I found this article in the Spring/Summer, 1993 issue of Future Reflections, 
published by the National Federation of the Blind. You can view the entire 
issue by going to http://www.nfb.org/fr/fr1/93sprsum.htm.

BRAILLE STANDARDS FOR TEACHERS OF THE BLIND
AND VISUALLY IMPAIRED
by Barbara Cheadle
As I see it, there are basically two steps in the current
struggle to achieve Braille literacy for blind youth. The first
step in the achievement of this goal is to establish, by law if
necessary, the fundamental right of blind and visually impaired
students to instruction in Braille reading and writing. 
About seven years ago, Maryland was the first state to try and
achieve the first step of this goal through state legislation.
After two unsuccessful legislative attempts and several years of
working behind the scenes to try to bring about change through
regulation, the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland was
successful in getting a Braille literacy bill passed in 1992. Since
then, a resource document which outlines how to determine which
students should learn Braille has been developed and disseminated
to educators and parents by the Maryland State Department of
Education. This document was developed by a committee which
included two members of the Federation and a parent as well as the
usual contingency of professionals. With strong legislation and
good guidelines for implementing the legislation, Maryland is one
of the many states which are now well on the way to accomplishing
this first step. To date, Braille literacy bills have been passed
in 18 statesþslightly more than one third of all states in the
U.S.A. Iowa, Indiana, Florida, and Idaho are the most recent states
to pass such legislation. The momentum for Braille bills is
gathering and many more states will undoubtedly join the ranks of
Braille bill states in the coming 1994 state legislative sessions.
The second step toward the achievement of Braille literacy for
blind youth is finding a way to ensure that teachers of blind and
visually impaired children meet minimal competency standards in the
reading and writing of Braille. Some of the Braille bills passed in
the various states address this issue, others do not. The Maryland
Braille literacy law addressed it by stipulating that, þ For the
purpose of achieving successful implementation of this section, the
state board and the professional standards and teacher education
board shall adopt certification standards for teachers of blind and
visually impaired students.þ 
Not one to let any grass grow under her feet, Sharon Maneki,
President of the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland,
began to move on this segment of the legislation even as the
Braille resource guide committee was wrapping up its work. At
Sharon's request, the NFB of Maryland was put on the agenda of the
October, 1992, meeting of the Maryland Professional Standards and
Teacher Education Board. This board has the responsibility of
overseeing any changes in teacher certification requirements in the
state. This article contains an edited version of the comments I
made as an NFB of Maryland representative at that October meeting. 
The comments are reprinted here in the hopes of providing some
insights into the necessity of pressing forward on the issue of
requiring demonstrations of teacher competency in Braille reading
and writing. We are doing this in Maryland. A committee to study
the certification requirements of teachers of students with visual
impairments was appointed, and an NFB of Maryland representative is
on that committee. Despite a tangle of bureaucratic policies and
regulations, we intend to persevere until we have a system which
will guarantee that any teacher hired to teach blind and visually
impaired children can meet minimum standards in the reading and
writing of Braille. 
Who knows, if we do our work well maybe our vision teachers will
once more become Braille teachers. 

Comments Regarding Braille Certification and Standards for
Teachers of the 
Blind and Visually Impaired 

