TO BE CONTINUED: A monthly publication from the CTEBVI

Focus: BVI History

Issue: March 2019

Articles appearing in each issue of To Be Continued are abbreviated. To read the complete article, click on the words in blue as they are URLs to the actual original article. Each edition will embrace a theme, include parent specific articles, and a braille literacy piece. Timely articles may appear for the reading audience when it is essential to send out important information. To comment, suggest a topic, or make a correction please send an e-mail to TBC@ctebvi.org. 

A Long History of Supporting Blinded Veterans

The American Foundation for the Blind has a long history of providing assistance to blinded veterans. In 1945, following World War II, the Veterans Administration asked AFB to help set up its rehabilitation program for blinded soldiers. M. C. Migel, AFB's President and CEO, gave what was at that time a large donation of $10,000 towards the establishment of the Blinded Veterans Association.

Helen Keller, who worked for AFB for 44 years, made many visits to the blinded veterans of World Wars I and II to offer comfort and hope. On February 25, 1919, Helen Keller spoke to vets who had been blinded by shelling or by mustard gas in World War I. Here is a small part of what she said:

When we lose one or more senses we are not given a mystical or sixth or seventh sense. But we can train and cultivate the remaining senses so that they become more efficient and dependable. Touch and hearing have powers of which most seeing people remain always in ignorance...

I am not saying you will never feel restless or lonely or cheated. You will. Everyone has his moods when his thoughts are the color of indigo. When you feel like that, console yourselves with work, get busy, put your mind on the job at hand. When the mind bends gladly to a task and the hand has to keep up with the eager spirit, one feels in love with life and in tune with the universe and misfortune loses its sting.

Blinded Veterans Association and Braille Guilds

BVA traces its roots back to the end of World War II. The organization’s founders consisted of some 100 young men, mostly in their early 20s. Members of this unique group had recently lost their sight in the war and were recovering from their injuries at Avon Old Farms Army Convalescent Hospital near Avon, Connecticut.

On March 28, 1945, the group held a meeting at the facility with the express purpose of forming an organization to help their fellow blinded veterans. Thirteen years later, BVA was chartered by the U.S. Congress to speak and write on behalf of blinded veterans in national legislative affairs. Ever since, BVA officers and staff have worked tirelessly to fulfill the Association’s mission and uphold the ideals expressed in its Congressional charter.

Throughout BVA’s history, Congress and the now Department of Veterans Affairs (formerly the Veterans Administration) have recognized BVA as the exclusive voice for blinded veterans nationwide. Read more about BVA's historical achievements in advocating for blinded veterans and ensuring the VA delivers the services they need.

To support the service men who were blinded in the war braille guilds were formed. These guilds, made mostly of women, taught braille reading and writing skills, translated papers and magazines into braille, and helped the service men obtain jobs, using braille to complete any task needed for them to read and respond to. Guilds for the most part are a part of history since most braille now is specifically for children in schools. 

Guilds included; Beach City Braille Guild, Catholic Guild for the Blind,  The Lighthouse Guild,  Jewish Guild, Lehigh Valley Braille Guild, and Greater Boston Guild for the Blind 

History of the Blind 

By Brian R. Miller

History of the blind is the experience of persons affected by blindness and the development of blind education and organization through time. The history of the blind is difficult to chart. The blind, in truth, occupy no greater or lesser a place in history commensurate to their numbers in the general population. 

Historical knowledge of the lives of blind people in the pre-modern Western world is extremely limited, and it is strongly influenced by literary or religious texts. Traditional interpretations of classical literary representations hold that blindness is a punishment for social or religious transgressions or, alternatively, is the price one pays to gain spiritual vision and insight. Nonetheless, ancient and medieval depictions of the blind as either sinners or saints persisted into the modern era in the West and continued to be the subjects of religious and philosophical inquiry.

Well-known blind scholars of the early Christian era include Didymus the Blind (c. 313–398), a theologian in Alexandria. Didymofus invented a means of reading that used carved wooden letters, and he taught St. Jerome, who was widely known for the Vulgate, his Latin translation of the Bible. In the 6th century St. Hervé (Harvey) established a monastery in Brittany, which later became a shrine for blind musicians. Born in what is today Syria, al-Maʿarrī (973–1057) became a preeminent poet after experiencing a childhood disease that damaged his vision. 

