Bud:

        When I was referring to children with other disabilities, I was speaking of
the total universe of blind children, mainstreamed or not.  I should have
made this clear.

        We are talking about blind children who are also severely mentally retarded
or learning disabled, who, in an earlier age, might not have survived.

        Unless I'm mistaken, The 10 percent of blind people who read Braille figure
generally quoted which News Week cited , I believe includes the large number
of people who became blind when they were elderly.

        If we're talking about the subset of completely mainstreamed blind
children, the situation varies from state to state.  Some states have fewer
blind children, as well as TVIS who are qualified in Braille instruction, or
regular users of Braille.  Many TVIS don't get a chance to use there Braille
skills on a regular basis, because there caseload is primarily composed of
students with partial vision who aren't Braille users.

        There are some school districts who mistakenly feel reading machines and
computers equipped with synthesized speech make Braille obsolete and
unnecessary.  I suspect many of us on this list beg to differ.

The point is, there are several different things to be considered, not the
least of which is the number of blind people without significant cognitive
impairments who are competent Braille users.  It would be good to know this
before we can accurately assess the situation.

Mike


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