The crisis in Braille literacy – a PSA from the National Federation of the Blind is urging you to buy coins to raise money to fund teaching blind people braille. I would encourage you to NOT do that.
My father was totally blind. He read braille. We had a braille typewriter. He was active in the NFB. He taught his non-blind children braille (or at least tried to). He wrote a book about radio written in braille. Braille was useful in its day, but that day is long past. Braille was invented in 1821. Blind people now have access to information via books on tape, magnified viewers, computers with speech to text converters, Library of Congress talking books, cable TV news, and other technolgies. Teaching young blind people how to read braille is about as useful as teaching students in driver’s ed how to put a saddle on a horse.
