I found this article in the January, 1988 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/bm88/brlm8801.htm.

THE BATTLE FOR BRAILLE AND LITERACY 

The following letter from Diane Croft of the National Braille Press to 
Barbara Cheadle, the Editor of Future Reflections, deserves careful 
consideration from all who are truly interested in the well-being of the 
blind. The ability to read and write is so basic that it spells the 
difference between civilization and savagery. This is a commonplace, and 
one would think that there would be no need for discussion as to whether 
blind children should be taught to read Braille. Yet, there is not only a 
need for discussion but also persuasion--and even more. The plain truth is 
that blind children and their parents in this country today are being sold 
a bill of goods. They are being told that Braille is outmoded, that it is 
clumsy and inefficient, and that substitutes are better and more available. 
That this is not the truth does not alter the fact that it is being given 
wide currency and acceptance. At the very time when technology and social 
advancement are opening new horizons to the blind, growing illiteracy among 
the blind threatens to make a mockery of the promises and prospects. The 
National Federation of the Blind has taken a leading part in trying to 
reverse the trend of illiteracy among the blind, and so have a number of 
other groups. Through its Twin Vision program the American Brotherhood for 
the Blind provides books with side-by-side print and Braille text to enable 
sighted adults to read with blind children, or blind adults with sighted 
children. Other groups throughout the country are also working to increase 
the use of Braille. One of these is the National Association to Promote the 
Use of Braille. Another is the National Braille Press, which started a 
Children's Braille Book Club a few years back. Diane Croft's letter does 
more than talk about the efforts of the National Braille Press. It spotlights
a problem which must be given serious consideration by every thinking blind 
person and every parent of a blind child in the country: 

-------------------- 

Boston, Massachusetts July 1, 1987 

Dear Barbara: 

The Braille business has never been more exciting. Computer-generated 
Braille is becoming more prevalent, making more and more information 
accessible to a print handicapped reader. Braille output devices attached 
to IBM and Apple computers give a blind user access to more information than 
the average person could even assimilate. I guess that's why it's so painful 
to see what's happening to our young people who are being mainstreamed into 
public and private school systems. While mainstreaming has considerable 
advantages over residential programs for the blind, it has not proven to be 
beneficial in terms of Braille literacy. Some depressing statistics I saw 
recently show that "the number of legally blind school children who read 
only Braille has decreased from 9,000 in 1963 to 5,200 in 1978; the 
proportion of persons who read only Braille has declined about linearly over 
time from 52% in 1963 to less than 18% in 1978." This serious decline in 
Braille occurred at the same time the number of legally blind students 
attending nonresidential schools rose from 9,437 in 1963 to 21,283 in 1978. 
School systems are not always adequately prepared to meet the special needs 
of blind students. Now taught in sighted classes, the blind child is immersed
in an environment where most teachers, classmates, and other significant 
persons do not share the child's need for information in Braille. As our 
society moves from an industrial age to an information age, what could have 
more serious consequences for our blind youth than illiteracy? Braille 
remains the only way a visually impaired person (who cannot read large print)
can read and write--the definition of literacy. Over the years I have heard 
the National Federation of the Blind, as well as other organizations, protest
the declining use of Braille. But nothing hit home to me until I sat on a 
panel, actually two different panels at two different conferences, and heard 
teachers of the visually impaired say that "no one uses Braille anymore... 
I haven't taught Braille in ten years... I don't even know Braille anymore, 
I haven't used it in so long...." These are the people to whom we are 
entrusting our children's future--a future which shows promises of being 
radically different from generations past in terms of integration and 
employment. We believe it's time to stop talking about the problem and start 
tackling it. We are in the process of outlining strategies that we, as a 
Braille printing and publishing house, can implement. As you know, several 
years ago we initiated a Children's Braille Book Club to get Braille into 
the home at an early age. Now we are working on a Braille primer for parents 
called "Just Enough to Know Better," which we hope will encourage parents 
to get more involved in the education of their blind children. There is so 
much to be done, and we can't aford to wait. It will require the combined 
resources of every agency that cares about something as basic as literacy. 
Estimates are that there are 47,000 severely visually impaired school-age 
children in this country--not so many that we can't insure that each and 
every child gets an equal opportunity to participate in "life, liberty, 
and the pursuit of happiness." 

Sincerely, 

Diane L. Croft