My name is Mrs. Barbara Cheadle. I am the mother of a blind child,
president of the Parents of Blind Children Division of the National
Federation of the Blind, and editor of Future Reflections, the NFB
magazine for parents and educators of blind children. I have been
a resident of Maryland for the past eight years. My son, who is
blind, has attended Maryland schools since 2nd gradeþsix of the
eight years he has been in school. Over the past few years, I have
not only come to know hundreds of Maryland parents, but a good many
of the teachers and administrators who are responsible for the
special education needs of blind and visually impaired children in
this state. My responsibilities as editor of Future Reflections and
president of a national parents' organization mean that I also have
a knowledge of national concerns, problems, and trends. It is with
this background that I come to this issue on Braille certification
and renewal. 
I strongly support the adoption of the Braille Competency test for
teachers developed by the National Library for the Blind and
Physically Handicapped as the standard for Maryland teachers of the
visually impaired; the use of the test for renewal purposes every
five years; and the establishment of requirements regarding Braille
teaching methodologies.
Here are my reasons. First of all, the teaching of Braille is a
unique educational need unparalleled by any other subject or skill
taught to either general or special education students. (Since
Braille is a tactile reading and writing code necessary for
literacy for the blind, I even hesitate to call it a special
education need.) I realize this statement may raise some hackles,
but please bear with me. Unless Braille is taught by a blind
teacherþwhich is much less common today than it was 20 or 30 years
agoþstudents will be taught their basic literacy skill by a teacher
who never personally uses that system outside the classroom. And
yet, this teacher may be the only individual in those students'
lives who knows Braille at all. The director of special education
won't know it; the classroom teacher won't know it; the principal
won't know it; the teacher's immediate supervisor won't know it;
and the parents, with few exceptions, won't know it. As it stands,
only in a handful of districts do vision teachers have supervisors
who are knowledgeable in Braille. Consider the implications. Any
school administrator of any school in this state could walk into
any reading or English teacher's classroom and determine if a
teacher meets minimum standards for teaching reading and writing.
How many could sit in on a Braille class and be able to judge
personally that teacher's knowledge of Braille and appropriateness
of teaching methodologies? 
Knowing that others around youþcoworkers, supervisors, and
parentsþare capable of evaluating your work provides a tremendous
incentive for teachers to maintain their skills. Conversely, the
knowledge that absolutely no one around you has the foggiest notion
of the quality of your work, encourages at best mediocre
performance and at worst sub-standard performance. 
No one wins in this situation. The student loses, of course, but so
does the teacher and the school administration. I do not believe
that vision teachers or school administrators want to provide
sub-standard or even mediocre Braille instruction to students.
Appropriate Braille competency standards would restore respect and
credibility to teachers and administrators alike because it would
ensureþshort of administrators learning Braille themselvesþthat
minimum standards in Braille teaching would be met.
The second reason Maryland should take steps to ensure teacher
competency is that graduation from a college or university with a
vision teacher degree or endorsement is by no means a guarantee
that the graduate has adequate Braille skills. Let me quote from
Print and Braille Literacy: Selecting Appropriate Learning Media,
a booklet published by the American Printing House for the Blind,
copyright 1991, edited by Hilda Caton: þThere are no quality
standards for teaching Braille in colleges and universities and no
refresher courses available after graduation.þ Short but not very
sweet, this statement was endorsed by a committee which was made up
of the top Braille experts and educators of the blind in this
country. In some of the university and college programs, Braille
instruction is buried in a three-hour course along with a list of
other communication skills to be covered in that time frame. In
Puerto Rico teachers can get an endorsement after learning Grade I
BrailleþGrade II Braille isn't even offered. Maryland must take the
initiative, as it does in other areas of certification and renewal,
and adopt standards by which the Braille reading, writing, and
teaching methodology skills of teachers from these various programs
can be judged.
The next question then is: Why renewal standards? Other teachers
are not required to periodically demonstrate competency in their
fields. Again, we must look at the unique circumstances surrounding
Braille instruction and the needs of blind students. 
Vision teachers may go years without teaching Braille. This may be
because they took time out to rear a family; or they taught in a
small district and a Braille student simply didn't live in the
district for a number of years; or they teach in a large district
but have been assigned to work with infants, or low-vision
(non-Braille) students. Remember, the overwhelming majority of
these teachers are sighted and unless they are required to keep
their skills current, will have no reason to even incidentally use
Braille. English teachers may not teach for years, but they do not
stop reading or writing. Sighted Braille teachers could go years
without reading or writing Braille, but when they are called upon
to teach Braille it will be with students who will be expected to
perform with the same level of reading and writing skills expected
of their print-reading peers. It would be like expecting a French
teacher who hasn't used, said, or written a word in French for
years to teach French to students who will read and write
Frenchþand only Frenchþfor all of their schoolwork in all
subjectsþfrom math to science to social studies. Just this past
month a vision teacher who hasn't taught Braille in ten years was
assigned to teach a Braille student. She is doing her best, but the
state could have saved her much anguish if Braille renewal
requirements had been in place. 
The need for change in certification and renewal standards is also
necessary because circumstances under which Braille students are
taught have dramatically changed in the last twenty years. Just
last year, one of the first Braille students to be mainstreamed
from kindergarten on within the public school system, graduated
from high school. Before 1976, the Baltimore public schools had
never taught Braille to a student in their system. The only Braille
students were the one or two who learned Braille at the School for
the Blind and then transferred to the public school system. These
students received no support services at all. Prior to 1976, the
School for the Blind was the only game in town when it came to
teaching Braille to blind students. It still is for many small or
rural school districts. Traditionally at schools for the blind,
many people knew Braille. Often the principal started his or her
career as a teacher in a school for the blind, and was therefore
personally skilled in Braille. Many of the teachers were themselves
blind and used Braille in their personal lives as routinely as we
use print. Classes in history or English or science were filled
with Braille reading students. Older, proficient Braille reading
students mixed with younger students just learning to read via
Braille. 
Today, most Braille students learn in classrooms with all print
readers. A few of them in larger districts may have one or two
other Braille students their age with which they have some
interaction, but for the most part, the only Braille user a blind
student will know is a sighted teacher. They have none of the
opportunities for incidental learning and reinforcement that
Braille students had twenty years ago. This is the price we payþno,
our blind students payþfor the right to attend their local schools.
It is only reasonable that the State of Maryland acknowledge its
responsibility to minimize this burden on our blind students by
assuring them of teachers who meet minimum Braille competency
standards. I do not believe that federal and state legislators ever
intended that blind students should have to give up literacy in
order to attend schools with their sighted peers.