Discussion Prompt: Tactual Literacy

The Point/Counterpoint article by Hatlen and Spungin, The Nature and Future of Literacy: Point and Counterpoint discuss a number of important issues that relate to tactual literacy. Perhaps the most important contention/conclsion (which is, incidentially, agreed to by both Spungin and Hatlen) is that "After some years of uncertainty on the issue of providing braille or print to visually impaired students, it seems to me that we have at least come to some conclusions. We will not call reading 20 words per minute on a closed-circuit television literacy. We will not condone teaching children in 42-point print. We will reach out, even to children in rural areas, so that children who will be better readers with braille will receive appropriate instruction. By "appropriate instruction" I mean more than one hour a week from an itinerant teacher of students with visual impairments." Why are these statements so important to the understanding of tactual literacy? Why are these issues so important? What changes in the education of students with visual impairment will need to be made to be certain that these issues are addressed?

Discussion Prompt: The Brain and Vision

Your first discussion prompt refers to an excerpt from Smith's book called Brain: Towards an Understanding. In this excerpt, the author discusses the way visual perceptions are formed by the brain. Of particular importance to those of us who are concerned with education and/or rehabilitation of persons with visual impairmets is that Smith argues: "Instead of the neuronal connections between the ‘representation’ and the motor neuron pool being built into the nervous system they must be formed during the lifetime of the individual." What does this statement (and the overall premise of the article) mean for us?