Enlightenment: During the Enlightenment of the 17th and 18th centuries in Europe, philosophers introduced new questions about blindness and the nature of the blind. Scholars debated whether or not the blind were more likely to be atheists as a result of their presumed bitterness against God over their condition. Others argued that the blind were closer to God, as they were spared the burden of earthly distractions because of their blindness. 

French philosopher Denis Diderot penned one of the first treatises to include significant discussion of the blind and education with his “Letter on the Blind for the Use of Those Who Can See” (1749). The essay suggested that the sense of touch could be honed for reading in blind persons, foreshadowing the 19th-century invention of the braille writing system. 

In 1784 French calligraphy professor Valentin Haüy opened the first school for the blind in Paris. Haüy had been influenced by Charles-Michel, abbé de l’Épée, who had opened the first public school for the deaf in the 1770s. Haüy was inspired by a talented blind Austrian pianist, Maria Theresia von Paradis. Von Paradis showed Haüy the tactile alphabet she had developed, which she used to read and write. Raised Roman letters were very inefficient to read, however, and Haüy wanted a system that looked attractive to the sighted as much as he was interested in what actually worked for the blind.

Johann Wilhelm Klein founded a school for the blind in Vienna in 1804. Klein believed that blind students should be integrated into the classroom with their sighted peers. 

American educator Samuel Gridley Howe, who in Boston in 1831 opened the New England Institution for the Education of the Blind (later known as the Perkins School for the Blind)—the second school of its kind in the United States, argued that the blind could be educated and trained to become independent members of society, earning their own way in the world. Blind children continued to be educated at residential schools, apart from sighted children, until well into the 20th century. By the 1920s educators and blind advocates had begun to argue forcibly that the blind ought to attend school with their sighted peers. By 1970 that idea formed the basis for a movement known as mainstreaming. With the passage of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act in 1975 (the forerunner of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act [IDEA] of 1990), the mainstreaming of blind children became a right. Schools for the blind diminished in importance in favor of integration of the blind with the sighted.

Louis Braille, a student at the Royal Institute for the Blind (National Institute for Blind Children) in Paris in the 1820s, took a raised-dot system of code brought to the school in 1821 and turned it into the most important advancement in blind education. Charles Barbier, invented a raised-dot system to allow military officers to communicate with one another in the dark. However, Louis Braille reduced the system proposed by Barbier to six dots, making it relatively simple to read with the fingertips, and created a system of abbreviations and shorthand symbols that would allow the blind to read at a much faster rate. Braille was a teacher at the school, however, and taught his system to his blind students. By the time of Braille’s death in 1852, the school had finally accepted the superior Braille method of transcription. The introduction of braille not only revolutionized education for the blind, it allowed the blind to communicate with one another without sighted intervention. 

Summary of the History of the Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind

The history of the blind involves stories passed down, until literacy allowed for the history to be told in print. Beginning in primitive times, the blind were not regarded as being of much value to the societies in which they lived. They generally were not expected to be able to throw a spear accurately in times of conflict, and it was also assumed that they could not hunt or fish for food for basic sustenance. Add these assumptions to the natural "fear of the dark," and it is easy to see how the destructive, negative social attitudes about blindness developed and flourished. It is reported that in many of the early great civilizations, blind babies were abandoned and left to die, either from exposure to the elements or to be eaten by wild animals. Later, some blind men were sold into galley slavery and some blind women were sold into prostitution. Others were used for amusement, but most lived their lives as beggars or were simply kept by families. By the middle ages, civilized societies (particularly in Europe) began to operate in the belief that it was an obligation of society itself to care for the "less fortunate," including the blind. Alms houses (something akin to homeless shelters of today) were established to care for the poor and disadvantaged, including the blind.

Timeline:

1784: The first "school for the blind" was established in France in 1784.

1809: Louis Braille, the inventor of the tactile reading and writing system for the blind by 1820, was born.

1829: The first residential school for the blind was established in America in 1829. 

1850: The purpose of schools for blind children was to prepare blind students for employment; blind trades, chair caning, basket weaving, rug weaving, etc.

1858: The American Printing House for the Blind (APH) was established in Louisville, Kentucky. In 1879, APH   was made the official printer of textbooks for blind students in America.

1871: The American Association of Instructors of the Blind (AAIB) was created in 1871. 

1918: Braille was accepted as the national standard for tactile reading for the blind. 

1920: The Smith-Fess Act (Public Law 66-236) established the National Civilian Vocational Rehabilitation Program the blind were included in VR programs to have employment.

