Braille: it's alive!

An open letter to the New York Times:
In the article “listening to Braille”, the question is asked: With New Technologies, Do Blind People Lose More Than They Gain? In my opinion, there is very much that we can gain, however, it should not be forgotten how much we have to lose. Technology is a great thing, I think that many of us can agree on that statement. Unfortunately, it is regularly being used as a substitute for Braille, which I cannot condone.
When I was five years old, I learned how to read Braille, the ingenious system of dots representing letters, numbers, music, and accents. To this day, my book shelves are still filled with volumes of Braille: Harry Potter, Shakespeare, cookbooks, and books filled with puzzles (yes, I am a crossword fan, and that book was written by New York Times’ Will Shortz, its current crossword creator). Not to be redundant, but Braille is my print, and I use it in my everyday life: a few examples include reading books, Braille notes, and public signs (I wouldn’t want to walk into the wrong bathroom). I don’t want this generation of children to grow up without knowing how to spell, with no knowledge of vocabulary, or even not understanding concepts like paragraphs, tabs, and margins. However, if it were up to Ms. Sloate, the first women interviewed in this disturbing yet interesting article written by Rachel Aviv, Braille would be “abolished”. Well this is very easy for her to say: she receives all of her news media in an audio format and she has a secretary to whom she can dictate, a luxury which most of us will never possess. I comprehend that Braille is expensive, but does that mean that this nation’s 1.3 million citizens who are blind should be deprived of knowing what a comma is?
From my experiences, I can tell you that I only personally use Braille for certain types of materials but not for others. For example, Braille is almost a necessity for foreign languages, mathematics, sciences, and music. I don’t intend to take a negative stance on technology, I really do enjoy it. In fact, I am a happy member of audible.com where I read two audio books every month, and I think that this site and many others which offer audio materials are excellent. I am simply puzzled by one question: Do you use audio or Braille? OR? I’m sorry, but… really? Were we supposed to make a choice about that? If this was a multiple choice question, I would circle all of the above. In other words, technology is excellent, but don’t let Braille die!

Sincerely,

Dan

(If you would like to read the article from which this letter is based, please click or copy and paste the following link):
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/magazine/03Braille-t.html

diary of random thoughts

Dear diary:
I have tried to learn to live with regrets, with things that I have done wrong in my life, there are days when I feel that I make more mistakes than most. For example, on a day like today, I sit in front of my computer, thinking, wishing I had more friends. In a perfect world, I would have stayed in contact with friends who don't live in New York anymore, and I never would have ever done anything dumb to alienate anyone. Some people say that life is short, maybe even you think that. Right now, however, this adventure that is called life can feel awfully long. I never really understood how much friendship means to me until I almost didn't have any friends at all, and that was a scary place to be. So I just want to thank everyone who reads and/or comments on my blog: in one way or another, whether you are a friend, acquaintance, or robot?, all of you are meaningful to me.

I'm sure that all of you are expecting me to go on some kind of enthusiastic rant about the Yankees and their success so far in the play-offs. Well, sorry, I'm a little more cautious than you expected.

Yes! We're going to the World Series, isn't that great? Ok, back to reality, we still technically have to beat the angels, but I am sure that we will.
Random thought of the day: Don’t let Braille die! (If that makes no sense, I mean to say that I believe that Braille literacy is very important and should not be replaced by electronic, CD, mp3, or any other formats).
Please stay tuned for my next blog, where we will examine the fascinating question: What makes my diary so dear?
Dan

my new portable PC, the Braille aNote!

Hello out there to all of you on the super highway. Today I will be talking about a very exciting new development in my life. Yesterday, I received the Braille Note. For those of you who don't know what that is, it is similar to a portable computer except that it is made for people who are blind. It uses a braille keyboard and refreshable braille display which comes in handy. It also has internet and email capabilities which I think is awesome because now I can make sure that I am always online somewhere (at school, at my internship, or on the go).

I am feeling very overwhelmed. The braille note came with a braille manual which consists of seven (thick) braille volumes of instructions. It's great that I will have this cool piece of technology, but I will be devoting a large amount of my time to learning how to use it.

However, as my parents know, I plan to just start using it before I finish the manual. Life is about trial and error, sometimes you have to make mistakes before you get it right. Well, that's the plan! I'll update you soon about my progress. I already figured out how to use WiFi to get online, and how to connect a USB flash drive to the Braille Note! I was really excited after mastering those two tasks. Take care everybody, Dan.