Subject: Literacy
Date: 8/18/2022, 4:11 PM
To: Jonathan Mosen <[email protected]>
Hi Jonathan, As a person you and the NFB define as illiterate , I am of course upset for a simple reason. I am not illiterate. Calling someone illiterate when they are not is insulting and cannot be understood or interpreted as anything but an insult. To fit the podcast format, I will give a simplified argument countering what I call the braille literacy qua literacy school’s argument. I will present my points in the form of sections with two subsections: question and observation. The question subsections have questions for you Jonathan to answer. I will share my views in the observation subsections. Definition of Literacy Question How many dictionaries did you check? Observation I have done internet searches for the phrase “define literacy” using various search engines for many years. I noticed over the years a gradual increase in the main definition for literacy being some variation on the concept of being literate as compared to the concept of the ability to read and write. The definition of literate has always been some variation on the concept of being educated. My checks were not scientific. I am as incline to confirmation bias as anyone else. Please do your own research if you are troubled by my assertions about the definition of literacy. The above research was the result of previous attempts by the braille literacy qua literacy school to restrict the argument about literacy to a single dictionary definition for one word. I always found this troubling. The braille literacy qua literacy school resting their entire argument on one of usually several definitions for a single word was and is arbitrary. Encoding and Decoding Question What empirical evidence do you have that encoding and decoding does not happen during speech and listening? Observation Jonathan in the last podcast made quite an issue about how language has to be decoded and encoded when reading and writing. With the exception of deaf and deaf/blind children, all children begin to learn and master language through speech. They do not start out speaking in complete sentences so some kind of decoding and encoding is involved while learning. Writing Question I need to give some background for the following question. I am a totally blind person that according to Jonathan and the NFB is illiterate. I do not use braille much. I only use it for labeling and the like. I am using a Windows PC with a regular keyboard, text to speech engine, and screen reader from now on speech enabled computer. how can I as an illiterate person write this Email message? Observation The fact that I as a totally blind person using a typical speech enabled PC can write this Email message seems to invalidate the braille literacy qua literacy school’s argument. Scientific Evidence Question What empirical evidence do you have at the level of cognition that the brain meaningfully differentiates between listening and reading? Observation There is at least one study suggesting at the level of cognition that there are only slight differences between listening and reading for the brain. The online version of Discover Magazine has an article titled Audiobooks or Reading? To Our Brains, It Doesn’t Matter. The article summarizes a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience. The study was small and restricted to short stories. The study still calls into question the braille literacy qua literacy school’s position on literacy. If more studies produce similar results, the braille literacy qua literacy school’s argument will be completely invalidated. Conclusion Language and by association learning and knowledge are far too complex concepts to be understood by one definition for a single word. Until Jonathan and the braille literacy qua literacy school comes up with a better argument, I reject the label of illiterate for myself and any other person who successfully functions in society using speech enabled computers to “read” and “write”. Best Regards, Ken Sacramento – California