1921: The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) was created in 1921; four original purposes:conduct research into the causes of blindness; work to find resources to improve the lives of blind people; to improve services for the blind; and represent the interests of the blind.

1931: The Pratt-Smoot Act established the federal program of providing books for the blind - National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped.

1935: The Social Security Act was passed by the Congress in 1935. In time, an effort was made to include the concept of rehabilitation training within the Aid to the Blind grant program so that the blind could get off of welfare and become self-supporting.

1936: The Randolph-Sheppard vending stand program provided employment opportunities for the blind in vending facilities located on federal property.

1938: The Wagner-O'Day Act required that the federal government purchase certain items - mops, brooms, mattresses, etc. - from sheltered shops for the blind. 

1940: The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) was established to understand blindness not the wide range of public misunderstandings, misconceptions, and superstitions about blindness

1973: Congress took its first steps into the area of civil rights protections for people with disabilities when it enacted Title 5 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973:
Section 501 the "federal government" could not discriminate on the basis of disability and        must provide "reasonable accommodations" for the known physical or mental limitations

Section 502 created the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board working nationwide on the concept of accessibility for people with disabilities

Section 503 required that "contractors" not discriminate on the basis of disability

Section 504 provided that "recipients of federal funds" not discriminate on the basis of physical or mental disability 

1975:  First law requiring that public schools accept handicapped students in "the least restrictive environment." 

1990: The Americans with Disabilities Act greatly broadened the protections offered by Title 5 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as Amended. Generally, it took civil rights protections for people with disabilities into the private sector.

1990: The National Federation of the Blind established the International Braille and Technology Center. The Federation's model laws generally required two things: first, that text book producers wishing to sell books in a given state would be required to provide "electronic" versions so that, using braille embossers, the schools could produce their own braille books as needed; and second, that districts would be required to provide braille teachers who were "qualified" so that blind children could learn to read and write braille competently and routinely.

1995: The National Federation of the Blind established Newsline. 

1996:  The National Federation of the Blind convince the textbook publishers to permit transcription of books for the blind without publisher permission.

1997:  Require the IEP that braille be included within the Individualized Education Plan, unless it is agreed by the entire IEP team that braille is not needed. 

2004:  Every publisher wishing to copyright a proposed textbook would have to submit an "electronic" version of that book to a federal repository before the copyright would be granted. 

2006: Congress mints a commemorative Louis Braille coin to recognize Braille's 200th birthday

APH Migel Library’s Blind Musicians Collection

By APH Staff

APH is pleased to announce the creation of a Spotify playlist representing the APH Migel Library’s Blind Musicians Collection. Thought to be the only one of its kind, the collection was developed in 2015 with a grant from the H.W. Wilson Foundation. It encompasses works by and about more than 100 musicians who are visually impaired. From the works of Japan’s Biwa Hoshi of the 12th Century to KSB alumnus Michael Cleveland, music has played a significant historical role in the lives, education, and livelihoods of people who are visually impaired. Now, a sample of this music can be accessed from anywhere through our Spotify playlist. 

A Social History of Blindness in the United States

By Frances A. Koestler

Chronology of Events in the History of Education of People Who Are Visually Impaired

1749 "Letter on the Blind for the Use of Those Who See," Denis Diderot states learning through touch involves different mental processes than those involving sight.

1784 Valentine Haüy establishes L'Institution Nationale des Jeunes Aveugles (Institute for Blind Youths), the first school for children who are blind in Paris. He experiments with various sizes and forms of raised Roman letters to teach students who are blind to read.

1791 The first school for the blind in England opens in Liverpool.

1808 Charles Barbier invents Écriture Nocturne (night writing) for use by French soldiers at night.

1825 Blind graduates are prepared through apprenticeship programs during this period.

1827 James Gall publishes First Book for Teaching the Art of Reading to the Blind.

1829 Louis Braille publishes an explanation of his embossed code, inspired by Barbier.

1833 Gospel of St. Mark, the first book in raised print in the United States.

1834 Louis Braille perfects the literary braille code.

1836 Henry Martyn Taylor devises a tangible mathematics apparatus for computations.

1847 Dr. Robert Moon develops his raised-line type, referred to as Moon Type.

1854 France officially adopts braille as a reading mode for people who are blind.

1855 Dr. William Moon and the Moon Society volunteers instructed people who are blind.

1858 The Kentucky legislature establishes the American Printing House for the Blind (APH).

1860 The Missouri School for the Blind becomes the first institute in the United States to use braille.

1868 William B. Wait develops the New York Point raised-dot system at the New York Institution.

1871 The first pamphlet on braille music notation is published.

1871 Stereotype plates are created for braille production.

1871 The American Association of Instructors of the Blind (AAIB) endorses New York Point.

1872 The Scottish Education Act enacts educating blind with sighted children.

1873 The first Congress of Teachers of the Blind is held in Vienna.

1876 Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone.

