Braille Funding Cuts

Imagine going to school for years and not learning how to read, spell or write. Did you know that reading braille is literacy for those with a vision loss, just like reading print is literacy for those with sight? We know from both common sense and research that literacy plays a big role in getting a job and career opportunities. If you are unable to read print as someone with vision, or braille as someone with a vision loss, you have a much better chance of being unemployed or working a low-paying job.

So, the Department of Education’s recent decision to issue non-continuation notices to all three national Braille Training Grants will ultimately prevent students who are blind from employment opportunities. This means that for the first time in decades there will be no support for additional braille resources for Teachers of the visually impaired in public schools, and Vision Rehabilitation Therapists, teaching braille to adult learners with an acquired vision loss.

It the intent of this non-continuation is a cost savings, it has already failed. Without braille resources, kids will not develop the braille literacy skills needed for employment. They will spend their working lives on disability instead of working, paying taxes, social security, and Medicare. Adults with a vision loss acquired later in life from conditions like macular degeneration, glaucoma, and diabetes, will not have resources to learn adapted work skills, like braille, needed to return to work or pursue new careers. Ultimately, discontinuing these training resources for the blind and visually impaired will cost taxpayers more, as those capable of work remain unemployed as a result of the literacy skills denied them during school or vocational rehab.  And this is to say nothing of the quality of life issues that accompany unemployment and a life of poverty.

In addition, non-continuation notices were sent for four Deaf-Blind projects, which will impact over 1100 students across the country—students with both reduced hearing and vision.

Please take a moment to call your senators and representatives to remind them this is a matter that impacts all of us. Without the appropriate resources, our family members and neighbors with sensory impairments will be unable to find employment and live independently. In addition to negatively impacting their quality of life, it will cost taxpayers far more, than providing the funding for these resources in the first place.

To contact your state senator or congressional rep, call the Capital switchboard at 202-224-3121. If you live in the following states it is even more important for you to call and demand that this funding, already approved by Congress, be continued: West Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas.

Stand up for those in your community with a sensory impairment, who want to live independently and find meaningful employment. Call your representatives today to demand that this funding be continued for braille and the Deaf/Blind projects.