Braille literacy drop called civil rights issue

The Christian Science Monitor reports that the number of Braille-literate children has dropped precipitously. It is estimated that between 12 and 20 percent of 55,000 legally blind children in the U.S. can read Braille, down from about 50 percent in the 1960s. Many believe the trend will provide a significant barrier to employment, as current studies indicate that at least 90 percent of the blind people in the U.S. who currently hold jobs are Braille literate.

"[Literacy] is the biggest single determinant of a person's ability to be successful," says Steven Rothstein, president of Perkins School for the blind in Watertown, Mass. … (He) considers the decline an "enormous crisis" requiring a civil rights movement for America's disabled.

… The decline in literacy is generally linked to the 1973 Rehabilitation Act, which mainstreamed blind students into public schools where teachers were often unprepared to teach them. Today about 85 percent of blind schoolchildren are enrolled in public schools.