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Comprehensive Literacy

P Hatlen

During my early years of teaching, I remember having discussions with other teachers of visually impaired children about the use of recorded materials. There were teachers who were eager to introduce elementary-age children to books on tape, strongly believing that much more reading material was available in this medium and that reading by listening was far more efficient than was reading by braille.

Then there were those of us who took a different view. We believed that braille readers would be inclined to become "lazy" if they were given auditory materials. We strongly advocated the avoidance of recorded materials at all cost and cautioned parents against giving their child stories and books in recorded form.

As the children whom we taught left the elementary grades and moved on to high school, we learned what more seasoned teachers had known for years. At some point, the sheer volume of assigned reading requires even exceptionally good braille readers to use a combination of braille, recorded materials, and live readers.

These anecdotes illustrate the historical ambivalence of our profession with regard to reading through listening. It is still an issue of much controversy among teachers.

AN IMPERFECT READING MEDIUM

When I started to ponder the question, "Is listening literacy?" my thoughts immediately went to a series of articles by Emerson Foulke, called "Reading by Listening," which appeared in Education of the Visually Handicapped in 1969 and 1970. Foulke, who went on to become the most influential professional in our field on the subject of compressed speech, pointed out that listening readers have no control of the speed by which they receive auditory information. Foulke makes many cogent observations about reading by listening, including the fact that listeners receive information in serial form, in a manner that presents great difficulty for preview and review. He also discusses the passive nature of listening, in contrast to the active nature of reading in print or braille.

WHY LISTENING IS NOT LITERACY

There are two important reasons why listening is not literacy. First, to say that a person who reads through listening is literate would require a change in the operational definition of literacy. Sighted persons who cannot read print are considered illiterate. Such persons may have exceptional skills in reading by listening, but these skills are not part of the traditional definition of being literate.

Second, the definition of literacy involves the ability both to read and to write. There is no assurance that persons who claim to have achieved literacy through listening can write at all.

EXCEPTIONS TO THE RULE

Where these "facts" fail me is that I know individuals who lost their vision through the aging process who may never master braille and who will thoroughly enjoy their remaining years listening to Talking Books. Although these persons may never develop the ability to write in braille, they will, in all probability, retain their ability to write in print. Are these persons literate?

Standard definitions also fail to take into consideration the children whose complexity of disabilities will confine their gathering of information to learning by listening. Physical disabilities may preclude their ability to write. They may gather and store amazing amounts of information through listening, and their only way of conveying that information to anyone else may be through talking. Are these persons literate?

THE IDEAL: A COMBINATION OF MEDIA

Literate, well-equipped visually impaired high school or college students will use print and braille when those media serve them and recorded materials or live readers when time constraints or other factors tilt the advantage toward listening. Blind adults will effectively use a combination of braille and speech to receive and store information. Visually impaired employees will be best equipped when print, braille, and auditory information are available and utilized.

For persons capable of using braille effectively, the ability to read and write braille is fundamental to being literate. On the other hand, braille readers who are not also effective consumers of recorded materials may not be as literate as possible. It must be stressed that, at some times and with some materials, auditory learning will be superior to braille learning.

So, is listening literacy? For some tasks and for some visually impaired people, listening is the best medium for conveying information. But audio formats are not sufficient for comprehensive literacy and are especially inadequate for presenting mathematical equations and other graphic material. The ideal situation for visually impaired persons to achieve the most comprehensive literacy is access to as many reading and writing media, including audio formats, as possible.

Philip Hatlen, Ed.D., superintendent, Texas School for the Blind, 1100 West 45th Street, Austin, 7X 78756; E-mail: hatlen-p@tsbl.tsbvi.edu.