 
contains a great deal of material which speaks directly to the point. Study 
and consider the words of Barbara Cheadle and Ruby Ryles. There are good 
reasons why many of the professionals in the field oppose the use of Braille,
and most of the reasons are anything but professional. I don't know whether 
you are planning to be at the NFB convention in Denver this summer, but it 
would be helpful to you if you could be there. Regardless of that, you might 
want to talk with Barbara Cheadle about your concerns. You can reach her at 
the above address, or you can call her at: (301) 659-9314. I am glad you 
wrote me, and I hope that what I have said will be of help. Since Braille is 
neither slow nor inefficient (I can read it at close to 400 words per minute,
and I know many others who can do likewise), the reasons for the 
discouragement by the professionals of the learning of Braille have to be 
something other than the needs and well-being of the child.

Sincerely,

Kenneth Jernigan

Executive Director

National Federation of the Blind