A READER COMMENTS ON BRAILLE
                                             Maple City, Michigan
                                                 October 31, 1991
Dear President Maurer:
     The recent articles in the Monitor concerning Braille
literacy have caused me to reflect upon the importance of Braille
in my own life and may be of interest to others who are
considering whether to use it or not.
     First of all, I have been totally blind since age two. So
luckily, no one tried to decide for me whether I should use
limited vision for reading print. My mom read everything she
could to me in my first six years of life, but it was never
enough. Helping my dad run a busy dairy farm didn't give her a
lot of free time to read to me, but I was eager to hear stories,
as all kids are, and to learn as much as I could about the world
I couldn't see. Reading other people's words (pictures of places
and events and feelings) gave me a wonderful feeling of learning
and understanding. The most exciting event in my life as a child
occurred when I went to a sight-saving class, and my teacher said
she would teach me to read and write Braille. Finally I would be
able to read all I wanted, and about anything I wanted to know
more about.
     It was so much fun and so exciting that I never thought of
it as school work. By the third grade I had already gone through
the Braille reading books our school had for children up to the
sixth grade. I borrowed all the books I was interested in from
the state library for the blind, and throughout the thirty-five
years from then to now, I have been thankful every day that I
learned Braille.
     Through junior and senior high school and later in college I
tried to get every course book I could put into Braille. It
usually meant getting lists of books from teachers six months
ahead of needing them. But everyone gladly tried their best to do
it for me. It was always so much easier to understand and retain
more of what I read by reading it myself with my fingers than to
have it read to me by readers or by my use of discs or cassettes.
Braille also allowed me to participate in reading aloud in class
with my sighted classmates and to talk about what I felt with my
family and friends without having to isolate myself in a separate
room, where listening to recorded material wouldn't disturb
others--or, at best, being in the same room and shut off from
interactions around me by having to wear earphones to hear
recorded material. My roommates in college were always envious of
my being able to read in bed late at night without any lights on,
which they couldn't do without disturbing others who were trying
to sleep.
     As I write this letter, I am just turning forty-five years
of age. For thirty-eight of that forty-five years I have relied
upon the reading and writing of Braille for my happiness and
success in school, college, career, and life overall. I read
Braille books to my twin girls now, and have since they were one
year old, starting with the Twin Vision books. I demonstrate
Braille to their schoolmates and explain how it makes it possible
to learn.
     Getting my present job as a reservationist for the Homestead
Resort depended (and, for that matter, still depends) on my being
able to Braille pages of room and condo rates and other
information, which changes regularly and which I must have at my
fingertips to communicate to prospective vacationers when they
call our office. I use my Perkins Brailler, and my wife reads
what I need while I dash it off at night and have it fresh at
hand for the work the following morning. I doubt that I could
have convinced my employer of my ability to handle the job
efficiently enough to have been hired without the ability to use
Braille. This is true even though I have the latest in adaptive
computers with speech synthesis and screen-reading programs. 
     There is nothing that makes a person feel more assured and
independent than being able to write and read his or her own
material--whether for work, education, or leisure. I urge anyone
with children who have little or no eyesight to do all they can
to get their youngsters to learn Braille. It is easier at a
younger age, I believe, and can make a great difference in school
and the rest of a child's life, just as much now as it did for me
more than thirty years ago.
                                                 Sincerely yours,
                                                      Ron Schmidt