I found this article in the April/May, 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/brlm8904.htm.

BRAILLE: A TOUCHY ISSUE

From the Editor: This article by Tim Lucas appeared in the January 31, 1989, 
Indianapolis Star. It is worth reading for a number of reasons, not the least
of which is its underscoring of the fact that there is a beginning of public 
awareness that Braille is being underemphasized in the education of the blind.
Ironically it seems easier for the sighted than for some of the professionals
in the blindness field to understand the simple truth that those who are 
blind or who have extremely impaired vision need to learn Braille: 

Sometimes the words still come slowly for Aaron Cook. Syllable by syllable, 
one letter at a time, he makes his way across the line of Braille type, 
pausing frequently when the pattern of raised dots and spaces becomes too 
complex. Aaron, 14, is a first-year Braille student at the Indiana School for
the Blind. After only a few months' instruction, his grasp of the writing 
system is, understandably, still limited. But for all his mistakes, the 
Indianapolis boy is already doing better than most of Indiana's blind 
population. Although many of us assume that Braille literacy is universal 
among the blind, the truth is far from that. Today, only about ten percent of
all legally blind people can read Braille, says Ronald G. Matias, President 
of the National Federation of the Blind of Indiana.

The Braille literacy rate keeps going down and down, Matias warns. And if 
something isn't done to reverse it... we are going to become a nation of 
Braille illiterates. A paper published earlier this month by the Council of 
Executives of American Residential Schools for the Visually Handicapped 
echoes Matias's concern.

The paper strongly recommends a re-emphasis of Braille skills for the blind, 
and suggests that some teachers of the blind may themselves be deficient in 
Braille and thus cannot effectively teach it to their students.

Matias agrees. The public assumes everyone who's blind learns to read Braille
in school. That's a logical assumption, but unfortunately, it's not true. 

Instead, he says, most schools today favor an educational philosophy that 
encourages students who are not totally blind to read large print instead of 
Braille.

It's part of the whole mainstreaming philosophy, Matias explains.

Before the 1930's, teachers of the blind were often blind themselves and read
and wrote Braille on a daily basis. State certification wasn't required; a 
proficiency in Braille was. Then, after the thirties, Teachers had to be 
educational professionals with college degrees. Sometimes they were blind, 
but more frequently they were sighted teachers... who had taken instruction 
in Braille but who did not read or write it on a daily basis.

They emphasized large print type or sight reading of Braille in the classroom
because that's what they knew, Matias says. Moe Haralson, principal at the 
Indiana School for the Blind, agrees to a point.

There was a de-emphasization of Braille teaching for a period, he says. But 
it was because researchers came out with a low vision study saying people 
(who aren't totally blind) are better off reading print.

That philosophy, as we've seen, hasn't worked, Haralson says, so now we've 
gone back to working with students in two modes large print and Braille. 

Braille is based on a six-dot unit which, when arranged variously, forms more
than 200 different signs and letters. Of the Indiana School for the Blind's 
162 students, 61 (or about 38 percent) can read Braille. About the same 
number rely on large print materials, while 20 percent are multiple handicap 
students who cannot read either Braille or large print. The decision to teach
a student Braille is based on his abilities and desire, Haralson says.

If he wants to learn it, it's available to him, he says, adding that it 
generally takes a student two or three years of study to become fluent in 
Braille.

Despite the initial difficulties, though, students, teachers, and blind 
advocates alike agree that it's worth the effort. I used to read large print 
pretty well, but now my vision (is weaker), so I can only pick up one word at
a time and I make a lot of mistakes, says Aaron, a near straight-A student. 
Learning Braille will prepare me for the future in case I go totally blind or
can't read print anymore.