Are you tired of spending hours shopping and waiting in long lines to make those special holiday purchases? Thankfully, there is a quick and easy way to cut out the stress of the season.

The Louis Braille Bicentennial Silver Dollar is a unique and beautiful gift that benefits the National Federation of the Blind’s “Braille Readers are Leaders” campaign, a national initiative created to double the number of blind children learning Braille by 2015, improve certification standards for teachers of Braille, and conduct innovative programs to support Braille literacy.

Simply visit the U.S. Mint’s Web site or call 1-800-USA-MINT (872-6468) by December 11, 2009, to give the gift of Braille literacy today.

The U.S. Mint guarantees delivery by December 25, 2009, on any in-stock item, to anywhere in the United States for orders placed by December 7, 2009, for standard delivery, and December 11, 2009, for express delivery. Orders over $300 will receive free expedited shipping.

The Louis Braille Bicentennial Silver Dollar is a wonderful gift to show friends and family you care. To learn more about the coin and the Braille Readers are Leaders campaign, visit www.braille.org

200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place
Baltimore, Maryland 21230
(410) 659-9314    Fax (410) 659-5129

The National Federation of the Blind meets the rigorous Standards for Charity Accountability set forth by the BBB Wise Giving Alliance and is Top-Rated by the American Institute of Philanthropy.

There are three primary reasons for this educational crisis:

1. There are not enough Braille teachers.

2. Some teachers of blind children have not received enough training.

3. Many educators do not fully understand the significance of Braille instruction.

To bring critically needed attention to this educational crisis, the United States Congress authorized the minting of the 2009 Louis Braille Bicentennial Silver Dollar with a portion of the sale of each coin going toward a comprehensive Braille literacy campaign.

Learning to read and write is fundamental to education, which in turn is paramount to full and equal participation in American society. This coin, the first U.S. coin to have proper tactile Braille, symbolizes independence, opportunity, and the potential of blind people to make significant contributions to society when they are taught to read and write using Braille. To learn more, read our report The Braille Literacy Crisis in America or watch our video Change with a Dollar.

Please purchase this unique and beautiful coin now and help solve this educational crisis for blind children in America. The law authorizing this 2009 silver dollar requires that any coins not sold by midnight on December 31, 2009, be melted down. Time is of the essence–a 90 percent illiteracy rate is not acceptable and the opportunity to purchase this coin will soon be gone.

Be part of the solution. Give the gift of literacy. Create new opportunities. Buy the Louis Braille Bicentennial Silver Dollar today.

Marc Maurer, President
NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND

Thursday, March 26, 2009 marks a defining moment in American History: the launch of the 2009 Louis Braille Bicentennial Silver Dollar taking place at the National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. The 2009 Louis Braille Bicentennial Silver Dollar commemorates the 200th anniversary of the birth of Louis Braille, inventor of the Braille system, a vital tool used by the blind to read and write. This coin is the focal point of a national effort to bring awareness to the Braille literacy crisis.

The average person may wonder why Braille literacy is such an important issue, especially in this modern electronic age when there are so many technological alternatives to “old fashioned” reading and writing. For the blind in particular, there have been some remarkable advances in what is known as “assistive technology” to provide electronic alternatives to reading.

The world of assistive technology and the world of Braille literacy seem to be antithetical. If a blind person can use a hand-held reader, wouldn’t that mean they don’t need to be able to read Braille?

As a user of both Braille literacy and Assistive Technology, I am able to share first hand the importance of Braille literacy in the technological age. I attended the proceedings in Baltimore, as an Ambassador for Braille Literacy for the National Federation of the Blind. As many of you know, I am also the National Sales Director for the KNFB Reader Mobile, the first hand-held device that a blind person can use anywhere to access the printed word.

The launch of the newly minted 2009 Louis Braille Bicentennial Silver Dollar is a perfect opportunity to dispel the misconceptions about the role of Braille and the importance of Braille literacy in America.

To appreciate why Braille literacy still important with all the new advances in assistive technology, one must first understand that Braille is a language. Electronic media such as audio books of all genres, whether educational, recreational, or artistic, are becoming increasingly popular ways to deliver content which enriches our lives, blind and sighted alike. But the primary basis for the information that is transmitted is language.

The process of language involves reading, writing, hearing and speaking. For a blind person, Braille is written language, the only way of engaging the reading and writing components of language. The literacy rate for sighted people in this country is 98%; the literacy rate for blind people is 10%. 40 years ago, the literacy rate for blind people was 50%.

The 2009 Louis Braille Silver Dollar will help the National Federation of the Blind raise money for Braille literacy, as well as raise awareness of the crisis. One of their most important objectives is to change attitudes about Braille. As educational programs fall under the scalpel, it would be easy to be lulled into false complacency, that technology will solve all of our problems. As a nation, we cannot overlook access to language as a fundamental human right.

For blind people throughout the world, regardless of their native tongue, Braille opens up their ability to fully communicate and contribute to human culture. Despite its rich history and almost quaintly poetic story of how it originated, Braille remains as vital and “cutting edge” as the latest technology, as it is essential to our use of language and ability to communicate.

At this historic launch of the first-ever U.S. coin to feature readable Braille, we should consider the words inscribed on the coin itself: “Liberty; In God We Trust, Louise Braille 1809 2009” Liberty is one of the founding principals of our nation. The preservation and perpetuation of Braille as a vital, living language, ensures liberty and equality for everyone.