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Blind Americans Look to Erase Prejudice
By Michelle Madigan
Medill News Service
WASHINGTON - Erik Weihenmayer wasn't the first person to climb Mount
Everest. He wasn't even the first person to climb the highest peaks on the
seven continents. But he was the first person to do it without being able to
see it.
Weihenmayer lost his vision when he was 13 years old, the result of a
degenerative eye disorder called retinoscheses. In May 2001, almost 20 years
later, he reached the top of Everest as part of an expedition.
Impressive as Weihenmayer's feat is, advocates for the blind say public
attitudes remain a constant barrier to blind and visually impaired
Americans, citing ignorance of the handicap and low expectations for those
afflicted with it as the most common obstacles. They also claim a majority
of schools are not set up to accommodate visually-impaired students, setting
them up for failure. Those that do succeed still often face discrimination
as adults from prospective employers.
"It can be very discouraging to be surrounded by public attitudes with low
expectations," says Barbara Cheadle, president of the National Organization
of Parents of Blind Children.
Weihenmayer says those attitudes were harder to overcome than dealing with
his blindness.
When Weihenmayer was in school, he had hour-long sessions with a Braille
teacher four days a week to help him keep up with the sighted students. Most
blind students aren't as fortunate, yet according to advocates for the
blind, extra help from teachers, better textbooks and better access to
technology are essential to helping blind students succeed.
More than 93,000 Americans under the age of 21 have educationally
significant visual impairment; overall, more than 10 million Americans are
visually impaired or blind.
Last summer, a Maryland judge ruled that a local school system violated
federal law when it did not provide an 11-year-old blind student with a
certified Braille teacher. The judge said the school district had to pay for
a tutor to help the student make up for missed schoolwork.
"Blind and visually impaired kids aren't getting enough Braille
instruction," says Weinhenmayer. In addition, they aren't getting their
textbooks translated into Braille when classes start in the fall. Often,
they are months into the school year before they get Braille textbooks, he
says.
Jonathan Russel lost his vision four years ago while undergoing brain
surgery. Today he walks with a guiding stick and has difficulty seeing small
print -- a crucial skill for the 18-year-old high school junior.
When he was a student at Bell Multicultural High School in Washington, he
says, the school did not supply what he required. An assistant helped him
once a week, but that wasn't enough to keep him at the same level as the
sighted students.
"I was doing bad because I didn't have the materials that I needed and I
really didn't feel comfortable without having the materials," says Russel.
"They passed me on from ninth grade all they up to 12th grade without me
having enough credits."
Last year he transferred to the private Maryland School for the Blind, a
non-profit institution that teaches blind, visually impaired and multiply
disabled students.
"Now I'm doing pretty good," says Russel.
Addressing the Problem
In a recent survey, the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) found that
blind students are not getting twenty percent of their required textbooks at
the beginning of the school year.
"In a school district, if one out of five textbooks were not ready at the
beginning of the school year for sighted kids… somebody would get fired,"
says foundation President Carl Augusto. "It's totally unacceptable for
sighted kids -- why shouldn't it be totally unacceptable for blind kids?
Blind kids should be getting their books at the same time as sighted kids."
Augusto says blind students eventually get the books, but it can take weeks
or months. The problem stems from a shortage of Braille textbook
transcribers. Most of these transcribers are volunteers who use vintage
Braille writing machines, which slow production. In addition, many of the
volunteers don't know how to transcribe graphics or multimedia into Braille.
The AFB is addressing this need by aiming to better train the Braille
textbook transcribers. The group is piloting a program in San Antonio, Tex.,
at the Northwest Vista College for students to receive associate's degrees
in Braille textbook transcription.
The ultimate goal is to increase the number of Braille books that are
produced because Augusto believes that "Braille is literacy to blind kids."
AFB also recently partnered with Verizon to launch a three-year national
campaign for literacy. The telecommunications company donated $600,000 to
promote the new Braille textbook transcriber degree.
"This will create more opportunities for blind kids and it will put them on
an equal footing," says Weihenmayer, the campaign's spokesman.
Support from Washington
The Department of Education also supports the efforts of the AFB.
"It's very exciting to see this partnership and philanthropic support from a
company to address the needs," says Stephanie Lee, director of special
education programs. "I certainly hope it works."
The Instructional Materials Accessibility Act, a bi-partisan bill introduced
in both the Senate and House last April, is still in committee. The bill
would require publishers to produce their books in electronic file formats
that could be easily converted into Braille.
"This is a very important bill and we are doing everything we can to make it
become law as soon as possible," says Tom Lenard, spokesman for Sen. Chris
Dodd (D-Conn.), the bill's sponsor.
Dodd, chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Children and Families, held a
hearing on the legislation last summer to help move the bill forward, but
time is running out in this session.
Rather than waiting for that legislation to go through, the Department of
Education joined the Center for Applied Special Technology to develop a
national standard for converting books to Braille, says Lee.
The initiative "sets up a national standard that we hope the states will
adopt to get the material they need in a timely manner," says Lee.
Cheadle, the mother of a visually impaired child, who heads the national
parents' advocacy group, says it will take advanced technology to convert
textbooks easily and quickly into Braille or large print.
"The technology is there, but we do not have one standard," she says.
The National Organization of Parents of Blind Children, a division of the
National Federation of the Blind, focuses on educating parents to make them
better advocates and in helping teachers introduce Braille to sighted kids.
"This opens up a positive attitude towards blind classmates," says Cheadle.
"It makes students more understanding and accepting of kids who are
different."
Addressing Unemployment
Augusto and others also hope advances in technology will reduce employment
discrimination against the blind.
The employment rate for blind and visually impaired Americans is
significantly lower than the overall employment rate -- 75 percent of
working age Americans are employed compared with only 25 to 30 percent of
blind and visually-impaired citizens.
Augusto says that the disparity is due to discrimination on the part of
employers when they interview blind people.
"With technology and a little bit of ingenuity, we say blind people can do
virtually anything a sighted person can do," says Augusto. "We're not
piloting jets, we're not taxi cab drivers, but virtually anything else, we
can do."
The AFB hopes to educate human resource professionals about the abilities of
the visually impaired.
AFB is also working with companies to give the visually impaired access to
technology that converts computer documents into synthetic speech or
Braille. Advocacy groups are also asking electronic manufacturers to
install audio chips to allow the visually impaired to use cell phones, ATMs
and stereo equipment.
"Our dream with technology is to level the playing field," says Augusto. "It
doesn't take that much for consumer electronics companies to do this."
Weihenmayer says he joined the AFB and Verizon campaign to improve access to
Braille textbooks because blind people too often aren't playing on a level
field.
"People who have sight have no idea how far a blind person can take
something," says Weihenmayer.
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