Library Collections: Document: Full Text

The commission further recommended that it be continued and that it be expanded to include representatives of residential schools, public schools having classes for the blind, home teachers, embossed printing presses and libraries for the blind.

These recommendations were approved by the Association.

It should be borne in mind that in all this work the British authorities in the world of the blind were handicapped by the disruption caused by the first world war which during 1916 and 1917 was absorbing most of the thought and energy of the British people. This accounts in a large measure for the long delays which sometimes occurred between the transmission of American proposals and the British action on them. However, British interest in the subject of uniformity was evinced in the formation of the National Uniform Type Committee on July 28, 1916, with Sir Arthur Pearson, of St. Dunstan's fame, as chairman.

In March, 1917 the Commission on Uniform Type received a letter from Sir Arthur Pearson which reads in part as follows: "...The suggested changes in braille contained in your report March, 1916 have been carefully considered ... by the National Uniform Type Committee as a whole.

"It appears to us that many of the suggestions of your committee have been made with a view to eliminating certain difficulties which are assumed to exist, but our experience of British braille leads us to believe that these difficulties have assumed a rather exaggerated importance in your consideration....

"The National Uniform Type Committee is quite cognizant of the fact that the present system of British braille is capable of improvement but their experience leads them to the belief that improvement does not lie along the lines suggested in your report.

"We deeply regret that after long and most careful consideration we have been forced to the conclusion that the proposed changes would not be acceptable to users of British braille, and would tend rather to weaken the system than to strengthen it. They seem to us indeed to be, if we may say so, of a minor and somewhat vexatious nature which, while of sufficient importance to derange existing knowledge of braille, are not of real value in securing its perfection....

"We shall, of course, be most happy to consider any further suggestions which due consideration may lead you to offer, and we once more assure you of our earnest desire to arrive at conclusions which will benefit the English-speaking blind community in the manner which we both desire."

The British committee did not vouchsafe for the consideration of the American commission any changes in the braille system which might be acceptable to them as improvements.

Failing to obtain any concessions whatever from the British braille authorities, the commission decided that America should go it alone for the time being. Its recommendations to the American Association of Workers for the Blind at its 1917 convention at Portland, Maine were designed to bring about the adoption of a uniform type for the United States which would be entirely legible to British readers and at the same time leave the way open for future negotiations to bring about the addition to the American system of as much of the temporarily rejected portion of Revised braille grade 2 as might later be agreed upon. To this end the following recommendations were made to and adopted by the American Association of Workers for the Blind:

"That the association, in adopting this report, expresses its earnest desire to have the question of uniform type settled without further delay.

"That the commission be authorized to draw up, as soon as possible, a form of "Revised Braille" based upon the present grades 1 and 2 to be designated for the present as grade 1 1/2.

"That the said grade 1 1/2 shall consist of the alphabet, punctuation marks, numerals, and all single-cell contractions of grade 2, except such few characters as for special reasons it may seem wise to revise (such as the substitution of dot 6 for the present capital sign) with the understanding that no new contractions be introduced.

"That the joint commission as now constituted shall be a permanent board vested with final authority in matters pertaining to uniform type; and that all printing houses be urged to conform to its rulings in actual practice."

In 1918 the American Association of Instructors of the Blind also endorsed the work of the Commission on Uniform Type, and thus the commission was set up as a preliminary board vested with the final authority in matters pertaining to uniform type for the blind.

The commission, acting under its delegated powers, now officially adopted for use in the United States Revised braille grade 1 1/2 as the uniform type for the blind of America, while utilizing mathematical and chemical notations of the British as standard.

The following year the commission agreed that the British key to the braille music notation together with such additions and amplifications authorized by the National Institute for the Blind in London, should be the standard, except that the text to be published in the United States should conform in its verbal text to grade 1 1/2 of Revised braille. So far as America was concerned, it now had a uniform type which it believed would be equally usable by British and American finger-readers. Experience, however, showed that the British made comparatively little use of American books partly because the libraries for the blind of Great Britain did not offer many such books to the readers and partly because facile readers of grade 2 in England were slowed down in their reading by the fact that grade 1 1/2, by the omission of so many contractions, presented to the finger in practically every sentence several words which had an altogether different form from that to which the reader was accustomed. Obviously, there was much yet to be done before the benefits of a uniform type for the English-speaking world could be enjoyed.