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Group Fights To Reinvigorate Braille Use

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By LAURA FRAZIER

lfrazier@tampatrib.com

Published: December 30, 2008

PALM RIVER - Audio books and software that converts speech to text and vice-versa bring the written word to light for visually impaired people. But those who never learn to read and write using Braille might be missing something.

To illustrate the relevance of the time-honored, raised-dot system, the National Federation of the Blind will launch a yearlong Braille Literacy campaign Sunday, the 200th anniversary of Louis Braille's birth.

The group announced its upcoming crusade Dec. 23 in New York with the debut of a video that will air on a big screen in Times Square once an hour through Friday.

Palm River resident 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 with the system Braille developed in the 1820s.

"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 and other advocates think Braille is the key to education, employment and success for the blind.

He said in these tough economic times, the significance of Braille literacy is magnified.

"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 campaign, visit www.braille.org.

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

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