1877 Thomas Edison invents the tin foil phonograph and lists Books for Blind People.

1878 Joel W. Smith, Perkins School, develops the American raised-point system.

1882 The Pennsylvania Institution starts kindergarten for students who are blind.

1887 The Perkins School for the Blind founds a kindergarten for babies who are blind.

1888 The International Congress for Standardization of Braille Music Notation is held.

1892 Frank Hall and Gustav A. Sieber develop the braillewriter, first mechanical device for braille.

1898 Alexander Graham Bell: "Handicapped children have a right to a public school education.”

1900 The Tactile Print Investigating Committee resolves the problem of tactile reading systems.

1902 A library and reading room for people who are blind opens in San Francisco.

1905 The Uniform Type Committee is formed.

1907 Helen Keller, who had learned four embossed codes, pleads for a single code.

1911 New York State makes education compulsory for students who are blind.

1912 Students who are blind in day-school classes are eligible to receive APH materials.

1914 Robert B. Irwin and H.H. Goddard adapt the Binet Test for Blind Pupils.

1915 The National Society for the Prevention of Blindness (NSPB) is founded.

1918 The University of California offers university preparation course for teachers of the blind.

1918 APH adopts Revised Standard English Braille for textbooks.

1921 Edward E. Allen establishes a formal teacher training program at Perkins School for the Blind.

1921 The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) is founded.

1921 The American Red Cross adopts braille transcribing as its volunteer service.

1925 The Carnegie Corporation funds an APH study of braille interpoint equipment.

1929 The Seeing Eye, the first dog guide school in the United States, is incorporated.

1931 National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped distributes braille materials and phonograph records to readers who are blind (Pratt-Smoot Act of 1930).

1931 The first World Conference on Work for the Blind is held in New York.

1932 AFB develops Talking Books, long-playing records and playback machines.

1933 APH adopts Standard English Braille Grade 2 for high school textbooks.

1934 The first Talking Books on long-playing records are produced.

1934 The American Medical Association (AMA) defines legal blindness.

1935 President Franklin Roosevelt signs an executive order to develop a Talking Book machine.

1936 APH produces recorded material.

1939 The Dictaphone is used as an instructional aid in sight-saving classes.

1939 Visagraph, a device that produces raised print or diagrams, is demonstrated at the World's Fair.

1939 Berthold Lowenfeld explores recorded books and demonstrates Talking Books.

1942 Interim Hayes-Binet Tests for the Blind are developed.

1942 The first textbook on children with low vision, Education and Health of the Partially Sighted Child by Winifred Hathaway, is published.

1947 The Perkins Brailler is designed and developed by David Abraham of Howe Press.

1953 The Nemeth Braille Mathematics Code is established.

1956 Educational materials from APH are made available to day-school pupils.

1957 The thermoform machine reproduces raised-line diagrams or graphics.

1960 Boston College starts the first university program for O&M instructors.

1963 Computers are adapted to produce braille outputs.

1967 San Francisco State University and Florida State University establish first programs to train mobility instructors of children.

1970 CCTVs become commercially available.

1972 The Banks pocket brailler is developed by Alfred Banks in San Diego.

1975 The talking calculator with audio and visual output is developed.

1976 Large-print calculators become available.

1976 Raymond C. Kurzweil develops the Kurzweil Reader.

1980 Foundations of Orientation and Mobility is published by AFB.

1983 The first braille embosser attachment to a microcomputer is developed.

1983 Project C.A.B.L.E. (Computer Access for Blind Employment) established at the Carroll Center.

1984 Microcomputers become widely used by people with visual impairments.

2000 Academy for certification of Vision Rehabilitation and Education Professionals is established.

* Source: Reprinted from G. L. Scholl, "Chronology of Events in the History of Education of People Who Are Visually Impaired," in M. C. Holbrook & A. J. Koenig, Eds., Foundations of Education, Vol. I: History and Theory of Teaching Children and Youths with Visual Impairments (2nd ed.) (New York: AFB Press, 2000), pp. 41–52.

