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Editor's page.
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| Article Type: | Editorial |
| Subject: |
Medical publishing
(Management) Medical publishing (Services) Visually disabled persons (Health aspects) Blind (Printing and writing systems) |
| Author: | Geruschat, Duane R. |
| Pub Date: | 01/01/2009 |
| Publication: | Name: Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness Publisher: American Foundation for the Blind Audience: Academic Format: Magazine/Journal Subject: Health Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2009 American Foundation for the Blind ISSN: 0145-482X |
| Issue: | Date: Jan, 2009 Source Volume: 103 Source Issue: 1 |
| Topic: | Event Code: 200 Management dynamics; 360 Services information Computer Subject: Company business management |
| Geographic: | Geographic Scope: United States Geographic Code: 1USA United States |
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| Accession Number: | 193735960 |
| Full Text: |
With no planning or specific design on my part, I have been blessed
to have served as editor in chief of Journal of Visual Impairment &
Blindness (JVIB) during some major milestones. The year 2006 marked the
100th volume year of JVIB and its predecessors, Outlook for the Blind
and New Outlook for the Blind. Three years later, I still think about
the 100 years of literature that I had the pleasure of reviewing during
my own preparation for the centennial, when I had the opportunity to
read first-hand accounts of many of the incredible events that had
occurred over the course of the journal's history. With this
January 2009 issue, I again have the chance to serve the journal during
a major event in the history of services for people who are blind or
visually impaired. If you asked any random stranger walking down the
street to list the major symbols of blindness, I believe that most
people would say braille and the white cane. The year 2009 features a
significant event for the first of these symbols of our field: the 200th
birthday of Louis Braille, the man responsible for creating the tactile
reading system that bears his name. You may have noticed that sometimes the word braille begins with a capital letter, while at other times it begins with a small "b." We all know that names begin with capital letters, and when we speak of Louis Braille the man we use a capital "B." When we discuss the tactile reading system he developed, we use the word braille with a lowercase "b" (despite what the dictionary built into Microsoft Word says). How many people do you know whose last name has evolved into a noun? This fact demonstrates the powerful influence Louis Braille has had on the lives of people who are blind or visually impaired. Braille's 200th birthday will not go unnoticed in the pages of JVIB. This month's issue marks the beginning of the journal's year-long celebration of Louis Braille's 200th birthday with an essay by Susan Jay Spungin, retired vice president for International Programs and Special Projects at the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) and former treasurer of the World Blind Union (WBU). Dr. Spungin, the guest editor of the JVIB Louis Braille Bicentennial Celebration, has a lot of exciting things planned and is currently recruiting authors from across the blindness field to contribute monthly essays, so pay close attention throughout the year. The lead article for January describes the development of a standardized assessment for adults who are deaf-blind. Dalby and colleagues tested an assessment tool with 182 individuals and find that it can be used to facilitate standardized service planning for people with deaf-blindness. An article by Holbrook and colleagues presents important findings on the health and fitness of adults with visual impairments. The authors combine their analysis of fitness with a measure of quality of life to look at the interaction of these two important aspects of life. Crawford and Elliott, using a case study approach, explore the effect of teaching braille letters as phonemes or graphemes and conclude that the phoneme approach is faster and more accurate. The January issue concludes with a Practice Report by Lohmeier that looks at the issue of aligning state standards with the expanded core curriculum. I hope you will find something of interest to you in this issue of JVIB, and I send you best wishes for a healthy and happy new year. DUANE R. GERUSCHAT, PH.D. EDITOR IN CHIEF |
| Gale Copyright: | Copyright 2009 Gale, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. |