Act Establishes Braille Literacy Advisory Council

HARTFORD — State Representative Pat Shea, R-Monroe, and Newtown, who initiated legislation establishing a nine member Braille Literacy advisory Council, Tuesday joined Governor John G. Rowland at a signing ceremony for the bill.

The act requires the Braille Advisory Council to submit annual reports and recommendations to three General Assembly committees regarding Braille services and ways to improve the literacy of blind or visually impaired children.

The new law requires the State Department of Education and the Board of Education and Services for the Blind to submit reports to the General Assembly’s Education and Human Services committees and to the advisory council. By January 1, 2001, the council must report to the Human Services and Aging committees on the need for a task force to evaluate the unmet needs of adults with low vision (persons able to read print with magnification or other assistance).

“Visually-impaired children in Connecticut need more help in learning to read and write Braille if they are to compete for jobs and become productive members of our state’s work force,” Rep Shea said.

“Having a father who was an ophthalmologist and three-time volunteer on the medical ship Hope, and a brother, a psychiatrist who is legally blind, has afforded me unique insights into the problems encountered by blind or visually impaired people. My continuing interest in helping blind or visually impaired people prompted me to promote this legislation,” Rep Shea said. The advisory council will review school age visually impaired children’s ability to read and write Braille and assess the availability of services for them, develop a plan to attract to Connecticut qualified teachers for children with visual impairments, review the caseloads of Board of Education and Services for the Blind teachers and itinerant teachers and the amount of time they spend on one-on-one instruction of visually impaired students, and assess the ability of visually impaired children to read and write.