Do blind French-Canadian braille users actually benefit from learning contracted French braille?

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Presenting this article and finally publishing it in a peer-reviewed journal was an interesting adventure because politically the content of this article is not welcome by all braille users. Specifically, proponents of braille use often feel threatened by data that indicate that braille may be "on its way out" because of recent technological advances, such as text-to-speech technology. We encountered quite a but of resistance from reviewers in other journals who made it clear "between the lines" that they were not supporting the publication of our findings. As a researcher, this was an enlightening experience because our article was not judged on its scientific value as a source of data for further discussion, but as a political menace that needed to be suppressed. To those who are critical of our article, I would like to state for the record that this study is only intending to inform, based on relevant data, to allow for evidence-based practice decision. I am not here to present a political or philosophical opinion.

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