Braille and Literacy for Blind People

Re “Technology Replacing Braille,” July 28:

I have worked for the last four to five years with many blind friends and students and must take issue with several things. Regarding the statement that increasing reliance on tape recorders, letter magnifiers and computer voice translators leaves the visually impaired with a shaky grasp of the underlying structure of language: If a blind or visually impaired person has a piece of text or a book on a computer screen and is reading it with ears, word by word or letter by letter, along with all punctuation, how does this make for illiteracy any more than a person who is reading it with fingers word by word or letter by letter? Can anyone really make an argument that you cannot master the English language using either method?

How does providing ATMs with speech instead of Braille make for a step backward? “Talking machines” developed for the world at large are a natural for the visually impaired. Speech is and will ultimately be more and more interactive; Braille will never answer a question you put to it. I am not advocating that Braille is a lost art--far from it--but people who choose to accomplish things with newer, alternate means should not be considered illiterate.

The statement that computer vocalization (which in itself is a gross understatement) cannot keep up with something like the Internet is irresponsible. I have been following Internet access software for many years now and I can tell you that the visually impaired can read Web pages right down to a misspelled word if they desire to do so. As for not being able to see flashy images, a Braille reader doesn’t see flashy images in an embossed book either.

Materials for the blind that were originally produced in Braille and then on audio tapes with loaned-out tape players are now being produced on disk and are also available for download on the Internet. A whole world and lifetime of reading are just a few minutes away on the Internet. How’s that for fighting illiteracy? How about our organizations for the blind checking out computer equipment as they have checked out tape players? Many people are more challenged because they do not have access to this equipment than by the fact that they cannot read Braille.

MICHAEL SEELIG

Thousand Oaks