BRAILLE SPECIFIC

The History of Braille in Song

Chuck West, Singer and Songwriter

Welcome to the recording studios of Chuck West Sounds. Chuck entered the hip-hop scene in 2012 after several years of writing rap lyrics in his spare time. Since then he has performed at many venues in the Chicago area and has developed a following within the hip-hop community. 

Before Braille

One day at the Saint Ovid's fair in Paris 1771

A man by the name of Valentine Haüy stopped by a local cafe to relax and watch some entertainment

But when he saw how a particular group of entertainers was being treated

His life and the world would change forever

(Haüy)

It's the cruelest thing I've ever seen

A spectacle vicious as the worst bad dream

Dehumanizing a people for entertainment

And all because a certain group of people can't see

Funny glasses and dunce caps strapped to their faces

Scratching on violins cause they weren't taught to play them

And to make matters worse, everybody is loving it

As if it's all just for comedic wonderment

(Audience)

They say, Ha Ha, these poor helpless souls

They're ridiculous creatures and probably don't even know

Like dogs chasing their own tails, foolish as hell

Why not, ‘cause after all they can't do nothing else

Haüy:

Infuriating

I can't let this continue oh no

I have to act

I have got better intentions and so

It's time to bring the visually impaired all that they need

Give them a way to write and read so everyone can see

Chorus:

They treat the blind like clowns

I'll be the change

But that'll change right now

I'll be the change

They treat the blind like clowns

I'll be the change

But that'll change right now

I'll be the change

Find a solution

Empower the blind

Find a solution

Empower the blind

Find a solution

Empower the blind

Find a solution

Ha

I met this blind teen who has a lot of potential

But can't read or write to help him that was essential

If he could become literate then he could obliterate

The myth that the visually impaired are less by principal

Kid: You can teach me to read?

Haüy: I can teach you to write too!

Kid: How you going to do that?

Haüy: I got ways yes I do! 

All the letters and words and sentences will be yours

Because your sense of touch is still intact and not poor

An alphabet that you can touch simple and plain

Embossed on the paper put your fingers up on the page

Doesn't matter whether you can see what is written

All that matters is that you are able to ready, okay!

Kid: Put my hands on the page?

Haüy: Yes, feel out the letters

Kid: And feel out the shapes?

Haüy: Yes, feel out the letters

Kid: The shape of a letter A?

Haüy: Remember it in your mind

Kid: I think I'm getting the hang of it

Haüy: You'll get better over time

They treat the blind like clowns

I'll be the change

But that'll change right now

I'll be the change

They treat the blind like clowns

I'll be the change

But that'll change right now

I'll be the change

Find a solution

Empower the blind

Find a solution

Empower the blind

Find a solution

Empower the blind

Find a solution

Ha

We've been working this to the bone, now he's reading and writing

Literate as any in society I see

Time to expand let our work reach even farther

Think of the possibilities if we push harder

Found another two dozen students to teach

Implement the emboss system I used before

Open the doors quickly, let it be now known

That the first school for the blind is born!

PARENT SPECIFIC

Dots for Families Braille Lessons

By Penny Rosenburg, June 15, 2017

Imagine the joy on a child's face when she reaches in her lunchbox and finds a note from her Dad or the delight on a boy's face when he reads a birthday card from his 4th grade teacher. The "Dots for Families" braille lessons give those who are sighted the opportunity to learn some of the Unified English Braille (UEB) code so they can share in the joy of reading and writing with children. UEB (Unified English Braille) Chart from Duxbury for a complete list of the letters of the alphabet and contractions (short ways of writing words or parts of words). 

Learning Enough Braille to Support Children Who Are Braille Readers

Many family members, general education teachers, or paraprofessionals want an overview and to learn enough UEB to understand what a child is reading and writing. The "Dots for Families" braille lessons allow one to get a beginning knowledge of UEB by reviewing key points for each of the 15 lessons and then completing short reading and writing exercises. Not all contractions and rules are included in the 15 lessons, but people completing them will finish with a basic level of understanding of UEB. The final lesson provides information on Nemeth code and one can see basic math problems written in both codes. 

SPECIALISTS

As you can see we have many CTEBVI Specialists. These amazing people provide expert advice in their skill area. Specialists must be current members. The requirements include attending conference, writing an article at least twice a year (one can be a workshop presentation), and answering questions from the field of BVI. The email contact information is provided below.

Save the date: CTEBVI Conference 2019 in San Francisco, April 12-14 at the Airport Marriott.

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